After Republican Senate leadership on Thursday morning revealed a draft bill to repeal and replace Obamacare, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) lamented that the bill does not differ from the Affordable Care Act as much as some Republicans would like.
“We’re certainly not able to do as much as some of us would like,” Wicker told reporters when asked about provisions in the Senate bill that keep major aspects of Obamacare. “Clearly, a lot of us would like to do more if we had the votes. We’re dealing with the reality of getting to 50.”
Some of the aspects of the Senate bill appear to follow the model of Obamacare, at least when compared to the House version. For instance, the Senate bill would use the existing ACA law around waivers to grant states more flexibility, rather than create new waivers like the House.