Flake ‘confident’ that Senate will pass latest Obamacare replacement bill

Sep 21, 2017, 4:37 AM | Updated: 2:26 pm

FILE - In this Jan. 28, 2015 file photo, Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., listens during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington.(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

BY KTAR.COM

PHOENIX — U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Arizona) said he is confident the Senate will pass the latest Obamacare replacement bill, but believes that no Democrats will vote for it.

In an interview on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” that aired Wednesday, Flake said the passage of the Graham-Cassidy health care bill will come down to the “final few senators,” but he thinks the Senate will pass it.

TONIGHT: Sen. Jeff Flake says "We're unlikely to get any Democrats" to vote for the #GrahamCassidy bill. Watch #LSSC tonight for more. pic.twitter.com/MDpZmNFGvC

— The Late Show (@colbertlateshow) September 21, 2017

“People in Arizona are hurting, and that’s who I’m responding to,” Flake said.

In the interview with Colbert, Flake said the Senate has to fix health care in a “bipartisan way going forward,” but also admitted that “on this bill, we’re unlikely to get any Democrats.”

“Obviously, it is never good for one party to push something through on its own. In the meantime, we’ve got to make sure that everybody has insurance,” he added.

Flake said U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia is the only Democrat who would possibly vote yes on the Graham-Cassidy proposal, but Manchin told reporters Tuesday that he does not see the bill passing.

The junior senator from Arizona also made an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Thursday, saying that he does not believe state governors will deny their constituents health care coverage if they have preexisting conditions.

McCain still a holdout on Graham-Cassidy

Flake initially came out in support of the bill on Sunday, tweeting that the proposal “has [his] support” and that it “ought to be brought to the Senate floor.”

#GrahamCassidy plan to #RepealAndReplace #Obamacare has my support. It ought to be brought to the senate floor

— Jeff Flake (@JeffFlake) September 18, 2017

But the bill, which is being led by Republican Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, still does not have the full support of Flake’s fellow Arizona senator, John McCain.

McCain, who dramatically tanked the previous fight to repeal Obamacare two months ago, told reporters on Monday that he is not “supportive of the bill yet” and wants it to go through “regular order” before the Sept. 30 deadline to repeal the healthcare bill with a simple majority Senate vote.

The 140-page bill would end the Medicaid expansion part of Obama’s law that has added about 400,000 Arizonans to the state’s health insurance program for the poor. It would also replace that and tax subsidies that help lower-income people buy private insurance with block grants to states.

Two studies indicated that Cassidy-Graham proposal would have a significant negative impact on those living in Arizona.

A study from consulting firm Avalere Health said the new law would result in about $133 billion less in federal funding for Arizona, while the left-leaning Center for American Progress estimated about 511,000 Arizonans would lose health care coverage.

The program has also gained the support of Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, who McCain looked to for guidance on how to vote for a different Obamacare repeal bill back in July. Ducey had told McCain to vote yes on the effort, but McCain voted no anyway.

In a statement released on Monday, Ducey said the proposal is the “best path forward to repeal and replace Obamacare” and that he will work with Congress and the Trump administration to “give states more flexibility and more options moving forward.”