KWCH

WASHINGTON, D.C. (KWCH and AP) Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran is a Republican stalwart who had a reputation for caution before he helped torpedo the latest Senate GOP plan for overhauling health care.

Moran announced his opposition to the measure along with Utah Sen. Mike Lee, a tea party favorite. Without enough GOP votes, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell abandoned the bill.

Moran was in a national spotlight Tuesday.

He called on Congress to "start fresh" with a more open process and on Tuesday endorsed repealing Obama's signature 2010 Affordable Care Act before replacing it.

He says that he wanted to protect rural hospitals and issued the following statement:

“I support the President’s efforts to repeal Obamacare, and I will vote in favor of the motion to proceed. This should be followed by an open legislative process to craft healthcare policy that will provide greater personal choice, protections for pre-existing conditions, increased access and lower overall costs for Kansans.”

Moran has political latitude. Kansas hasn't elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since 1932. He is not on the ballot again until 2022 and isn't likely to face a serious challenger.

Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) issued the following statement regarding the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017 (BCRA):

“There are serious problems with Obamacare, and my goal remains what it has been for a long time: to repeal and replace it. This closed-door process has yielded the BCRA, which fails to repeal the Affordable Care Act or address healthcare’s rising costs. For the same reasons I could not support the previous version of this bill, I cannot support this one.

“We should not put our stamp of approval on bad policy. Furthermore, if we leave the federal government in control of everyday healthcare decisions, it is more likely that our healthcare system will devolve into a single-payer system, which would require a massive federal spending increase. We must now start fresh with an open legislative process to develop innovative solutions that provide greater personal choice, protections for pre-existing conditions, increased access and lower overall costs for Kansans.”

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