Ryan Urges Senate To Pass What It Can On Health Care

U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan of Janesville says he still wants a health care package that both repeals and replaces the Affordable Care Act, even though a GOP replacement plan collapsed in the U.S. Senate due to a lack of Republican votes this week.

Ryan said Tuesday the Senate should pass what it can, and let a joint conference committee of both chambers hammer out the final version.

In a statement, Wisconsin’s Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson described the Senate’s effort as “in flux,” and said he still wants to pass a bill to improve what he describes as the “increasingly dire situation caused by Obamacare.”

On Facebook on Tuesday, Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin said she wants “to work across the aisle to make health care more affordable and accessible.”

A last-ditch effort to vote to simply repeals the ACA was also abandoned Tuesday after it became clear there was not enough support for that plan either.

In May, the House barely passed a bill to replace parts of the ACA. The House Republican plan eliminated taxes for various groups and rolled back the Medicaid expansions that extended health coverage for millions of Americans.