Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., who rejected the Senate healthcare bill, said he would vote for a repeal measure.
About a flat repeal of Obamacare, Moran noted that he voted for it before. "I believe it puts us in a position in which we would have leverage with Democrats as we try to craft what the replacement is. All 100 senators, following expert testimony and congressional hearings, puts us in a better place to get a follow-up to repeal, which would be a good replacement," he said in a Wednesday Fox News interview.
Moran explained his reasoning for announcing that he was against the bill, calling it "inadequate."
"It was an opportunity to express what I had concluded, which was this bill is inadequate in its repeal of the Affordable Care Act. This bill is inadequate in the replacement of the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare, and it would not get my vote in the end.
"People needed to know that up front so that we can move in a different direction than where we were going," the senator said.
Moran criticized negotiations over rounding up votes for the bill, saying that such negotiations could turn into negotiations over money instead. "One thing that can happen in these negotiations, trying to get 51 votes, is it begins to shift to not what is in the bill, but how to win a senator's vote. And that generally involves money."
"That's not a good way for us to develop healthcare policy," he added.
If the public sees that neither Republicans nor Democrats can make effective healthcare plans, the senator said he'd worry that a universal healthcare policy could be the result, which he called "a terrible mistake."