Conservative Group Heritage Action Still Against Republican Health Care Bill

The CEO of Heritage Action for America, a conservative think tank, announced Tuesday that the group would continue to oppose the White House’s preferred plan to replace Obamacare.

The group announced the decision from its Twitter account:

Big news from @MikeNeedham about our upcoming key vote: pic.twitter.com/7lWAJKevZ0

— Heritage Action (@Heritage_Action) March 21, 2017

A few hours later, another conservative group, the Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity, joined them:

Currently, we can’t support the GOP healthcare plan. Without major changes, we’ll key vote against it & stand with those that stand with us.

— AFP (@AFPhq) March 21, 2017

Heritage Action has joined several conservative members of the House of Representatives in protesting the bill since its debut on March 6. They say the American Health Care Act’s tax credits preserve the architecture of Obamacare’s subsidies for those on the individual insurance market, though they are less generous and based primarily on age rather than income. Some conservative critics call the credits an entitlement program.

To shore up support in the House and Senate Monday night, House leadership announced that the bill would allow Senators the option to add more tax credit funding for older people, who would be disproportionately disadvantaged by a transition from Obamacare to the AHCA.

In a post on the group’s website Tuesday, Heritage Action’s Wesley Coopersmith wrote that “the main problem with the repeal portion of the bill is the failure to repeal most of the insurance regulations that contribute to the rising cost of health care.”

“The Republican proposal not only maintains the overall regulatory framework of Obamacare, but also subsidizes that regulatory framework through a new refundable tax credits aimed to help individuals buy their own health care plans – plans that will remain highly regulated and overly expensive,” he wrote.