The Senate early Friday morning rejected a scaled down Republican plan to repeal parts of the Affordable Care Act. The vote represents a serious setback to Republicans, who've been vowing to repeal and replace Obamacare for the past 7 years.
Arizona Senator John McCain cast the decisive vote to reject the proposal. He joined Republicans Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska in opposing the measure. McCain, after receiving a diagnosis of brain cancer, returned to the Senate floor earlier this week to deliver a rousing speech during which he denounced both the structure of the bill and the rushed, behind-closed-doors process Republican majority leader Mitch McConnell used to get it to the floor.
The bill, which became known as the "skinny repeal," would have left 15 million Americans uninsured next year. The final vote was 49-51.
Source: nytimes.com
