At about 1:30 in the morning (EST), the effort to repeal Obamacare (at least part of it) died in the U.S. Senate. Majority Leader McConnell tried to float his "skinny repeal", but it was defeated on a 49 to 51 vote. Forty-nine Republicans voted for repeal, while three Republicans -- McCain (Arizona), Collins (Maine), Murkowski (Alaska) -- joined all forty-six Democrats and the two Independents to vote against repeal.
This is a victory for millions of Americans, who will get to keep their health insurance. But Obamacare is not perfect. It has problems. Will the Republicans now cooperate with Democrats to fix Obamacare? Or will they, along with Trump, try to make the situation even worse by refusing to properly fund the insurance subsidy program and Medicaid? It would not surprise me if they tried that -- continuing to disrupt insurance programs.
The "repeal and replace" effort might not be completely dead. This zombie monster will probably rise again in the future, and we can only guess what form it will take then. But for now we can breathe a sign of relief -- and hope that Republicans will join in an attempt to fix Obamacare, instead of continuing their effort to destroy it.
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