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Politics

The Senate is about to vote on Obamacare repeal. Then what happens?

The U.S. Capitol, where the Senate is poised to debate whether to roll back the Affordable Care Act.
(AFP / Getty Images)
By Noam N. Levey

After months of laboring to come up with a plan to roll back the Affordable Care Act, Senate Republicans are poised to vote Tuesday afternoon to begin debate on legislation to fulfill their seven-year campaign.

But even at the 11th hour, the outcome of this critical procedural vote remains unclear.

With every Democrat opposed to the repeal push, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) needs 50 of the 52 Republican senators to vote to bring up the repeal legislation and begin the healthcare debate.

Here’s a rundown of what happens if the parliamentary step, called a motion to proceed, garners the necessary 50 votes, and what happens if it doesn’t.

Two paths after the motion to proceed

If the motion prevails:

  • The Senate formally begins consideration of the Obamacare repeal legislation passed by the House in May.
  • McConnell can offer a substitute to replace the House bill, which senators would then be forced to consider.
  • Other senators can then offer amendments to McConnell’s legislation.
  • After 20 hours of debate, the Senate begins a series of votes on the amendments.
  • That culminates in a final vote on the repeal legislation.

If the motion fails:

  • McConnell could temporarily pause consideration of the legislation and keep working to unite Republican senators around a bill that 50 will support.
  • If he succeeds — either before senators go home for their summer recess or after they return in September — he could hold another vote on a new motion to proceed.
  • McConnell could decide that it is impossible to reach consensus and that Republicans should move on to other issues, such as changing the tax code.
  • He could reach out to Democrats in an attempt to find a more bipartisan approach to fixing problems with the current law.
Politics
Noam N. Levey

Former staff writer Noam N. Levey covered national healthcare policy out of Washington, D.C., for the Los Angeles Times. A former investigative and political reporter, he is a Boston native and a graduate of Princeton University. He joined the newspaper in 2003 and reported from Washington from 2006 to 2021.

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