White House pushes uncertain bid to revive health care bill

The new version of the AHCA, or AHCA 2.0, if you will, includes an amendment called the MacArthur Amendment. “If they tell us, however, that they recognize that President Trump won an election, and he should get some of his priorities funded for that reason, elections have consequences, as folks who win always like to say”.

“You have Democrats saying they want ObamaCare payments into this funding bill so Republicans are not going to like that”, says Bob Cusack, managing editor of The Hill.

Without a spending bill next week, the government will shut down on Friday April 28, which would be day 99 of the Trump presidency. Paul Ryan, the Speaker of the House from Wisconsin, hinted that the effort could be ready for a floor vote soon: “We’re in the midst of negotiating sort of finishing touches”, he said. Some aides expect members to return to Washington with a renewed sense of energy toward finding a legislative solution that has evaded House Republicans since leadership abandoned a scheduled vote on a repeal bill last month.

House Republicans have been away from Washington the past two weeks and, for some, town halls held in their districts have drawn anger from constituents over the failed health care proposal, which the Congressional Budget Office estimated would result in 24 million losing or dropping health insurance coverage over a decade. The waivers allow states to opt out of ACA standards setting minimum benefits that health plans must offer.

The new bill would also allows states the opportunity to repeal Obamacare’s other health benefits requiring insurers cover health services including mental health and prescription drugs, according to the report.

The American Health Insurance Act subsidies, in the form of refundable tax credits, would run from $2,000 annually for those under 30 to $4,000 for those 60 to 65.

“I am going to keep fighting to get a compromise bill that helps to fix the current situation without hurting the people who are on the Affordable Care Act today”, MacArthur said.

President Donald Trump signaled that he’d lost interest in repealing or reforming the Affordable Care Act after the House failure. The GOP can bring those proposals up separately and, if the votes are there, pass them.

On Monday, Rep. Jeff Denham, R-Calif., announced that he would not support his party’s health care legislation unless it left significant parts of Obamacare intact.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if they started to lose more moderates” because of the new changes, the aide added. And there’s a new Politico Morning Consult poll that asked people to grade President Trump on various things, including health care.

Time would stand still in the U.S. Capitol with nobody on duty to wind the 200-year-old “Ohio Clock” just outside the Senate chamber. “Really this is all about face-saving”.

Republican lawmakers have been exploring ways to give states the flexibility to scrap these protections.

Rep. Dan Donovan (R-N.Y.), a centrist lawmaker, said on MSNBC Thursday that he is still opposed to the bill despite the changes.

“This amendment will make coverage of pre-existing conditions sacrosanct for all Americans”, he said.

Trump’s administration has indicated that the wall is a high priority and that they will do what they can to fund it.

But the plan also allows states to waive those protections.