Health secretary urges Senate to find ‘lowest common denominator’ on ObamaCare repeal bill

Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price urged Republican senators to pass any healthcare bill that can get 50 votes in the upper chamber. 

“What we need to do in the Senate is figure out what the lowest common denominator is, what gets us to 50 votes, so we can move forward on healthcare legislation,” Price said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Wednesday morning. 

“Legislation is one step at a time. And so we’ll see what the next step is and move on from there.” 

{mosads}Over the next few days, the Senate will debate and vote on dozens of amendments. 

A vote on an amendment that would repeal much of ObamaCare is expected Wednesday but will likely fail. 

Leaders hope that after voting on dozens of amendments, they’ll end up with a “skinny” repeal of ObamaCare that would eliminate the law’s individual and employer mandates and the medical device tax.

Republicans haven’t been able to reach consensus on a full repeal-and-replace plan, but leaders hope they can at least agree to repeal the law’s unpopular mandates.

The Senate would then go to conference with the House and try to work out a final bill, after which both chambers would have to vote on it.