Trumpcare deader-than-a-doornail - AGAIN!

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has not been able to garner enough votes to repeal the Afrodable Care Act.

WHAT'S THE DEFINITION OF INSANITY? Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

The Republicans' and Donald Trump's attempts to remove President Obama's legislation creating the Affordable Care Act failed for the 60th-something time.

The Senate will not vote on the latest attempt to replace and repeal Obamacare said Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Tuesday (Sept. 26). The deader than a doornail Graham-Cassidy bill failed to get enough senators to vote for it.

Three senators have voiced their opposition to the GOP health care bill. Senators John McCain and Susan Collins said they could not vote for the Graham-Cassidy bill, the GOP's latest attempt to remove any vestige of the Obama legacy. 

Sen. Rand Paul, one of the leaders of the radical right, had said earlier he could not vote for the bill because it didn't do enough to undo the ACA.

Two million Asian/Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders gained health coverage or are eligible for coverage by the ACA. 

"In our community, uninsurance decreased by 57% for Asian Americans and by 47% for NHPIs," said Chris Lu, who served as the Deputy Secretary of Labor during the Obama Administration, and Ko Chin is the President & CEO of the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum in an opinion piece for Time magazine.

Insurance for those who have pre-existing condition could skyrocket, they wrote.The AAPI community, which suffers disproportionately from chronic hepatitis B, liver and stomach cancer, diabetes and tuberculosis. Half of Asian Americans and NHPIs are estimated to have diabetes or pre-diabetes – conditions that could lead to premium increases of $5,600 under Graham-Cassidy. The premium increase for a pre-existing condition of cancer would exceed the annual income of most Asian American families, they said.

One of the reasons the GOP was trying to ram this measure through without proper vetting was because of special budget rules that protected the legislation from a Democratic filibuster, allowing the Republicans to pass it with just 50 votes, plus a tiebreaker from Vice President Pence, instead of the 60 often required. Those special rules expire Sept. 30.

Just because the GOP will probably not introduce another repeal-and-replace bill this year, that doesn't mean some of the more conservative Republicans and the White House will try to undermine the program through the budget process by cutting funding for certain elements of the ACA, such as outreach efforts and insurance reimbursement payments. Already the Republicans' repeated attempts to repeal the ACA has made the market so uncertain that insurers have pulled out of some markets.

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Heroic senators save healthcare for millions: Mazie Hirono, Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins & John McCain

This week, the U.S. Senate's Republicans made several attempts to do away or weaken the Affordable Care Act.

UPDATED: July 29, added video of Sen. Mazie Hirono's speech.)

THERE WERE many heroes in the U.S. Senate's dramatic vote on health care that took place in the wee hours of Friday (July 28).

The 48 Democrats needed three GOP defections to keep the Republicans from repealing or weakening President Obama's Affordable Care Act.

The amendment fell, 51-49, to the consternation of the GOP majority and Trump administration. If it had passed up to 22 million people would lose their health insurance.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski stood firm against the public threats from the Trump administration that would withhold funds from Alaska initiatives. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke made it clear that her vote might affect the state's energy and mining industries

Sen. Susan Collins remained consistent in her opposition to Trumpcare (which basically is no-care) because of the negative impact it would have on hundreds of thousands of her Maine constituents and the defunding of Planned Parenthood.

In the most dramatic moment, Sen. John McCain, with a scar above his left eye from an operation just a few days ago, strode down the aisle and gave a thumbs down to the so-called "skinny repeal" of Obamacare, which would have kept The Affordable Care Act but do away with some objectionable portions of it. 

McCain cast the pivotal vote because up to the time he voted, it was not clear which way he would go. Tuesday he gave a strong emotional appeal for the Senate to return to "regular order" and let the senators come up a health plan through committees, public hearings and compromise. However his vote Wednesday to open debate on the Republican proposal puzzled pundits and Congress watchers, who began thinking his vote was up for grabs.  

RELATED: Profiles in Disappointment - Sen. John McCain

Hawaii's Sen. Mazie Hirono, like McCain, also left her sickbed in Honolulu to recover from cancer surgery in order to participate in this vote. Hirono said that both she and McCain are acutely aware of the advantages they have for the outstanding medical care that they received because they could afford it.

Standing before the Senate, minutes before the critical vote on the "skinny repeal," Hirono gave an emotional appeal shaming her Republican colleagues.

“Where is your compassion? Where is the care that you showed me when I was diagnosed with my illness?” she asked. “I find it hard to believe that we can sit here and vote on a bill that is going to hurt millions and millions of people in our country. We are better than that.”

She fought back tears as she recalled her family's immigrant journey from Japan to Hawaii. “And now, here I am a United States senator,” Hirono said. “I am fighting kidney cancer, and I’m just so grateful that I had health insurance so that I could concentrate on the care that I needed rather than how the heck I was going to afford the care that would probably save my life.”

It should also be mentioned the American people who for six months kept the pressure on the politicians by writing letters, calling their offices, attending their town halls to urge them to fix Obamacare or how the ACA helped them or their family. Democracy came alive.

After seven years, the Repubicans have failed to come up with a responsible option to Obamacare. The GOP might actually have to talk to Democrats in order to improve the ACA flaws that even President Obama says is needed.

Senators wrestle with health insurance bills.

Senators Dean Heller and Susan Collins confer on the health insurancee vote.

SENATE LEADER Mitch McConnell is throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks. The latest attempt to undo the Affordable Care Act went down in flames Wednesday (July 26).

The three AAPI women senators voted against the Republican proposals.

For the second time in less than 24 hours, the U.S. Senate took another vote on providing healthcare for Americans. This time, it was an outright repeal of the ACA by taking away the funding. And what would replace it? Nothing. That would leave ACA participants - over 22 million - without health insurance.

The measure, known as as the Obamacare Repeal Reconciliation Act, failed 45-55, with seven Republican senators voting against it, along with all Democrats and independents in the upper chamber. 

It should be noted that Sen. John McCain, who has received criticism for voting along party lines, opposed the proposal. He was joined by GOP Sens. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), Susan Collins (Maine), Dean Heller (Nev.), Shelley Moore Capito (W. Va.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Rob Portman (Ohio) opposed the legislation.

Heller, who drew intense criticism from his constituents when he voted to open debate on the issue, proposed an amendment to request protection of the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion was defeated Wednesday evening by a 90-10 vote. Over 138,000 Nevadans would lose their health insurance if ACA is somehow watered down or eliminated.

The language in Heller's amendment asked the conference committee not to consider cutting Medicaid or shifting costs to states, but would not have imposed any binding requirements on the committee.

On Tuesday evening, the Senate voted against the Better Care Reconciliation Act, 43-57, McConnel's replacement for the ACA with nine Republicans joining the Democrats.

On Thursday, McConnel will try again to give tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires by offering up the so-called "skinny repeal," which would do away with some aspects of the ACA such as the individual mandate and the rule that requires companies with more than 50 employees to provide health insurance. 

There are some in the Senate who believe this more modest reduction would have a better chance for passage. However, if Heller remains steadfast in his opposition against any Medicaid reduction, and he votes with moderates Murkowski and Collins, the three no votes would be enough to stop any efforts to weaken or do away with the ACA.  

“We are better than this as a country, and the American people deserve more from us as their representatives," said California's Sen. Kamala Harris. "This vote to consider a bill that kicks more than 20 million people off of their health care is utterly shameful, but we cannot throw up our hands when it is time to roll up our sleeves." 

Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Chicago urged people to continue calling their senators. "Now more than ever, the American people must keep speaking out and making their voices heard," she said. "And Senate Republicans must listen – to their constituents and to the most vulnerable among us like the members of the disability community who have been here day after day literally fighting for their lives. Then, I hope we can leave this partisan process behind and pursue the honest-to-goodness fixes to the Affordable Care Act that both parties can support to improve our nation’s healthcare system.”

"Any proposal Senate Republicans come up with will kick millions off of their health care and hurt the sickest, oldest and poorest in our communities," said Sen. Mazie Hirono, D- Hawaii.  She returned to the Senate floor to vote against the Republican proposals after she underwent surgery to remove a cancerous tumor last week.

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ATTN NEVADA RESIDENTS: Keep calling or emailing Sen. Heller to register your opposition against the Republican plans to eliminate or weaken the Affordable Care Act.
Email him at: https://www.heller.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact-form
Call him at his district offices: 702-388-6605 in Las Vegas; or 775-686-5770 in Reno; or Washington DC, 202-224-6244.