Text of Senate GOP health care bill released

Senate Democrats on Thursday launched their strategy to fight the GOP's health care bill by trying to prevent it from getting a quick vote.

In a rare public statement, former President Barack Obama published a Facebook post on Thursday slamming the Senate Republicans' healthcare bill, the details of which were released on Thursday.

The bill would end Obama's tax penalties on people who don't buy insurance - effectively ending the so-called individual mandate - and on larger companies that don't offer coverage to their workers.

The bill could still undergo changes, and Toomey said he'll examine it and welcome feedback, though he called the Senate's bill an important and constructive first step in replacing Obama's seven-year-old law with something better and more stable.

While the bill may be too liberal for some senators, for other Republicans representing states where governors expanded Medicaid, the idea of deep funding cuts presents what could be a devastating political calculation. However, they said they were "open to negotiation and obtaining more information".

Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer blasted the new bill as "heartless", warning it would eventually cut Medicaid even more steeply than the House legislation.

Barack Obama proved on Thursday that just because he is no longer President of the United States of America does not mean he won't have his say publically on Presidential matters. "Surely we can do better than what the Republican health care bill promises". "It's going to be very good".

"I think right now the challenge is how do we get to 50". And by throwing tens of millions of people off their insurance, this bill disproportionately impacts communities of color who will lose access to care and coverage. It was the first time many people were able to see it, though Republicans had been briefed on the plan behind closed doors.

NBC News first reported that there would be three GOP dissenters.

Republicans need 50 votes to pass the bill.

The protesters have filled a hallway in one of the Senate office buildings, outside the office of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. And she says cutting Medicaid will cost health care jobs, could force rural hospitals to close and eventually cause private insurance premiums to rise.

Republicans are calling the 142-page bill a discussion draft, but the Congressional Budget Office is expected to soon score the bill for a vote prior to the July 4 recess. But its fate remains uncertain.

For the next two years, the Senate would also provide money that insurers use to help lower out-of-pocket costs for millions of lower income people.

Both Lee and Hatch were part of a working group charged with writing the Senate bill, though Lee complained he was left out of the actual drafting of the measure.