The articles I've read seem to keep referencing the situation with a degree of finality so it's possible. This is the first explanation I've seen for why it could actually be final. At this point maybe the moderates can do something... Not even going to bother being cautiously optimistic at the chances of that though.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics ... tax-reformThe only problem is that none of this is true. Republicans’ plan to use budget reconciliation to pass health reform and tax reform still works, as a matter of Senate rules. They can still move legislation with only 50 votes.
None of the health proposals rejected in the Senate — not the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA) (the repeal-and-replace plan that Republicans had been crafting for months), nor Obamacare Repeal Reconciliation Act (which would have entirely repealed all the coverage and tax parts of Obamacare), nor the Health Care Freedom Act (skinny repeal, targeting the individual and employer mandates and the medical device tax but leaving most of the rest of Obamacare in place) — were actual bills. All of those were amendments to an underlying bill, the American Health Care Act.
Because that underlying bill has not failed yet, the Obamacare repeal effort can still proceed through reconciliation.