--- title: Health Care Bill: Senator Dean Heller Says He Won't Back It description: A fifth GOP senator, Dean Heller, announced Friday that he won't support the Republican health care bill in its current form canonical: https://time.com/4831260/health-care-bill-dean-heller-gop-senator/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-06-23T20:11:19.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T16:18:06.765Z article:section: Politics og:title: Another GOP Senator Says He Won't Back Health Bill og:description: "It's simply not the answer" og:url: https://time.com/4831260/health-care-bill-dean-heller-gop-senator/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb408a86192b2f0b3/6988d320bc6cfcda9c3e1f9d/dean-heller.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Yucca Mountain Hearing og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Another GOP Senator Says He Won't Back Health Bill twitter:description: "It's simply not the answer" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb408a86192b2f0b3/6988d320bc6cfcda9c3e1f9d/dean-heller.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Another GOP Senator Says He Won't Back Health Bill  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Jun 23, 2017 8:11 PM UTC  Sen. Dean Heller during the House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Environment hearing on the "Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act Of 2017" on April 26, 2017. Sen. Dean Heller during the House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Environment hearing on the "Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act Of 2017" on April 26, 2017.Bill Clark—AP  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Jun 23, 2017 8:11 PM UTC A fifth GOP senator announced Friday that he won’t support the [Republican health care bill](http://time.com/4829481/health-care-bill-trouble-senate/?iid=sr-link2) as it is currently written. “It’s simply not the answer,” Nevada Sen. Dean Heller said Friday, [CNN reports](http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/23/politics/dean-heller-health-care/index.html). “And I’m announcing today that in this form, I simply will not support it.” Heller, who is up for re-election in 2018 in a state that President Donald Trump lost, said it is a “lie” that the bill would lower premiums. Heller joins [four other Republican senators](http://time.com/4829024/ahca-senate-bill-rand-paul-ted-cruz-gop-opposition/?iid=sr-link1) saying they won’t back this version of the bill — Sens. [Ted Cruz,](http://time.com/4681033/ted-cruz-bat-crap-crazy-transcript/) Ron Johnson, [Rand Paul](http://time.com/4758100/rand-paul-dystopian-novels-george-washington-class/) and Mike Lee. The bill faces a tough road in the Senate: Majority Leader Mitch McConnell can only afford to lose two votes in his 52-member caucus for it to pass. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4831260/health-care-bill-dean-heller-gop-senator/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4831260/health-care-bill-dean-heller-gop-senator/"},"headline":"Another GOP Senator Says He Won't Back Health Bill","datePublished":"2017-06-23T20:11:19.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T16:18:06.765Z","description":"A fifth GOP senator announced Friday that he won't support the Republican health care bill as it is currently written.","url":"https://time.com/4831260/health-care-bill-dean-heller-gop-senator/","keywords":["Congress","Health Care","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb408a86192b2f0b3/6988d320bc6cfcda9c3e1f9d/dean-heller.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb408a86192b2f0b3/6988d320bc6cfcda9c3e1f9d/dean-heller.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Yucca Mountain Hearing","caption":"Yucca Mountain Hearing","creditText":"Bill Clark—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/congress/","name":"Congress"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4831260/health-care-bill-dean-heller-gop-senator/","name":"Another GOP Senator Says He Won't Back Health Bill"}}]}] ```