A history of John McCain’s statements on health care reform. All quotes directly taken from McCain’s Senate website:

6/22: My focus is on protecting the people of Arizona, and I am consulting with Governor Doug Ducey and seeking input from Arizonans before making a final decision. Any replacement plan must ensure our citizens have access to affordable and flexible health care, and I look forward to thoroughly examining this legislation and engaging in a robust amendment process in the Senate next week.

(400,000 Arizonans are expected to lose coverage. It is a month later and there has been no amendment process.)

6/27: I will be working hard to include important measures that address the concerns raised by Governor Ducey and other leaders across our state about the bill’s impact on Arizona’s Medicaid system. Arizona has been nationally recognized for running one of the most efficient and cost-effective Medicaid programs in the country. This legislation should reward states like Arizona that are responsibly managing their health care services and controlling costs – not penalize them.

(All Republican public announcements to date include provisions vastly restricting Medicaid. An alternate “repeal only” bill which may exclude Medicaid cuts is only public in summary.)

7/13: “The revised Senate health care bill released today does not include the measures I have been advocating for on behalf of the people of Arizona.”

7/13: “[I]f we are not able to reach a consensus, the Senate should return to regular order, hold hearings and receive input from senators of both parties, and produce a bill that finally provides Americans with access to affordable and quality health care.”

(The bill is being moved under reconciliation rules with no debate as yet, with 20 hours of debate scheduled after a bill is introduced. No hearings have been held. No Democrats have been included in discussions. CBO estimates that depending on which bill is passed, 22-32 million Americans will no longer have access to *any* non-emergency health care, which seems to preclude “affordable” and “quality” health care.)

7/17: “One of the major problems with Obamacare was that it was written on a strict party-line basis and driven through Congress without a single Republican vote.”

(Republicans were included in many discussions before the bill was announced and approved, over an 18-month period. 188 Republican amendments were passed in Congress, with an unknown number of suggestions and specific language incorporated into the drafts before then.)

7/17: “As this law continues to crumble in Arizona and states across the country, we must not repeat the original mistakes that led to Obamacare’s failure.”

(NJ.com citation of CBO analysis: “That’s not what the CBO found. It said that the existing law’s subsidies insulated most beneficiaries from higher premiums. The combination of the subsidies and the requirement that all Americans have health coverage will “cause sufficient demand” for insurance market “to be stable.””)

7/25: At substantial personal risk after an operation, McCain flies to Washington cast a vote in favor of the Motion to Proceed. There are three different bills potentially being considered, with varying impacts, and varying CBO estimates. McCain has had none of his objections or demands met, to date. Jeff