Health Care of 21 Million on the Line as Obamacare Repeal Back in Play

On Friday, the same day McCain sunk it in its initial form, the Brookings Institute released an analysis of Graham-Cassidy predicting it would cause 21 million Americans to lose their insurance over the next decade.

A new version is likely to be discussed by the Senate Finance Committee on Monday afternoon. Among the key holdouts that Graham and Cassidy are trying to entice are senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), both of whom were instrumental in stopping the GOP's first attempt at ACA repeal earlier this year.

And you really can use the word 'bribe' in a literal sense here; some of the edits are just the promise of additional federal funds directed to states like Murkowski's in exchange for allegiance to the bill. There's also some updated language regarding the much-criticized approach to pre-existing conditions; numerous Democratic leaders released statements Sunday night and Monday morning emphasizing that the new version would still be a disaster, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

Meanwhile, senators Rand Paul (R-KY), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Mike Lee (R-UT), and Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) don't look good for it either.

Most organizations whose job it is to make sure Americans stay healthy oppose the bill as well. Insurance companies, doctors, patients, hospitals and other patient-provider groups such as AHIP, ACOG, AMA, the President and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Blue Cross Blue Shield Association and the American Heart Association have all spoken out against it.

CNN is hosting a 90-minute town hall Monday at 9 p.m. EST for Graham and Cassidy to debate the bill with senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT) -- who recently announced his new 'Medicare for all' proposal -- and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN). The CBO is expected to put out a partial analysis that could potentially drop by that time as well.

No matter where things stand on September 30, GOP legislators can still attempt to resurrect Trumpcare in a new form later in the year, particularly if they can piggyback some ACA repeal provisions onto their upcoming proposed tax overhaul.

"Eventually we'll win, whether it's now or later," Trump said on his way back to Washington. "My primary focus, I must tell you -- and has been from the beginning as you can imagine -- has been taxes."

So far Trump has fallen short of passing meaningful legislation even though the GOP controls the presidency and both Houses of Congress. Trump's grasp of policy is such that it's honestly difficult to say for sure whether this redirect from health care to tax reform was a nod to the potential link between the two; it could have just been in keeping with his pattern of pivoting away from a major promise that looks about to fail -- ACA repeal, the wall, the travel ban -- by saying he and his voters never really cared that much about it. But as long as most GOP senators continue to vote blindly along party lines, any proposed ACA repeal will perpetually be just a couple of GOP holdouts from passing, so it's vital that we never get complacent about keeping the pressure on our representatives.

Word going around last week was that unlike the last time we were on the precipice of repeal, GOP representatives' phone lines were not tied up by angry and desperate constituents. Mitch McConnell has essentially said he's thinking about supporting Graham-Cassidy but hasn't decided.

Tell your Senators one way or the other, and check out the non-partisan rundown of health care info from the Congressional Budget Office.