(Bloomberg) -- Senate Republicans anxiously awaiting a keyanalysis of their revised health bill have more time towait, and debate on the controversial measure that had been expectedthis week will also be delayed following a medical emergency involving one of itspotential backers.

Two Republicans have come out against the plan, meaning SenateMajority Leader Mitch McConnell must get the rest of his colleagueson his side.

But Senator John McCain will be home in Arizona this week,recovering from unexpected surgery -- leaving McConnell at leastone vote short of the 50 he would need to advance the measure.

“While John is recovering, the Senate will continue our work onlegislative items and nominations, and will defer consideration ofthe Better Care Act,” McConnell said in a statement lateSaturday.

McCain’s surgery to remove a blood clot from above his left eyecertainly complicates the timetable, but it also buys McConnellmore time to shore up support among a number of holdouts, includingRob Portman of Ohio, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, LisaMurkowski of Alaska and Dean Heller of Nevada.

The Congressional Budget Office is expected to soon issue itsestimate of the new plan’s impact on health coverage and thefederal budget deficit, although not on Monday, as many hadanticipated. Regardless of the timing, Republicans hope the reportwill look better than an earlier version, which said the Republicanplan would cause 22 million Americans to lose insurance by2026.

It’s not guaranteed, though, that the fresh analysis will showdramatically better effects. It’s also not expected to include afull accounting of a new provision, pushed byRepublican Senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah,that would allow cheaper health plans free of Obamacare regulationson what elements need to be covered. That assessment could takeseveral weeks, a Senate Republican aide said.

McConnell is struggling to find a path to deliver on seven yearsof Republican promises to repeal Obamacare. So far, despite strongpressure from President Donald Trump, the middle ground that canwin over moderates without alienating conservatives has provenelusive.

The fight for passage “does get worse” for McConnell because ofthe delay, Senator Debbie Stabenow, a Michigan Democrat who opposesthe bill, said Monday on MSNBC. She cited a letter from the BlueCross Blue Shield Association that criticized the addition ofthe amendment backed by Cruz and Lee allowing insurers to sellplans that don’t cover pre-existing conditions. “It adds junkinsurance plans,” she said.

Groups including MoveOn.org, the Indivisible Project and PlannedParenthood said McCain’s delayed return to Washington is a boon totheir effort to keep the Affordable Care Act in place. They’replanning sit-ins at GOP senators’ offices, rallies in their homestates and phone calls to offices of key holdouts such as Murkowskiand Heller.

“The delay due to McCain’s condition is a huge injection of thegreatest resource to the resistance movement, which is more time,”said Ben Wikler, Washington director of MoveOn.

The most pressing obstacle Republican leaders face appears to bedemands by several moderates to restore funding for Medicaid thatwould be cut under the Obamacare repeal measure. There is alsosignificant pushback to the Cruz-Lee amendment, which healthspecialists warn may destabilize insurance markets.

The bill has drawn firm “no” votes from Rand Paul of Kentuckyand Susan Collins of Maine, who sit at opposite ends of theideological spectrum on the bill. Collins said Sunday that “eightto 10” Republican senators have serious concerns. “I don’t knowwhether it will pass,” she said on CNN.

Moderates who wanted more money for Medicaid and to increasehealth subsidies for the poor made little gain in the revised bill.Talks are continuing to get the backing of those lawmakers.

‘Not the Ten Commandments’

In an interview Friday, Senator Dan Sullivan of Alaska minimizedthe importance of the CBO score and questioned the assumptions ituses: “Those are not the Ten Commandments coming down from MountSinai, that everything in there is gospel,” Sullivan said.

Even so, some of the holdouts, including John Hoeven of NorthDakota and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, said last week that they needto see the CBO report as they weigh whether to support debating thebill in the full Senate.

McConnell’s latest draft bill would add $70 billion more forstate stability and innovation funds, leave intact Obamacare taxincreases on the wealthy, and put $45 billion toward addressing theopioid epidemic.

McConnell’s initial challenge is to get all the remainingholdouts to agree not to vote with Democrats to block the measurefrom reaching the floor for debate.

Winning over conservatives

With their latest version, Republican leaders seemed to shore upsupport from conservatives, largely by including a version of theCruz-Lee amendment that would allow insurers to sell skimpier plansand bar people with pre-existing conditions. Still, that languagerisks being stricken out by a parliamentary challenge under thefilibuster-busting procedures McConnell is using.

Lee said last week he’s still reviewing it but is unhappy thatit’s different than what he proposed. If the provision is droppedout altogether, whether by parliamentary challenge or anothermethod, support of both senators and others could drop off.

Meanwhile, Republican governors from states of GOP holdouts havesignificant sway. Ohio Governor John Kasich on Friday blasted therevised bill as “unacceptable,” which could make it tougher tobring Portman on board.

“Its cuts to Medicaid are too deep and at the same time it failsto give states the ability to innovate in order to cope with thosereductions,” Kasich said in a statement. “It also doesn’t do enoughto stabilize the insurance market, where costs are risingunsustainably and companies are simply dropping coverage.”

Vice President Mike Pence sought to stem such responses Friday,attending the National Governors Association’s summer meeting inRhode Island to make a pitch for the health-care bill and lobbygovernors in private.

During his speech, Pence acknowledged the concerns that bothDemocratic and Republican governors have raised about the cuts toMedicaid over time and shifting costs to the states. He promisedthat the measure would restore Medicaid to its original purposes ofhelping the poor and disabled while giving states the flexibilityto administer it properly.

“I really believe, as the president does, that we’re savingMedicaid for the sake of our most vulnerable and all that depend onit,’’ Pence said.

Reluctant Murkowski

McConnell also has to win over Murkowski, who’s voiced concernsabout the plan’s impact on subsidies for consumers on Obamacare’sinsurance exchanges, Medicaid cuts, and its one-year ban on fundingfor Planned Parenthood.

Changes in the revised bill would send hundreds of millions ofextra federal dollars to Alaska, which may help persuade her.Alaska is the only state that can benefit from formulas that wouldsteer extra Obamacare exchange market stabilization dollars tohigh-premium states.

Sullivan, the state’s junior senator, said that the provisionand expanded state waiver authority were positive steps, even asMurkowski remained silent.

"Everybody’s working hard over the weekend to get to yes,"Sullivan said.

Copyright 2018 Bloomberg. All rightsreserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten,or redistributed.