WASHINGTON — Several former Obama administration officials were on their regular Wednesday morning conference call this week, plotting against Republican efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, when Tom Price, the secretary of health and human services, said on CNBC that his party should shoot for “the lowest common denominator” on health care.

[unable to retrieve full-text content for text to speech conversion]Washington (CNN) The Senate will enter the home stretch of a dramatic debate to overhaul Obamacare on Thursday, with lawmakers bracing for what could be a long and grueling marathon series of votes that extends well into the night and morning.

WASHINGTON — Lisa Murkowski had heard enough. As President Trump pressed her and her fellow Senate Republicans last week to fall in line behind a repeal of the Affordable Care Act in the interest of party loyalty and protecting the Republican brand, she felt compelled to speak up.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Republican lawmakers are hashing out potential health care plans, though a repeal-only and a repeal-and-replace option have failed in the last two days. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images hide caption

Vicki Reid, right, holds a likeness of John Martin, who was then CEO of the pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences. Reid and others were protesting high drug prices in front of the conference on retroviruses and opportunistic infections — a meeting held at the World Congress Center in Atlanta in March 2013. John Amis/AP Images for…