Republicans in the Senate are hoping the new healthcare bill does not survive the House of Representatives, Sen. Jeff Merkley said Friday.
"I think my Senate colleagues are praying it never comes out of the House and they don't have to vote on it," Merkley, an Oregon Democrat, told MSNBC, The Washington Times reports.
"It's a bad vote, no matter how you frame it, for my Republican colleagues," Merkley added.
The legislation includes replacing Obamacare's income-based tax credit with a credit based on age, as well as rollbacks of Medicaid expansion. Rep. Tom MacArthur won over some Freedom Caucus members with an amendment that would allow states to get waivers for coverage of essential health benefits such as maternity care, according to Reuters.
Republicans in the House had no success in bringing the bill to the floor Thursday evening, but Rep. Mark Meadows, the Freedom Caucus chairman, was optimistic about voting on the legislation.
"I fully anticipate that we'll have a vote in the coming days," the North Carolina Republican said Friday morning on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said if Republicans replace Obamacare with the new legislation, they would have "doo-doo stuck to their shoes for a long time."
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