One of the Senate’s moderate Republicans said Thursday that she opposes the Obamacare replacement bill now making its way through the House.
Sen. Susan Collins, Maine Republican, told the Portland Press Herald that the American Health Care Act is bad for America’s seniors and poor people.
“This is not a bill I could support in its current form,” she told the Press Herald in a phone interview. “It really misses the mark.”
The AHCA allows insurance companies to charge Americans more as they get older than Obamacare does, and many who fall short of the age-65 threshold for Medicare eligibility could find coverage unaffordable.
“This bill doesn’t come close to achieving the goal of allowing low-income seniors to purchase health insurance,” Ms. Collins said. “We don’t want to in any way sacrifice coverage for people who need it the most.”
With the Republicans holding only a 52-48 edge in the Senate, and Democrats unanimously opposed to Obamacare repeal, the AHCA can afford to lose only two Republican senators. With Ms. Collins’s declaration, that number is now down to one.
Several other Republican senators, such as Rand Paul of Kentucky and Tom Cotton of Arkansas, have criticized the AHCA vigorously enough to imply they’d vote against it also.
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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