Undecided Republicans include Lee and Sens. Jeff Flake of Arizona (pictured here), Rob Portman of Ohio, John Hoeven of North Dakota, Dean Heller of Nevada, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia. | AP Photo Senate Republicans one vote away from Obamacare repeal failure GOP leaders unveiled a new plan to gut the health law, but it immediately ran into near-fatal opposition.

Senate Republican leaders are praying that their fragile whip count holds over the weekend, as just one more "no" vote would doom the party's Obamacare repeal effort from even coming up for debate.

Two GOP senators, Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky, said Thursday afternoon they will oppose a procedural vote next week to bring the bill to the floor. GOP leaders are putting immense pressure on about half a dozen other Republican senators not to join them and topple the entire effort. Another "no" is enough to kill the bill, and would also likely lead to mass defections.


The Trump administration is also lobbying intensely for the bill, the latest version of which was released Thursday. Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma spent Thursday trying to convince centrist senators to reconsider their opposition to prior drafts of the bill. Republicans are also hoping Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) can convince Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) to back the measure after Lee said it was "unclear" if this version is better than the last.

Majority Whip John Cornyn acknowledged GOP leaders don’t have the minimum 50 votes right now but insisted, "We're making good progress." He said he and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell were not making "state-specific" promises to wavering senators and were instead merely trying to convince them that the bill is better than Obamacare.

"We're not through yet," Cornyn said of his and McConnell's work.

"The only thing more difficult than peace between Israel and the Palestinians is healthcare," President Donald Trump told reporters in a conversation released Thursday by the White House.

Paul said he pitched Trump Thursday afternoon on separating the repeal and replace aspects of the Obamacare bill, but the president wasn’t interested.

“He still wants to try to pass what they’ve got,” Paul said.

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But McConnell must run the table to even clear a procedural hurdle much less pass the entire bill.

GOP leaders hoped to win senators' support for the new draft by adding funds to combat opioid addiction as well as a controversial measure that would allow insurance companies to sell plans that don’t comply with Obamacare consumer protections.

Undecided Republicans include Lee and Sens. Jeff Flake of Arizona, Rob Portman of Ohio, John Hoeven of North Dakota, Dean Heller of Nevada, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia.

Heller, Capito and Portman may be the toughest to convince and met extensively with McConnell and Cornyn on Thursday afternoon alongside other holdouts. Heller, who said last month he would have opposed starting debate on the first Senate bill, told POLITICO Thursday that he was undecided on the latest version.

He won’t make a decision “until I read the bill — that’s what I’m doing this weekend,” he said, holding a copy of the text. He had not spoken to Gov. Brian Sandoval (R-Nev.) yet about the bill, sources familiar with matter said. If Sandoval opposes the bill, it will be harder for Heller to back it.

Portman said he's "not there" on opening debate and still does not support the underlying bill. He said more money to combat opioids abuse was helpful, but haven't moved him to yes.

"I haven't made any commitments one way or the other," Capito said in an interview. "I still have concerns about the issues that I had before."

If just three Republicans oppose the procedural motion planned for next week, the seven-year effort to repeal Obamacare would end before the Senate can even formally start debate in what would be a stunning embarrassment for the GOP.

"We gotta get on the bill. ... If we don't at least get on the bill, we're never going to know," said Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 3 Republican.

Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee said McConnell will take up a motion to proceed to the bill next Tuesday, adding, “This isn’t a vote on the merits of the bill. This is a vote on whether to even talk about it.” Republicans said there is no way McConnell will pull the vote this time after yanking it last month.

McConnell also promised action: "We will be voting next week," he told reporters. The GOP leader is urging Republicans to vote to open debate and amend it later. About $200 billion is still at McConnell’s disposal, which could be further allocated to alleviate moderates' concerns during the amendment process.

McConnell unveiled the plan on Thursday morning at a closed-door, GOP members-only meeting before posting the text online. Unlike their previous bill, which faced stiff resistance across the conference, it would maintain some Obamacare taxes on the wealthy, provide new financial support to help low-income people purchase health insurance and allow people to pay for insurance with pre-tax money.

It also includes an amendment to allow insurers to sell plans that are noncompliant under Obamacare, which is backed by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). That could be altered or removed later, sources said. The amendment would allow the sale of cheap, deregulated insurance plans as long as Obamacare-compliant plans are still sold.

It is not yet clear whether the inclusion of Cruz's proposal will be enough for Lee, who advocated for a prior version of the amendment with Cruz. Cruz has been handling the lion's share of negotiating with McConnell.

Cruz said if his language stays, he will support the bill. He said if it is removed it will do "substantial damage" to the bill's support.

The latest proposal will also give states new flexibility on their Medicaid funding if a public health emergency — such as a Zika outbreak — takes place. The block grant option would also allow states to add the newly eligible Medicaid population to coverage under the block grant.

The bill also includes $70 billion more than the first draft of the bill's $112 billion for state-based health care initiatives to drive down premiums. It will include $45 billion for fighting drug addiction and would ease the sale of low-premium "catastrophic" insurance plans.

Senators are already angling for more changes. An amendment from Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) would direct much of Obamacare's federal funding directly to the states that could offer a starting point for Congress if the Senate GOP's partisan effort fails next week.

Some Republicans worry that the Cruz proposal could result in split risk pools, one with sick people with pre-existing conditions and the other with healthy young people. Centrists are worried the proposal would undermine protections for people with pre-existing conditions. Cruz disputes that and will argue it will likely lower premiums and allow people to opt out of Obamacare.

Several senators said it was their understanding that Cruz's latest draft would combine those risk pools, though Republicans said the details of how it would work are murky.

Some Republican senators now believe it will be a victory to even open debate on the legislation passed by the House, one senator familiar with the negotiations said.

"I don't even know that it's going to get to a vote," countered GOP Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

If that procedural vote is successful, a freewheeling amendment process will begin. At some point, McConnell will introduce a substitute that will represent the Senate's draft bill. It may be different than what is introduced on Thursday and could be subject to amendment on the Senate floor next week. The bill, in other words, will be a work in progress until the final vote.

The Congressional Budget Office is analyzing two versions of the bill, one with the Cruz amendment and one without. The Cruz amendment is in brackets in the bill, indicating it is subject to change. CBO is expected to deliver a score for the updated draft on Monday, though it may not include the Cruz amendment.

In addition to Cruz and Lee, Paul has cited huge problems with the bill. Paul, who argues the bill keeps too much of Obamacare, has said including the Cruz proposal would not be enough to get his support.

At the other end of the GOP conference, several moderates, including Collins and Murkowski, are worried that the bill would hurt people with pre-existing conditions and others who got coverage under Obamacare. A number of Republicans are uncomfortable with spending reductions to Medicaid, which covers more than 70 million Americans, including families from low-income households, people with disabilities and seniors.

“Certainly there are steps that could be taken [to win her support] but they would be major overhauls of the legislation," Collins said. "If the provisions that completely overhaul the Medicaid program were dropped from the bill that would be a great step in the right direction."

Rachana Pradhan, Seung Min Kim, Sarah Karlin-Smith and John Bresnahan contributed to this report.