--- title: Health Care: Senate Democrats Ask for Fresh Start description: All 48 Senate Democrats signed a letter asking the Republican majority for a fresh start on health care reform. canonical: https://time.com/4773010/health-care-senate-democrats-letter/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-05-09T21:00:35.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T04:49:57.716Z article:section: Politics og:title: All the Democrats in the Senate Just Asked for a Fresh Start on Health Care Bill og:description: "Republicans need to set aside their current partisan efforts and work with us to get this done." og:url: https://time.com/4773010/health-care-senate-democrats-letter/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4798f84b2ae69f8b/6988cca9ab6d7713f76ae0a4/gettyimages-679523882.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5298 og:image:height: 2980 og:image:alt: senate-democrats-health-care-letter og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: All the Democrats in the Senate Just Asked for a Fresh Start on Health Care Bill twitter:description: "Republicans need to set aside their current partisan efforts and work with us to get this done." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4798f84b2ae69f8b/6988cca9ab6d7713f76ae0a4/gettyimages-679523882.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # All the Democrats in the Senate Just Asked for a Fresh Start on Health Care Bill > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Lisa Marie Segarra](https://time.com/author/lisa-marie-segarra/) ## Lisa Marie Segarra May 9, 2017 9:00 PM UTC  President Donald Trump looks to House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wis., and other House congressmen in the Rose Garden after the House pushed through a health care bill, at the White House in Washington, DC on Thursday, May 04, 2017. President Donald Trump looks to House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wis., and other House congressmen in the Rose Garden after the House pushed through a health care bill, at the White House in Washington, DC on Thursday, May 04, 2017. Photograph by Jabin Botsford—Getty/The Washington Post by [Lisa Marie Segarra](https://time.com/author/lisa-marie-segarra/) ## Lisa Marie Segarra May 9, 2017 9:00 PM UTC All 48 Senate Democrats signed a letter asking the Republican majority for a fresh start on health care reform. [In a letter released Tuesday](https://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ContentRecord%5Fid=74F6D29D-3006-4854-A0D7-38C4311940EE), the entire [Senate Democratic Caucus](http://time.com/4702354/neil-gorsuch-chuck-schumer-decisions/) asked Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and key Republican committee leaders for a “bipartisan, open and transparent” effort to improve the health care system. “Republicans need to set aside their current partisan efforts and work with us to get this done,” the letter reads. The letter came one week after House Republicans passed the American Health Care Act, which would dismantle major chunks of the Affordable Care Act. In the letter, Senate Democrats called that effort “a partisan bill that will dramatically increase the cost of health insurance for those who need it most and lower the quality of coverage.” Senate Republicans have already sounded notes of disapproval of the details of that bill, indicating they will write their own bill. Two Senate Republican women have also come out against that bill’s cuts to [federal funding to Planned Parenthood.](http://time.com/4769420/ahca-health-care-senate-vote/) With only a 52-member majority, Senate Republicans can’t afford to lose more than two votes from their own side if they try to pass the bill under budget reconciliation rules that allow changes to tax and spending but hamper broader reform efforts. If they tried for a broader bill, they would need eight Democrats to sign on to reach the 60-vote threshold to defeat a filibuster. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4773010/health-care-senate-democrats-letter/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4773010/health-care-senate-democrats-letter/"},"headline":"All the Democrats in the Senate Just Asked for a Fresh Start on Health Care Bill","datePublished":"2017-05-09T21:00:35.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T04:49:57.716Z","description":"All 48 Senate Democrats signed a letter asking the Republican majority for a fresh start on health care reform.","url":"https://time.com/4773010/health-care-senate-democrats-letter/","keywords":["White House","onetime","trumpcare"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4798f84b2ae69f8b/6988cca9ab6d7713f76ae0a4/gettyimages-679523882.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lisa Marie Segarra","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/lisa-marie-segarra/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4798f84b2ae69f8b/6988cca9ab6d7713f76ae0a4/gettyimages-679523882.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"senate-democrats-health-care-letter","caption":"President Donald Trump","creditText":"Photograph by Jabin Botsford—Getty/The Washington Post","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/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4773010/health-care-senate-democrats-letter/","name":"All the Democrats in the Senate Just Asked for a Fresh Start on Health Care Bill"}}]}] ```