The House's failure last month to bring to a floor vote the American Health Care Act proved to Republicans that repealing and replacing Obamacare is "a lot harder to do than to say," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told Newsmax TV in an exclusive interview on Thursday.
"In four straight elections, we told the American people we wanted to repeal and replace Obamacare," McConnell, 75, of Kentucky, said. "The House has been wrestling with trying to figure out how to craft a replacement that can get enough Republican votes to pass.
"The Democrats are not interested in participating in this at all," he added. "They're all dug in on the status quo."
President Donald Trump ordered House Speaker Paul Ryan to pull the AHCA from a second floor vote on March 24 — the first occurring the night before — amid strong opposition from conservative Republicans and Democrats.
"We had no Democrat support," Trump said after the move. "We had no votes from the Democrats."
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But even if the House passes another healthcare bill, "we'll have a big challenge trying to pass it in the Senate as well," McConnell said, primarily because of Medicaid expansion.
"It's tricky because some states expanded and some didn't," the majority leader explained. "Kentucky expanded. Florida didn't.
"How do you treat both of those fairly?
"It's a very challenging subject — and so far, regretfully, we've not been able to figure out a way forward."
Regardless, however, "what we do know for sure is the status quo is unsustainable," McConnell told Newsmax.
"Exactly how it's going to end up changing is not clear yet."
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