While trying to walk a line that suggested President Donald Trump was open to changes to the health care bill GOP leadership is pushing to repeal Obamacare, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer signaled the President has sided with House leaders in their fight with conservatives over whether to begin phasing out Medicaid expansion in 2020 or 2018.
“Right now the date that’s in the bill is what the President supports,” Spicer said at Friday’s White House press conference. “He’s willing to listen to individuals on different aspects of the bill that might achieve the goals that he set out, but it’s not a question of negotiation. We have a date in the bill and that’s the date in the bill.”
The legislation in question, the American Health Care Act, would allow the Medicaid expansion to continue as is until the end of 2019, at which point enrollment would be frozen with the anticipation that the program would wither away on its own. Conservatives want to push that timetable up to the end of 2017, and introduced an amendment during the bill’s committee mark up to do so. (The amendment was withdrawn before it was voted on, but its sponsor, Texas Republican Rep. Joe Barton, indicated to reporters Friday he may bring it up again later in the legislative process.)
House leadership earlier Friday shot down the idea that they’d be willing to negotiate around the date. Speeding up the process by which the Medicaid expansion would wind down puts the votes of Republican moderates – many of whom coming from states that expanded – at risk.
