"In this form, I will not support it", Heller said at a news conference with Republican Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval. Heller's announcement makes Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's goal of securing 50 of his party's 52 votes by next week even tougher.
Heller and Sandoval said they believe that Obamacare has problems, but raised concerns with the Senate plan's Medicaid provisions.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Republican Sen.
As Democrats immediately took to the Senate floor to excoriate the bill and the secretive process in which it was put together, few Republicans, even those involved in crafting it, came to defend it.
The 142-page Senate health care bill revealed Thursday was written in secret by 13 white men with little or no expertise on health care issues and no advice from doctors, hospitals or health economists, let alone from the public.
Health insurers are concerned about the U.S. Senate's plans to cut the Medicaid program for the poor and the impact such a move would have on state governments, the industry's largest lobbyist said on Friday. That likely would end the program in MI, one of eight states that expanded Medicaid with the caveat that the expansion would end if federal funding declined.
The Republican senator told reporters Friday, "I wouldn't say they are losing it".
McConnell, R-Ky., released the bill Thursday after weeks of closed-door meetings searching for middle ground between conservative senators seeking an aggressive repeal of Obama's statute and centrists warning about going too far.
Heller said it is a "lie" that the Senate Republican health care bill would lower premiums.
5th GOP Senator Publicly Opposes Health Care Bill
Mr Trump's role is expected to become more pronounced in coming days as the vote nears. He's particularly concerned about spending cuts to Medicaid included in the bill.
"No argument against Trumpcare is more eloquent than the grave consequences it means in people's lives", she wrote colleagues.
His pal Elizabeth Warren, the Democratic senator from MA, infamously claimed on Thursday that tax cuts in the Senate health bill are "blood money" and causing people to die.
Cantwell is hoping to organize opposition to the bill.
Sens. Ted Cruz, Ron Johnson, Rand Paul, Mike Lee said publicly on Thursday that they are not ready to vote for the bill as is, although they are open to negotiations to change it.
Several Democrats have admitted Obamacare needs fixing, but that abandoning it for the Republican replacement - known formally as the American Health Care Act - is not a viable option.
The bill also would reduce or eliminate subsidies for millions of Americans on the exchange, subsidies that allow them to have insurance, stay healthy and keep working. "We'll have to see".
The Senate health care bill created to replace the Affordable Care Act has drawn criticism from conservative Republican lawmakers who say the measure does not go far enough to repeal Obamacare.
Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV) is probably the most endangered Republican up for reelection in 2018. The bill would also bar using tax credits to buy coverage that includes abortions. A similar bill passed by the House has been panned by voters on both sides of the aisle, with polls showing about 8 in 10 people oppose the broad outlines of the G.O.P. plan. Though Trump lauded its passage in a Rose Garden ceremony, he called the House measure "mean" last week.
The measure resembles legislation the House approved last month that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said would mean 23 million additional uninsured people within a decade and that recent polling shows is viewed favorably by only around 1 in 4 Americans.
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