All that is out the window now, as the Senate on Wednesday continues a freewheeling debate that could stretch through the week on undoing major portions of former Democratic President Barack Obama’s signature Affordable Care Act, which expanded health insurance to about 20 million people, many of them low-income. Republicans, deeply divided over the proper role of the government in helping low-income people receive healthcare, eked out a procedural win on Tuesday when the Senate voted 51-50, with Vice President Mike Pence breaking a tie, to allow debate to start on legislation. READ MORE: The Obamacare debate is not just about healthcare

The outcome was a huge relief for President Donald Trump, who had pushed his fellow Republicans hard in recent days to live up to the party's campaign promises to repeal the 2010 Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare. “As the Senate advances with this bill, I will continue to support and protect people in Maine and work to find solutions that keep people covered and make health care more affordable.”

GOP leaders were aided by the dramatic return to the Capitol by Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, after surgery last week and a diagnosis of brain cancer. Vice President Mike Pence on Tuesday, presiding over the Upper House, had to use his tiebreaking authority to overcome the impasse between Republicans and Democrats, given that conservative Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski voted against the motion to begin debate on the bill, Efe news reported. Senate Republicans are not in agreement on how to overturn ObamaCare, but President Donald Trump has been relentlessly pressuring the GOP to push forward with some kind of healthcare reform and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell convened the vote to begin debate without a concrete text for the bill in hand. For now, many Republican senators are wondering whether they may end up going to a Plan B - a “skinny” healthcare bill that would simply end Obamacare’s penalties for individuals and employers that do not obtain or provide health insurance, as well as abolish a medical device tax.
The U.S. Senate votes to open debate on repealing and possibly replacing Obamacare.