--- 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: 2026-10-08T09:20:02.137Z 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=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5002 og:image:height: 2814 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=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Another GOP Senator Says He Won't Back Health Bill > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=e99bf32d-3794-4ae4-a17c-3b2d4e5d284b&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans Reveal Their Largely Guarded Health-Care Bill [Watch (HLS stream): Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans Reveal Their Largely Guarded Health-Care Bill](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/BrrUguOQ.m3u8) (1:24)  _Published 2017-06-22. Senate Republicans released their long-awaited bill Thursday to dismantle much of Barack Obama's health care law_  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Jun 23, 2017 8:11 PM UTC  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. ## Transcript We agreed on the [ UNKNOWN ] to free America from Obama care's mandates and policies contained in the discussion [ UNKNOWN ] we'll repel the individual mandate so Americans are no longer forced to buy insurance they don't need or can't afford. We'll repel the employer mandate so that Americans no longer see their hours and take home pay cut by employers. Because of it. It eliminate costly Obamacare taxes that are passed on to consumers, so we can put downward pressure on premiums, expand tax- free health savings account, and deploy targeted tax credits so we we can help defray out- of- pocket costs And shift power from Washington to the states so they have more flexibility to provide more Americans with the kind of affordable insurance options they actually want. Obamacare isn't working, by nearly any measure it has failed and no amount of 11th hour reality denying, or buck passing by Democrats is going to change the fact. That more Americans are going to get hurt unless we do something. I regret that our Democratic friends made clear early on that they did not want to work with us in a serious bipartisan way to address the Obamacare status quo. But Republicans believe we have a responsibility to act and we are. For our constituents, for our states, and for our country. ```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":"2026-10-08T09:20:02.137Z","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"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans Reveal Their Largely Guarded Health-Care Bill","description":"Senate Republicans released their long-awaited bill Thursday to dismantle much of Barack Obama's health care law","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/BrrUguOQ/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-06-22T16:20:37.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/BrrUguOQ.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4831260/health-care-bill-dean-heller-gop-senator/","duration":"PT1M24S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4831260/health-care-bill-dean-heller-gop-senator/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```