Sens. Richard Burr and Thom Tillis said they will continue working for changes to the Affordable Care Act after a so-called "skinny" repeal of the law failed in the Senate early Friday morning.

The two Republican senators were among 49 members of the GOP who voted for the bill that would have ended the mandates that individuals buy health insurance or face a tax penalty and that larger employers provide insurance to their workers. They were outvoted by 48 Democrats and 3 Republicans.

“I am disappointed that the Senate could not pass legislation to address the health care crisis facing our country," Burr said in a statement. "Though we were unable to come to a resolution, our health care system is still broken, costs continue to rise, and Americans have fewer options for health care coverage. I will continue to keep my promise to North Carolinians by working to provide relief to families burdened by the unbearable weight of Obamacare.”

Tillis said, "The majority of members of Congress made a promise to the American people to repeal and replace Obamacare with solutions that will help control the cost of premiums and provide more choices and flexibility for families and individuals.

"While today’s vote was unsuccessful, we cannot accept the status quo as Obamacare continues down an unsustainable path, and Congress has an obligation to keep pursuing solutions to fix our nation’s broken health care system,” he said.

The bill, introduced only a few hours before the vote, also would have also suspended a tax on medical devices and denied federal payments to Planned Parenthood for a year.

Even some senators who voted for the bill said it is not the solution to problems with the ACA.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had offered the bill as a legislative vehicle to begin talks with the House over how to repeal or rewrite the law commonly called Obamacare. The expectation was that a different bill would emerge from those negotiations.

But some Republicans had raised worries before the vote that the House could just pass the skinny repeal bill as is. That elicited assurances from some House leaders Thursday that that would not happen.

Progressive groups cheered the failure of the bill and blasted Burr and Tillis's support of it.

The two senators "have made a lot of noise about being independent legislators who care about their constituents, but their support for the so-called ‘skinny repeal’ version of Trumpcare shows that their high-minded words are nothing but hot air,” said Gerrick Brenner, executive director of Progress NC Action, a liberal group. “Late-night votes on bills crafted in secret and released minutes before the vote might be commonplace in North Carolina, but the American people deserve better.

"Senators Tillis and Burr should be ashamed of themselves for supporting Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell’s failed attempt to demolish the American health care system," he said.

House deputy whip Patrick McHenry, R-Lincoln, played a role in the finger-pointing that ensued among Republicans later Friday over the failure to repeal the ACA, the Associated Press reported.

House leaders opened a morning meeting of the chamber's GOP lawmakers by playing audio of Gordon Lightfoot's "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," which recounts the 1975 wreck of a freighter in Lake Superior, the AP said. Several lawmakers said McHenry told them the song was meant as a reference to the Senate.

USA Today quoted 11th District U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows, R-Buncombe, as saying Friday he is talking to senators about other ways to repeal and replace the ACA.

Failing to repeal the law is not an option, Meadows wrote on his Facebook page: "American families are hurting under this broken law, and it's on Congress to keep working until we deliver on our promise to the voters. Nothing else should be acceptable. I'm committed to working around the clock until we see it done."