The measure passed by the Senate on Thursday doesn't actually repeal Obamacare in its entirety. To be able to pass a bill with a simple majority of 51 votes, rather than the filibuster-proof threshold of 60, Republicans needed to use a process known as budget reconciliation, which requires that provisions directly affect the budget. (Democrats used this same process to pass part of the original law in 2010 after Scott Brown’s victory in the Massachusetts Senate race deprived them of their 60th vote.) As such, the bill does not scrap the health law’s provisions allowing parents to keep their children covered under their insurance plans through age 26, or the prohibition on insurers discriminating against people with preexisting conditions, among others. But it does gut the law by eliminating the insurance exchanges and subsidies, and by repealing the Medicaid expansion accepted by 30 states.

President of Texas