Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan. speaks to reporters as he arrives on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, July 18, 2017. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas helped scuttle a Republican bill to repeal and replace Obamacare late Monday, but he said later Tuesday that he would support a repeal-only bill so that Congress could start fresh with open hearings on a replacement for the Affordable Care Act.

Moran was one of two GOP senators who came out against the latest GOP bill, officially known as the Better Care Reconciliation Act, or BCRA, Monday evening. Sen. Mike Lee of Utah also came out against the bill. They joined GOP Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky in opposing the bill, guaranteeing it would not have enough votes to pass even the first procedural hurdle in the Senate.

“There are serious problems with Obamacare, and my goal remains what it has been for a long time: to repeal and replace it,” Moran said in a statement emailed to news outlets and posted on social media. “This closed-door process has yielded the BCRA, which fails to repeal the Affordable Care Act or address healthcare’s rising costs. For the same reasons I could not support the previous version of this bill, I cannot support this one.

“We should not put our stamp of approval on bad policy,” Moran’s statement continued. “Furthermore, if we leave the federal government in control of everyday healthcare decisions, it is more likely that our healthcare system will devolve into a single-payer system, which would require a massive federal spending increase. We must now start fresh with an open legislative process to develop innovative solutions that provide greater personal choice, protections for pre-existing conditions, increased access and lower overall costs for Kansans.”

Kansas’ other senator, Republican Pat Roberts, had been an early supporter of the bill, saying he would have voted in favor of a procedural motion to send the bill to the floor of the full Senate in order to continue debate and amendments.

The bill had been worked out largely behind closed doors in the office of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky instead of through the regular committee process.

It would have repealed many aspects of the Affordable Care Act, including the mandates that most individuals carry health insurance and that large employers make it available as an employee benefit. It also would have phased out the expansion of Medicaid, which has been an option for states as a way of extending coverage to the working poor who can’t afford or don’t have access to employer-based coverage.

The bill would have increased federal payments to hospitals in states like Kansas that have not expanded their Medicaid programs. Roberts had cited that as a reason for supporting the bill, arguing that provision would have brought more than $619 million to Kansas hospitals over the next eight years. But health care advocates, including the Kansas Hospital Association, said that still would not make up for the money Kansas is foregoing by not expanding Medicaid.

David Jordan, executive director of the Alliance for a Healthy Kansas, a coalition of groups that supports Medicaid expansion, praised Moran for his decision.

“Sen. Jerry Moran deserves credit for taking a courageous stand against politics as usual and rejecting the harmful Better Care Reconciliation Act,” Jordan said in an email statement. “His decision is a testament to his commitment to make Kansas a healthier place to live. Senator Moran’s leadership will protect 120,000 Kansans from losing coverage and protect providers from devastating Medicaid cuts. We thank Senator Moran for his leadership and look forward to working with him to improve the health system in Kansas.”

The announcements from Sens. Moran and Lee initially left Republicans unsure about how to proceed. But Tuesday morning, President Donald J. Trump urged Senate Republicans to move forward with a bill simply to repeal Obamacare and work on a replacement package later.

McConnell then agreed to that process, and Moran said he would support it.

“I support the President’s efforts to repeal Obamacare, and I will vote in favor of the motion to proceed,” he said, according to an email from his office. “This should be followed by an open legislative process to craft healthcare policy that will provide greater personal choice, protections for pre-existing conditions, increased access and lower overall costs for Kansans.”

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This post was updated with new information at 2:20 p.m.