Two GOP Senators get early AM home demos hours before Senate vote to debate Trumpcare 4.0

Update July 25 3:15PM:Motion to Proceed on Trumpcare 4.0 passes Senate on 50-50 vote, Pence casts tiebreaker This starts the official debate in the Senate on what is being claimed to be a straight ACA repeal bill but few details are public.

Hours before the July 25th vote on Trump's mystery 4th try at a healthcare vote, Senator John Boozman (R-AR) got an early AM protest at his home in Virginia, and Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) got a similar protest at his home in DC. One protester called the birth of her daughter a "pre-existing condition."

The first demo started to escalate when neighbors objected to the protesters loudly sharing their stories after the Senator did not answer the knock at his door. Protesters cleared out before the cops could show up, so as to ensure they could carry out their second action at Sen Portman's home.

This was not the only protest against taking back Medicaid and other benefits that came in as part of the ACA. The disability rights group ADAPT has been protesting daily since Sunday against takebacks that could be devastating for many of their folks and those they represent. Due to the severity of the situation they are camping out in front of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

After Senator McCain's vote for the Trumpcare (Weathcare) 4.0 bill, one Twitter poster angrily called Senator McCain "a national disgrace" who could die knowing he helped kill millions of others. The 50-50 vote with Pence's tiebreaker is not enough to kill the ACA, but once again injects a great deal of uncertainty into the future of healthcare in the US.

It is still likely that Trump gets nothing from this. The July 25 vote was a procedural vote to begin debate, and many GOP Senators expressed "strong reservations" about the bill itself as written. Trump is positing a strategy of repeal the ACA first, then peddle his Trumpcare (actually wealthcare) replacement. If the repeal bill gets amended into something that can actually pass, it would differ from the Trumpcare bill the House passed long ago. At the very least a conference committee would be needed, possibly a new House bill altogether if it is different enough. All this would have to be repeated within two years to pass the Trumpcare bill before the ACA was repealed if that description of the bill is correct. There would be a very good chance that would not happen, restoring the pre-Obama status quo minus all the insurance companies that existed the market over political uncertainty. The resulting crisis could force a future government to finally institute single payer once and for all.

A standalone ACA repeal would remove the (already unenforcable) individual mandate, but it would also repeal the entire Medicaid expansion that begin in 2014 and throw healthcare for the poor into chaos. Private insurance companies for their part will see that everything changes with each new president, and will likely leave the market in droves. Thus, the fallout won't be limited to those of little income as Trump intends.

https://thinkprogress.org/constituents-protest-outside-gop-senators-home...