Obamacare repeal appears doomed after key Republican says 'no'

It was unclear if Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., would hold a roll call. Thune said he believed McConnell would have a vote if Republicans "have at least some hope that we would pass it."Collins announced her decision shortly after the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said "millions" of Americans would lose coverage under the bill and projected it would impose $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts through 2026.

Desperate to win over reluctant senators, GOP leaders revised the measure several times, adding money late Sunday for Alaska, Arizona, Maine, Kentucky and Texas in a clear pitch for Republican holdouts. They also gave states the ability — without federal permission — to permit insurers to charge people with serious illnesses higher premiums and to sell low-premium policies with big coverage gaps and high deductibles.

Collins said the eleventh-hour revision "epitomizes the problems" with the GOP-only process.

Collins decision drew a shout-out from late night talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel, who tweeted, "Thank you @SenatorCollins for putting people ahead of party. We are all in your debt." Kimmel had been an outspoken critic of the bill.

Kentucky's Paul said the bill spent too much and said Republicans were motivated by fear of punishment by conservative voters if they failed.

"It's like a kidney stone. Pass it, pass it, pass it," Paul told reporters.

Loud protesters forced the Senate Finance Committee to briefly delay the chamber's first and only hearing on the charged issue. Police lugged some demonstrators out of the hearing room and trundled out others in wheelchairs as scores chanted, "No cuts to Medicaid, save our liberty."On Monday, Trump took on McCain, who'd returned to the Senate after a brain cancer diagnosis in July to cast the key vote that wrecked this summer's effort. Trump called that "a tremendous slap in the face of the Republican Party" in a call to the "Rick & Bubba Show," an Alabama-based talk radio program.

Cassidy and Graham defended their bill before the Finance committee.

"I don't need a lecture from anybody about health care," Graham told the panel's Democrats. Referring to Obama's overhaul, he added, "What you have created isn't working."Also appearing was Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, who learned earlier this year that she has kidney cancer.

She said colleagues and others have helped her battle the disease with compassion, saying, "Sadly, this is not in this bill."Associated Press Washington bureau chief Julie Pace and writers Andrew Taylor, Richard Lardner, Laurie Kellman, Ken Thomas and Erica Werner contributed to this report.

AP