John McCain’s disdain for Donald Trump was stronger than his love of Lindsey Graham. That’s at least one sensible conclusion after the Arizona senator on September 22, 2017 came out against the Graham-Cassidy bill, the THIRD serious attempt by Republicans to replace the Affordable Care Act with a new system...The budget vehicle that Republicans planned to use to pass the bill—in order to circumvent a Senate filibuster - expired on September 30th, 2017. The Republican's long-standing plan was to use the next budget vehicle to pass tax reform.

Senator Rand Paul was already firmly against Graham-Cassidy, and Susan Collins said she was leaning toward a no vote, leaving the G.O.P., which had fifty-two senators, with room for just one more defection if it relied on Mike Pence to break a tie. Unlike the previous time, when McCain delivered the blow to Trump with a dramatic thumbs-down on the Senate floor, this time he sent out a press release. The September 30 deadline passed, and the health care reform was floored until after the mid-terms.

Trump had tried several times to unite both parties to pass a bill where they could work together to reform health care. The Democrats would have none of it, and never allowed any attempts on the Trump administration to pass a bill through Congress. Trump was stonewalled at every attempt. What Trump finally managed to do, since Dems would not work with him on any health care bills, was to sign the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 on December 22, 2017, which eliminated the federal tax penalty for violating the individual mandate, starting in 2019.

As we all know, the Democrats won the House in the mid-terms, and Trump's plan has been floored ever since.

The basic outline that Trump wanted to present in a bill to Congress for both parties to work on included the following:

1. Completely repeal Obamacare. The plan calls for "elected representatives to eliminate the individual mandate" required by the law.

2. Modify existing law that inhibits the sale of health insurance across state lines. This would allow any health insurance vendor to sell insurance in any state.

3. Allow individuals to fully deduct health insurance premium payments from their tax returns. According to the plan, this would help prevent consumers from slipping through the cracks by making insurance affordable.

4. Allow individuals to use Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). The plan calls for tax-free contributions into HSAs, and that on a person's death, the money would become part of his or her estate.

5. Require price transparency from all healthcare providers. This, the plan says, would help consumers shop for the best price on medical services.

6. Block-grant Medicaid to the states. This would allow states to fully manage the program that helps the poor get medical care.

7. Remove barriers to entry into free markets for drug providers that offer safe, reliable and cheaper products. This point of the plan would allow consumers access to drugs manufactured by companies overseas.

The Graham-Cassidy Health Care Plan:
https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hblog20170922.062134/full/