And he could cancel advertising and other efforts to encourage enrollment under the Affordable Care Act when the annual sign-up period begins in November. A barrage of negative statements from the administration could project an official view that the health law is collapsing, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The lack of certainty over the subsidy payments, which go toward reducing out-of-pocket costs for low-income people, has been a major concern for insurers. The companies say premiums will be significantly higher without the funding, and some companies that have submitted rates to sell insurance in the market next year could decide to pull out.

“With open enrollment for 2018 only three months away, our members and all Americans need the certainty and security of knowing coverage will be available and affordable for them,” said Justine Handelman, a senior executive at the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association.

While Mr. Trump has promised destruction, other Republicans signaled that they wanted to take a more constructive approach. Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, chairman of the Senate health committee, announced that he would hold hearings in the next few weeks on stabilizing the individual health insurance market.

Members of both parties have ideas about how to stabilize insurance markets and hold down premiums. One possible action is to provide money for the payments to insurers for reducing customers’ out-of-pocket costs. In addition, two Democratic senators, Thomas R. Carper of Delaware and Tim Kaine of Virginia, want the federal government to help pay the largest claims through a backstop known as reinsurance. Senators of both parties also want to help people in counties where no insurer chooses to offer health plans through the Affordable Care Act marketplace — a real possibility in some places next year.</s>Three Republican senators Tuesday effectively scuttled Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act without replacing it. This was hours after the Senate's bill to repeal and replace Obamacare was blocked when two more GOP senators came out in opposition to it.</s>Edwards joins bipartisan group of governors saying Senate should reject repeal of the Affordable Care Act 

 The Senate health care replacement for the Affordable Care Act 

 

 "The Senate should immediately reject efforts to 'repeal' the current system and replace sometime later," the statement reads. "This could leave millions of Americans without coverage.? The Senate health care replacement for the Affordable Care Act may have collapsed (though Congressional GOP leaders and President Donald Trump have expressed support for "just repeal" rather than "repeal and replace"), but a bipartisan group of governors ? including Gov. John Bel Edwards ? has issued a statement calling for the repeal's rejection."The Senate should immediately reject efforts to 'repeal' the current system and replace sometime later," the statement reads. "This could leave millions of Americans without coverage.?</s>After two more Republican senators said Monday night they would not vote for their party's health care bill, the effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act is dead, for the time being. Instead, Republicans are now aiming for an immediate repeal, and a possible two-year delay in replacing the law with something else.

Julie Rovner (@jrovner), senior correspondent for Kaiser Health News, joins Here & Now's Jeremy Hobson to discuss what's next on health care policy.</s>Hours after a replacement for the Affordable Care Act was all but scuttled by a clutch of Senate Republicans, three lawmakers appear to have doomed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's Plan B: Repeal the Affordable Care Act without replacing it.

Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia and Susan Collins of Maine have all said they would vote "no" on a motion that would have kicked off McConnell's plan to vote on a straight repeal of Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

"To repeal, there has to be a replacement," Murkowski told reporters Tuesday. "There's enough chaos already, and this would just contribute to it."

Collins echoed those sentiments. "We can't just hope that we will pass a replacement within the next two years," she said in a statement, adding that it would "create great uncertainty for individuals who rely on the ACA and cause further turmoil in the insurance markets."

The three no votes were enough to tip the balance against the repeal-only option. With only 52 Republicans in the Senate, the plan for a vote on repeal could afford to lose only two votes. It requires the support of 50 senators for passage. With the defection of Murkowski, Capito and Collins, the bill has no more than 49 in the yes column.

Further, Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas tells NPR's Susan Davis, there are probably "five or six" Republicans in total who are against the motion.

President Trump, speaking to reporters in the Roosevelt Room, dished out plenty of blame for Democrats and Republicans alike. As for his role in the debacle, he said, "We're not going to own it; I'm not going to own it."

The president said he was "disappointed" by Monday's collapse of the GOP replacement plan, known as the Better Care Reconciliation Act. He called Democrats "obstructionists" for not supporting the measure.

"For seven years I've been hearing 'repeal and replace' from Congress, and when we finally get a chance ... they don't do it," Trump said.

Now that a straight repeal also appears to be dead, the president said it was time to "Let Obamacare fail." He added: "Obamacare has failed. It's gone."</s>Hours after a replacement for the Affordable Care Act was all but scuttled by a clutch of Senate Republicans, three lawmakers appear to have doomed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's Plan B: Repeal the Affordable Care Act without replacing it.

Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia and Susan Collins of Maine have all said they would vote "no" on a motion that would have kicked off McConnell's plan to vote on a straight repeal of Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

"To repeal, there has to be a replacement," Murkowski told reporters Tuesday. "There's enough chaos already, and this would just contribute to it."

Collins echoed those sentiments. "We can't just hope that we will pass a replacement within the next two years," she said in a statement, adding that it would "create great uncertainty for individuals who rely on the ACA and cause further turmoil in the insurance markets."

The three no votes were enough to tip the balance against the repeal-only option. With only 52 Republicans in the Senate, the plan for a vote on repeal could afford to lose only two votes. It requires the support of 50 senators for passage. With the defection of Murkowski, Capito and Collins, the bill has no more than 49 in the yes column.

Further, Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas tells NPR's Susan Davis, there are probably "five or six" Republicans in total who are against the motion.

President Trump, speaking to reporters in the Roosevelt Room, dished out plenty of blame for Democrats and Republicans alike.

The president said he was "disappointed" by Monday's collapse of the GOP replacement plan, known as the Better Care Reconciliation Act. He called Democrats "obstructionists" for not supporting the measure. He also vowed that

"For seven years I've been hearing 'repeal and replace' from Congress, and when we finally get a chance ... they don't do it," Trump said.

"I think we're probably in that position where we'll just let Obamacare fail," he said. "We're not going to own it. I'm not going to own it. I can tell you, the Republicans are not going to own it."

Trump vowed on health care that "eventually we're going to get something done, and it's going to be very good."

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said of the Republican effort "everyone has given it their best shot."

He too said there would be another repeal vote "sometime in the near future."</s>SEAFORD, Del. - After the Senate took steps to repeal the Affordable Care Act, health care officials, Senator Tom Carper and some patients met at Nanticoke Memorial Hospital to discuss it.

"I describe the idea of repealing the Affordable Care Act like telling people in the top of a burning building, 'jump out and we'll catch you,'" said Sen. Carper, who voted against the repeal. "'But we don't have any safety nets.'"

Nanticoke Health Services President and CEO Steve Rose said they hope to be included in plans to replace the health care system known as "Obamacare"-- which House Speaker Paul Ryan has pledged to do.

"Don't repeal until you have a plan," he told WBOC. "Use the hospitals, use the physicians. Let us be part of the solution and let's make this work for everyone together."

During a Town Hall on CNN, Speaker Ryan said the rising costs of the Affordable Care Act--with some saying premiums will increase by 25% in 2017--made the repeal necessary.

"Because we see this law collapsing even faster this year, because we see more insurance companies pulling out, people with little or no choices and another round of double digit premium increases, we really feel we need to step in and provide better choices and options as fast as possible," he said on CNN. "We'll move on this as quickly as we can."

But some patients, like Nick Serratore, aren't convinced. Serratore got on the Affordable Care Act after learning he was predisposed to colon cancer--the disease that killed his father--and would need frequent testing.

"I had a premium of $500 a month. Now it's down to $118. That is manageable," he said. "To take it away so quickly without any thought to what's going to replace it or a back up plan is ludicrous. How can you do something like that?"</s>After the Senate's attempt to replace the Affordable Care Act collapsed Monday, Republican leaders immediately began talking about repealing the health care law in hopes of coming up with a replacement later.

The plan is to take up the same repeal bill that passed the House and Senate in 2015 and was vetoed by President Obama. And then take the next two years to craft a replacement health plan.

President Trump tweeted his support of the strategy shortly after two Republican senators withdrew their support of the pending Senate bill: "Republicans should just REPEAL failing ObamaCare now & work on a new Healthcare Plan that will start from a clean slate. Dems will join in!"

"The Senate will take up and vote on a repeal of Obamacare combined with a stable two-year transition period," he said on the Senate floor. "President Trump will sign it now."

It's not a new idea.

After President Trump was elected in November, Republicans in Congress consider the so-called "repeal and delay" strategy and rejected it. Here's why:

1. The Cost Of Insurance Premiums Would Skyrocket

While McConnell and Trump call this plan a straight repeal of the Affordable Care Act, it would in fact leave many parts of the law in place. That's because under Senate rules, they can only repeal the parts of the law that have a budget or tax impact.

The law's individual mandate that everyone, healthy or sick, to buy insurance would disappear. But the rule that insurers must write policies for anyone, no matter their health status, would stay.

"Insurers would have to take people with pre-existing conditions, but the the sense is that healthy people without that mandate wouldn't sign up," says Larry Levitt, vice president of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a health care research organization. "So insurers, with that kinds of uncertainty, would immediately raise rates."

The Congressional Budget Office analyzed the 2015 legislation in January and said that if it were to pass, insurance premiums would rise 20 percent to 25 percent in the first year. If McConnell's plan works, that means 2018.

Those high prices would drive millions of people out of the insurance market.

The same CBO report estimates that the number of people without insurance would increase by 18 million in the first year after a law similar to the 2015 legislation passes.

That's almost the same number of people who gained insurance in the seven years since the Affordable Care Act passed.

About 10 million people would lose coverage because they'd drop their individual plans, and another 5 million would be dropped from the Medicaid rolls. Another 3 million would lose their employer-provided coverage, CBO says.

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.V., has already said she won't support the repeal effort because of the threats it poses to people's coverage.

"I did not come to Washington to hurt people," she said in a statement Tuesday morning. "I have serious concerns about how we continue to provide affordable care to those who have benefited from West Virginia's decision to expand Medicaid."

Rising rates and fewer people in the market are the two ingredients for the mythical and much-invoked "death spiral." That's when rates rise so much that nobody can afford insurance and the entire market collapses.

And that's what the Republican's proposed repeal of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, would do, according to multiple health-care analysts.

Robert Laszewski, president of Health Policy and Strategy Associates, a consulting firm, says a repeal and delay "would just cause more market calamity without a known replacement."

And then there's the question of what would replace Obamacare.

Charles Gaba, who runs the AcaSignups.net website that tracks ACA enrollment numbers, doubts congressional Republicans will come up with anything better:

"These guys have had eight years to come up with their 'alternative/replacement' plan, clearly with nothing to show for it," he wrote on his web site. "Does anyone honestly think that they'd actually come up with anything useful given one more year?"</s>Latest Republican Attempt To Repeal Obamacare Dies In The Senate

GOP Senators Mike Lee and Jerry Moran announced Monday that they would vote against the health care bill that would repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Without enough votes, the bill is dead.</s>Hours after a replacement for the Affordable Care Act was all-but scuttled by a clutch of Senate Republicans, three lawmakers appear to have doomed Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell's Plan B – to repeal the Affordable Care Act without replacing it.

Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia and Susan Collins of Maine have all said they would vote "no" on a motion that would have kicked off McConnell's plan to vote on a straight repeal of Obamacare.

"To repeal, there has to be a replacement," Murkowski told reporters Tuesday. "There's enough chaos already, and this would just contribute to it."

The three no votes were enough to tip the balance against the repeal-only option. With only 52 Republicans in the Senate, the plan for a vote on repeal could only afford to lose two votes. It requires the support of 50 senators for passage. With the defection of Murkowski, Capito and Collins, the bill has no more than 49 in the yes column.

Further, Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas tells NPR's Susan Davis that there are probably "five or six" Republicans in total who are against the motion.

President Trump said he was deeply disappointed by the collapse of the repeal motion, especially give the years of talk among Republican lawmakers about repealing and replacing it.

"Let Obamacare fail," he said. "I'm not going to own it."
A Republican Senate bill to repeal and replace large portions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act fails to win enough support to pass.