WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans struggling to agree on healthcare legislation to overhaul Obamacare obeyed U.S. President Donald Trump’s orders to try to swiftly reach a deal but were unable to resolve their differences in a long, late-night meeting. 
 
 Earlier on Wednesday, Trump took Senate Republicans to task for failing to agree on how to dismantle Obamacare, as a new report showed 32 million Americans would lose health insurance if senators opt to repeal the law without a replacement. 
 
 Trump gathered 49 Republican senators for a White House lunch after a bill to repeal and replace the 2010 Affordable Care Act collapsed on Monday amid dissent from a handful of the party’s conservatives and moderates. 
 
 After Trump’s exhortation to keep trying, party members met with Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price behind closed doors on Wednesday night to try to finally come together on a major Republican promise of the past seven years - undoing former Democratic President Barack Obama’s signature legislation, popularly known as Obamacare. 
 
 There was no immediate breakthrough. 
 
 “We still have some issues that divide us,” said Senator Ted Cruz, a conservative who has proposed letting insurers offer cheaper bare-bones plans that do not comply with Obamacare regulations. 
 
 Republicans attending the late meeting sent their staff away in order to talk frankly and Senator John Kennedy said everyone was negotiating in good faith but he added he did not know if they would reach agreement. 
 
 Almost all the other senators rushed off after the meeting without comment. 
 
 As it was getting underway, the nearly two dozen Republican senators were shaken by news that their colleague, veteran Senator John McCain, had been diagnosed with brain cancer. 
 
 McCain’s absence from the Senate makes the job of passing a healthcare bill more difficult because leaders need every Republican vote they can get. 
 
 “Obviously, I think more people are worried about his health than thinking about the math. You understand the math. Obviously it makes things difficult,” Senator Bob Corker said as he left the meeting. 
 
 Trump had taken a hands-off approach to the healthcare debate last week and suggested on Tuesday that he was fine with letting Obamacare fail. Then on Wednesday he switched course and demanded senators stay in Washington through their planned August recess until they find common ground on healthcare. 
 
 “We can repeal, but we should repeal and replace, and we shouldn’t leave town until this is complete,” Trump said at the meeting. 
 
 Trump made the repeal and replacement of Obamacare, which he has called a “disaster,” a central promise of his 2016 campaign. 
 
 Even with Trump’s new push, Republican leaders in the Senate face a difficult task getting moderates and conservatives to agree on an overhaul that can pass. 
 
 Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had planned to hold a straight repeal vote next week, but several Republican senators have already said they oppose that approach. 
 
 Thirty-two million Americans would lose their health insurance by 2026 if Obamacare is scrapped without an alternative in place, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reported on Wednesday, while 17 million would become uninsured next year alone. 
 
 At the same time, premiums on individual insurance plans would rise 25 percent next year and double by 2026. 
 
 U.S. President Donald trump speaks during a lunch meeting with Senate Republicans to discuss healthcare at the White House in Washington, U.S., July 19, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque 
 
 The CBO’s estimates were unchanged from a previous report that assessed the impact of a 2015 bill to repeal Obamacare that passed the House of Representatives and Senate and was vetoed by Obama. 
 
 ‘TRUE DEATH SPIRAL’ 
 
 Democrats were swift to highlight the CBO’s assessment, while Republicans remained silent. 
 
 “President Trump and Republicans have repeatedly promised to lower premiums and increase coverage, yet each proposal they offer would do the opposite,” Senate Democratic leader Charles Schumer said in a statement. 
 
 Insurers and hospitals have lobbied against straight repeal, saying the limbo would increase uncertainty and their costs. 
 
 “CBO projects half the country would have no insurers in the individual market by 2020 under the new repeal bill. That’s a true death spiral,” tweeted Larry Levitt, vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation, a healthcare research group. 
 
 Republicans say Obamacare is a costly intrusion into the healthcare system. 
 
 But the party is divided between moderates concerned the Senate bill would eliminate insurance for millions of low-income Americans and conservatives who want to see even deeper cuts to Obamacare, which boosted the number of Americans with health insurance by 20 million through mandates on individuals and employers, and income-based subsidies. 
 
 Moderate Republican Senators Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Shelley Moore Capito said they opposed McConnell’s plan for a repeal that would take effect in two years. All three attended the lunch with Trump. 
 
 With Democrats united in opposition to repeal, McConnell can only lose two votes from the Republicans’ 52-48 majority in the 100-seat Senate to pass healthcare legislation. 
 
 Slideshow (15 Images) 
 
 Opponents of repeal protested throughout Senate buildings on Wednesday afternoon, leading to 155 arrests, police said. Demonstrators returned in the evening to yell as senators arrived for the meeting. 
 
 Party fractures also emerged in the House of Representatives. The chamber passed a plan to repeal and replace Obamacare in May. But on Wednesday, the House Freedom Caucus, the Republican Party’s conservative wing, filed a petition to vote on a straight repeal. 
 
 House Speaker Paul Ryan’s spokeswoman, AshLee Strong, said: “The House passed an Obamacare repeal-and-replace bill we are proud of and we hope the Senate will take similar action.” ||||| President Obama will hold a meeting with Democrats on Capitol Hill on Wednesday to discuss how to protect the Affordable Care Act next year against Republican efforts to dismantle his signature domestic achievement. 
 
 The meeting will include both House and Senate Democrats, a senior Democratic aide confirmed. The meeting was first reported by Politico . 
 
 Republicans are planning a rapid repeal of the Affordable Care Act early next year, a move that would finally fulfill a GOP campaign promise but also throw the country's health insurance markets into uncertainty. Republican leaders have said they may delay the repeal's effective date for as long as three years to allow time to implement a replacement. 
 
 Democrats are divided on how best to salvage Obamacare. Some have expressed a willingness to work with Republicans on a replacement to the law, but almost all are united against attempts to repeal it. Incoming Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has promised to try and block Republicans' repeal efforts next year, as well as a conservative replacement. 
 
 "They have nothing to put in its place," Schumer said earlier this month. "To our Republican friends across the aisle, bring it on." 
 
 More than 20 million people have insurance as a result of the legislation, including people under the age of 26 who are allowed to stay on their parents' plans and people with preexisting conditions. Obama has credited the law for slowing the growth in the rise of health care costs. The law's critics have taken aim at rising premiums in certain states. 
 
 President-Elect Donald Trump has promised to keep in place some of the more popular aspects of the law, including prohibiting insurance from denying coverage to people with preexisting conditions. Health policy experts widely consider such cherry-picking to be unworkable, since the popular elements of the law are paid for by more unpopular elements like the mandate that people have insurance or pay a fine.
– President Obama looks genuinely worried about the fate of ObamaCare: He will meet Wednesday morning with House and Senate Democrats to plot strategy on how to prevent Republicans from killing it, reports Politico. The problem for Democrats is that there may not be much they can do in the near future. As both Politico and the Hill point out, Republicans can pass a repeal measure without any Democratic support through a legislative maneuver known as a reconciliation vote. The procedure requires only a simple majority, not 60 votes, and the GOP has promised to move on it immediately in the new year. The caveat is that, assuming repeal passes, Republicans are expected to delay the actual dismantling of the law for quite a while to give them time to craft a replacement. That delay could be as long as three years, reports Time. So what can Democrats do? For one thing, raise political pressure. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and his House counterpart, Nancy Pelosi, plan rallies next month, and ObamaCare advocates promise to flood the airwaves with ads in states such as Arizona and Nevada, where they think GOP senators might be swayed. The idea is not only to try to block repeal itself but to keep as much of the law in place as possible if repeal passes. President-elect Trump, for example, has said he would like to keep parts of ObamaCare intact, notably protections for those with pre-existing conditions. The White House said this month that 6.4 million people had signed up for ObamaCare before a Dec. 19 deadline, up 400,000 from the previous year.