Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) does not support leadership’s plan to try to repeal ObamaCare without a replacement.
“I have said consistently that I support repeal and replace, and I’m not giving up on doing both of those things. I don’t think it’s appropriate just to repeal, we’ve also got to put a replacement in place,” Portman told Ohio reporters during a Tuesday conference call.
Portman is the fourth GOP senator to push back against Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) gambit to try to repeal ObamaCare now and give lawmakers two years to hash out a replacement.
GOP Sens. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.) and Susan Collins (Maine) said earlier Tuesday that they would vote against proceeding to the House-passed bill being used as a vehicle for any Senate repeal action.
Portman, in comments from the call released by his office, didn’t say whether he would vote against taking up the House healthcare bill.
{mosads}GOP leadership signaled Tuesday that they would try to take up the House bill, even though it appears they don’t currently have the support to overcome an initial procedural hurdle.
With a slim 52-seat majority, McConnell can only afford to lose two GOP senators and still let Vice President Mike Pence break a tie.
He noted that his state has been hard-hit by ObamaCare and said he hopes his colleagues will keep working toward a replacement plan that could pass.
“There’s an urgency here for Ohio, and the best approach I think is to continue to work with my colleagues in the hopes that we can come together around a replacement plan that actually works to address these problems. These are real problems and we can’t ignore them,” he said.
The Senate previously passed a repeal-only bill in 2015 in a 52-47 vote, with Collins and then-Sen. Mark Kirk (Ill.) being the only Republicans to oppose it.
But GOP lawmakers knew ahead of the vote that then-President Obama would veto the legislation.
GOP leadership initially floated repealing ObamaCare with a delayed replacement as their path forward earlier this year but had to back away amid pushback from moderates.