The 142 page discussion draft (bill), titled the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017 was released at 11am on April 22, 2017 to the entire Senate who with the exception of 13 Senators, had not been engaged in its creation nor had prior access to its content. The goal of the bill is to replace both the proposed House bill, the American Health Care Act of 2017 and the 2010 Affordable Care Act. The new Senate bill can be passed by majority vote, but along with Democratic opposition, Sens. Rand Paul (Ky.), Ron Johnson (Wis.), Mike Lee (Utah) and Ted Cruz (Texas) jointly announced their unwillingness to support it at this time: “Currently, for a variety of reasons, we are not ready to vote for this bill, but we are open to negotiation and obtaining more information before it is brought to the floor. There are provisions in this draft that represent an improvement to our current healthcare system but it does not appear this draft as written will accomplish the most important promise that we made to Americans: to repeal Obamacare and lower their healthcare costs.”

• NBC News/WSJ Poll: Public Overwhelmingly Disapproves of House Health Care Bill
• Washington Post – What the Senate bill changes about Obamacare

• Kaiser Health Tracking Poll – June 2017: ACA, Replacement Plan, and Medicaid