Republicans might have to resort to a Plan B if they can’t come to a consensus on repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act.

“If my side is unable to agree on an adequate replacement, then some kind of action with regard to the private health insurance market must occur,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told attendees of a Rotary Club lunch in southern Kentucky, according to ABC News.

In about a week, McConnell plans on producing a fresh bill after more Republicans defected from the Senate’s current repeal and replacement effort.

A smaller bill might include provisions continuing federal payments to insurers which help them contain costs for some low earners and inducements to keep healthy people buying policies — a step which helps curb premiums.

But McConnell acknowledges that might still not get enough Republicans on board to pass, particularly if the Congressional Budget Office continues to assess tens of millions would be left without insurance afterward.

Related: ACA not failing as GOP claims

Even Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is acknowledging any repeal and replacement effort might fail, saying on San Antonio's KTSA Radio the GOP’s Senate majority “is so narrow, I don't know if we can get it done or not.”

Republicans might then look for help from the Democrats to pass a bipartisan measure which fixes the ACA, though McConnell expressed this strategy in somewhat vaguer terms: “We have an obligation to the American people to try and improve what we currently have. What we do know is the status quo is not sustainable.”

Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., told attendees at a town hall meeting “there are people who tell me they are better off" under Obama's law, “and I believe them.”

“We ought to try to take care of people who are harmed by the Affordable Care Act, by also ... meeting the needs of people who were benefited by the Affordable Care Act,” Moran says, according to The Hill.

“[That's] almost impossible to try to solve when you're trying to do it with 51 votes in the United States Senate, in which there is not significant consensus on what the end result ought to be.”

Moran says he believes senators should have publicly debated the bill, brought it to the Senate floor and tried to “figure out where there are 60 votes to pass something.”

A bipartisan fix to the ACA might have to be the realistic path to 60 votes, as there’s just not enough agreement among Republicans to find a way to repeal and replace the current health care law.

“It really feels like they really haven’t even gotten together and figured out a plan yet,” former GOP Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz says, according to The Hill. “Here we’re turning the corner into July and you still can’t point to a single thing that will unite us.”

Instant Insights /

Mitch McConnell may be forced to consider Plan B for ACA repeal

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