Republican plans to scrap Obamacare on verge of collapse as third senator comes out against bill

The latest attempt to scrap Obamacare was on the verge of collapse after a third Republican came out against the bill, denying it the 50 votes needed to get through the Senate.

In what will be a fresh blow to Donald Trump, it now appears unlikely that the measure, drawn up by Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, will even be put to a vote.

The bill had been hanging by a thread with John McCain and Rand Paul both making it clear that they would not support the bill.

Within minutes of the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office warning that the measure would leave millions of people without insurance a third senator, Susan Collins of Maine, said she would vote against the measure.

Short of a dramatic volte-face by one of the rebels, which is considered highly unlikely, the measure is effectively dead.

Having spent seven years campaigning against Obamacare - officially known as the Affordable Care Act - the Republicans have failed to come up with a replacement.

The deadlock on Capitol Hill will infuriate Mr Trump who has blamed Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate, for failing to deliver the votes needed for the president to deliver on one of his flagship campaign promises.

An array of bills have been proposed and all have failed.

The latest version proposed devolving healthcare policy and finance to individual states. 

It was opposed by conservatives because it allowed individual states to keep key Obamacare provisions in place.

Moderates refused to back the measure because it would have also allowed states to scrap key Obamacare protections such as outlawing insurers from refusing to cover people with pre-existing conditions or charging them higher premiums.

The collapse of the measure came after a day which saw dozens of disabled protesters being arrested on Capitol Hill.

Police struggled to haul the demonstrators, many of whom were in wheelchairs, out of the hearing of the Senate Finance Committee which was examining the measure.

The latest protest was noisy, with protesters chanting "No cuts to Medicaid... save our liberties." Eventually, the hearing was suspended by Orrin Hatch, the committee chairman.

It was the latest piece of direct action taken by a grassroots coalition, known as ADAPT. In June the group staged a "die-in" outside the office of Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader.