Trump Says He Won't Like It If The Health Care Bill Fails "And That's OK"

Following Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's decision to delay the Senate's vote on the new health care bill, President Trump responded, according to the Associated Press, saying he won't like it if the vote fails, "and that's OK."

Trump invited Senate Republicans in the White House on Tuesday to talk about the health care bill, and once again called Obamacare "a total disaster." According to Time, he told the senators, "This will be great if we get it done. And if we don't get it done, it's just going to be something that we're not going to like. And that's okay, and I understand that very well."

On June 22, Senate Republicans released a draft of the Better Care and Reconciliation Act, which is their version of the health care bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. The BCRA would cut Medicaid expansion, create tax credits for people buying insurance (replacing the majority of subsidies), and allow states to waive some mandatory benefits put in place by the ACA.

Upon it's release, four Republican senators came out against the bill: Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Ron Johnson, and Mike Lee issued a joint statement that they would not support the bill in its current form. Because the Senate is hoping to pass the bill with a simple majority, Republicans currently hold a slight majority of 52 seats, and no Democrats are expected to vote for the bill, the most support Republicans can lose to still pass the bill is three senators (with a tie, Vice President Mike Pence would be expected to break it in favor of the bill).

Sen. Dean Heller opposed the BCRA on Friday, and on Tuesday, following McConnell's announcement about the vote delay, Sens. Jerry Moran, Shelley Moore Capito, and Rob Portman also came out against the bill. That brings the total number of Republican Senators currently expected to vote against the bill to at least nine.

According to the New York Times, Sens. Susan Collins and Paul said that they would vote against even debating the health care bill in its current form.

The House of Representatives passed the American Health Care Act in May. If the Senate were to pass a version of the bill, Congress would likely have to come up with a revised bill to pass through both chambers before reaching President Trump's desk.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office on Monday released its report on the bill, which predicted that 22 million Americans would lose their health care by 2026 if it were to pass.