Last week Senator McCain said the “Senate healthcare deal could be reached by Friday ‘if pigs fly’” (A). Now he has a deciding vote on the Republican “junk insurance” bill!

Last week he also said:
“Introduce a bill,” McCain said. “Bring it to the floor. Vote on it. That’s the normal process, and if you shut out the adversary or the opposite party, you’re going to end up the same way Obamacare did when they rammed it through with 60 votes. Only guess what? We don’t have 60 votes.” (B)

“Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced Saturday that the Senate will delay consideration of the Republican health care bill while Sen. John McCain recovers from surgery for a blood clot.
McConnell tweeted that the Senate will work on other legislative issues and nominations next week and “will defer consideration of the Better Care Act” while McCain is recovering. McCain’s absence would have imperiled the bill, which needs the support of 50 of 52 GOP senators to advance.
Two Republican senators — Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky — have already said they will not support a motion to proceed to floor debate on the legislation.”
With Senator John McCain’s absence, Republicans would have only 49 votes to move ahead with the legislation; all Democrats and the two independent senators oppose it. (C)

What is JUNK INSURANCE?
“As Senate Republican leaders struggle to secure enough votes to repeal and replace the health law, the centerpiece of their effort to win conservative support is a provision that would allow insurers to sell such bare-bones plans again. The new version of the bill released on Thursday incorporates an idea from Senator Ted Cruz of Texas that would permit insurers to market all types of plans as long as they offer ones that comply with Affordable Care Act standards. The measure would also allow companies to take into account people’s health status in determining whether to insure them and at what price.
State insurance regulators say the proposal harks back to the days when insurance companies, even household names like Aetna and Blue Cross, sold policies so skimpy they could hardly be called coverage at all. Derided as “junk insurance,” the plans had very low premiums but often came with five-figure deductibles. Many failed to pay for medical care that is now deemed essential…
The Affordable Care Act drastically changed the health insurance landscape by requiring insurers to offer a set of comprehensive benefits — including hospitalization, doctor visits, prescription drugs, maternity care and mental health and substance abuse treatment — in order to formally qualify as insurance. “The new bill opens the door to junk insurance,” said Dave Jones, the California insurance commissioner.” (D)

WILL SENATOR McCAIN “WALK THE WALK” OR LIKE MOST SENATORS OF BOTH PARTIES JUST “TALK THE TALK?”

(A) McCain: Senate healthcare deal could be reached by Friday ‘if pigs fly’, by Mallory Shelbourne, http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/339934-mccain-senate-healthcare-deal-could-be-reached-by-friday-if-pigs-fly
(B) McCain: GOP health care bill ‘probably’ will die, by Eli Watkins, http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/09/politics/john-mccain-health-care/index.html
(C) McConnell delays health care vote while McCain recovers from surgery, by Phil Mattingly, Manu Raju and Steve Almasy, http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/15/politics/john-mccain-blood-clot/index.html
(D) In Clash Over Health Bill, a Growing Fear of ‘Junk Insurance’, by Reed Abelson, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/15/health/senate-health-care-obamacare.html