But in recent hearings, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions has been discussing options to address state requests, and ease the process. The committee’s chairman, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, has been pushing for changes that would make it easier for states to try new policy approaches. And Patty Murray of Washington, the ranking member, was willing to make some concessions in exchange for a promise to fund insurance subsidies caught up in a court fight. The Alexander-Murray negotiations were shelved as the Graham-Cassidy bill picked up steam, but they could begin again. In his statement, Mr. McCain mentioned the Alexander-Murray negotiations as an avenue for bipartisan reform and said, “I hope they will resume.” The idea of the innovation waiver originally came from the Democrats. Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon wrote the provision because he wanted states to have more options. An expanded innovation program might lead to more experiments from the left — something approaching a single-payer system from a state like Vermont, say — as well as those from the right. But making it easier for states to receive waivers could be a way for Republican senators to give states more flexibility. There were, of course, many other features of the Republican bill that could not be easily replicated by waiver. The Graham-Cassidy bill would have redistributed a big pool of federal funding among states. And it would have changed the structure of the 52-year-old Medicaid program, putting spending on poor children, disabled Americans and many people living in nursing homes on a strict diet. Any bipartisan deal would require the votes of at least eight Democrats, which makes drastic changes to the current rules unrealistic. But there remain opportunities for state experimentation. The Trump administration has signaled that it is eager to help promote state flexibility. Tom Price, the secretary of health and human services, wrote to governors in March, urging them to apply. Not every state has felt its proposals were welcomed with enthusiasm so far. If a top Republican concern is about the rigid structure of Obamacare, and states really want to build their own systems, there are still avenues to move in the direction Mr. Graham and Mr. Cassidy have sketched. But while they might achieve many of the same policy goals, those efforts are likely to be cast as Obamacare revisions, not replacements.
On Friday, Senator John McCain of Arizona announced that he would not support the latest Republican push to overhaul the health care system. Mr. McCain, who has been a leading critic of President Obama’s handling of foreign policy, said in an interview on Friday with The Wall Street Journal editorial page editor Gerard Baker that “our nation is at