U.S. Senate narrowly votes to proceed on healthcare, with boost from McCain

 U.S. Senate Republicans narrowly agreed on Tuesday to open debate on a bill to end Obamacare, but the party’s seven-year effort to roll back Democratic President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law still faces significant hurdles.

The Senate deadlocked 50-50 on moving forward with the healthcare debate, forcing Vice President Mike Pence to cast the tie-breaking vote.

Senator John McCain, who was diagnosed this month with brain cancer and has been recovering from surgery at home in Arizona, made a dramatic return to the U.S. Capitol to cast a crucial vote in favour of proceeding.

The outcome was a huge relief for President Donald Trump, who had pushed his fellow Republicans hard in recent days to live up to the party’s campaign promises to repeal the 2010 Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare. Minutes after the vote, Trump called it “a big step.”

But the narrow victory on a simple procedural matter raised questions about whether Republicans can muster the votes necessary to pass any of various approaches to repeal. Moderates are worried repeal will cost low-income Americans their insurance and conservatives are angry the proposed bills do not go far enough to gut Obamacare.

McCain received an ovation from his fellow senators when he entered the chamber to cast a vote to open debate. After the vote, he decried growing partisanship in the Senate and urged members to learn how “to trust each other again.”

He said he would not vote for the healthcare bill “as it is today,” and added: “I know many of you will have to see the bill changed substantially to support it.”