参议院未能成功废除奥巴马医保法

The U.S. Senate failed early Friday to enact a partial repeal of the seven-year old Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare. Three Republican lawmakers -- John McCain of Arizona, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine -- voted with Democrats in the 49-51 defeat of the Republican-led repeal effort.

President Donald Trump took to his Twitter account shortly after the vote to admonish the Republicans who sided with the Democrats. "3 Republicans and 48 Democrats let the American people down. As I said from the beginning, let ObamaCare implode, then deal. Watch!," the president wrote.

The so-called "skinny repeal" legislation would, among other things, have ended the requirements that most Americans buy health insurance or pay a penalty, and that companies with 50 or more employees provide coverage to their workers.

Republican senators have wanted for seven years to do away with Obamacare, the signature domestic legislative achievement of former President Barack Obama. About 20 million Americans gained health care insurance under Obamacare. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimated in a study of the "skinny repeal" measure that 16 million Americans would lose their coverage and premiums would increase by 20 percent.

Republican leaders saw the the scaled-down bid as a way of honoring their campaign promises to repeal and replace Obamacare. Conservative lawmakers want to gut as much as possible of Obamacare, while more moderate Republicans are worried that such changes could affect health insurance coverage for millions of poorer Americans.

Earlier this week, Senate Republicans failed twice to overturn the ACA - either by repealing the law outright or repealing it and at the same time replacing it with a new version.

Of the two failed votes earlier in the week, nine Republicans first joined all the Democrats in rejecting a proposed replacement health care bill crafted by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. The second effort called for outright repeal of Obamacare in two years' time, during which period Congress would be expected to agree on replacement legislation; that was rejected by a similar margin, with seven Republicans joining the unified Democratic minority bloc.

美国国会参议院部分废除实施7年的奥巴马医保法的努力星期五凌晨以失败告终。三位共和党参议员，亚利桑那州参议员麦凯恩、阿拉斯加州参议员穆尔科斯基和缅因州参议员柯林斯跟民主党人一起投了反对票，最终以49票赞成，51票反对的结果击败了共和党人废除奥巴马医保法的努力。

投票结束后不久，美国总统川普在推特上对倒戈的共和党人提出批评。川普写道：“三个共和党人和48个民主党人辜负了美国人民的期望。正像我一开始所说的，让奥巴马医保法自行崩溃，然后再着手解决。等着瞧吧！”

这份所谓的“简化版”议案将不再要求大多数美国民众购买医保否则面临罚款，也不再要求雇员超过50人的公司为员工提供医保。

七年来，共和党参议员一直希望能够废除奥巴马医保法。大约2000万美国人通过奥巴马医保法获得了医疗保险。无党派的国会预算办公室对“简化版”议案的研究估算，会有1600万美国人失去保险，保费也将上涨20%。

共和党领袖希望借助这一“简化版”议案来兑现其废除奥巴马医保法的竞选承诺。保守派议员们想要尽可能多地去除奥巴马医保法的内容，但一些较温和的共和党议员则担心这些变动可能会终止或限制政府为数百万较贫穷的民众提供医保。

本周早些时候，参议院共和党人推翻奥巴马医保法的努力两度受挫，不论是彻底废除奥巴马医保，还是以新政策取而代之，都无法得到足够支持。

第一次是参议院9名共和党人和全数民主党人反对由多数党领袖麦康奈尔起草的新医保法案，此后，对于两年内全面废除，并在此期间出台新法案的意见，有7名共和党人和民主党人一起投了反对票。