The conservative House Freedom Caucus on Wednesday afternoon announced that the caucus would support the House bill to repeal and replace Obamacare, the American Health Care Act, with a new proposed amendment.
The move was not a surprise. The negotiations in the weeks since the original bill was pulled from the House floor for lack of votes have focused on moving the bill further to right the win Freedom Caucus support. The big question now is whether it’s moved too far to the right to win enough moderate Republican votes.
“Over the past couple months, House conservatives have worked tirelessly to improve the American Health Care Act (AHCA) to make it better for the American people. Due to improvements to the AHCA and the addition of Rep. Tom MAcArthur’s proposed amendment, the House Freedom Caucus has taken an official position in support of the current proposal,” the caucus said in a statement.
“The MacArthur amendment will grant states the ability to repeal cost driving aspects of Obamacare left in place under the original AHCA,” the statement continues. “While the revised version still does not fully repeal Obamacare, we are prepared to support it to keep our promise to the American people to lower healthcare costs.”
The new amendment, drafted by moderate Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-NJ) and House Freedom Caucus Chair Mark Meadows (R-NC) would allow states to apply for waivers from certain Obamacare mandates.
During a press conference earlier on Wednesday, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) said that the amendment “helps us get to consensus.” However, it’s not clear that the amendment would earn enough support from moderate members of the Republican caucus to ensure the legislation’s passage.
Some moderates, including Rep. Charlie Dent (R0PA), still won’t back the AHCA with this amendment, and other moderates had yet to finalize their positions on the amendment early Wednesday.
