President Donald J. Trump, left, shakes hands with House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., right, before his address to a joint session of Congress.
The American Health Care Act, the ObamaCare repeal bill released by Republican leadership, passed the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
“Today, the House took a decisive step forward in fulfilling a promise to the American people that has been years in the making: repealing and replacing Obamacare with affordable, patient-centered reforms,” Chairman Greg Walden, R-Oreg., said in a statement. “After conducting an open and transparent markup, we are proud to put forth a plan that represents a Better Way for patients and families.”
The bill cleared the first hurdle when it passed in the House Ways and Means Committee early Thursday morning and it will now move to the Budget Committee before going to the floor of the House for a vote. But it’s unclear whether the repeal plan has the votes or not with conservative groups and lawmakers calling it “ObamaCare Lite.”
Also at issue are several key provisions, including the ObamaCare subsidies, which critics say were simply “renamed” refundable credits. House leadership says they are leveling the playing field for the individual insurance market.
“Under our plan, we preserve important provisions like protecting patients with pre-existing conditions while implementing important reforms to provide states with greater flexibility, lower cost for families, and greater choice for patients,” continued Walden. “We’re one step closer to helping American families across the country obtain and maintain affordable health care.”
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But conservative critics say it’s just another entitlement and on Thursday afternoon House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., held a town hall-like press conference that took the place of his weekly address to explain the bill. He said the bill is only the first in a three-phase process, in which the House of Representatives are able to use budget reconciliation. With the immediate addition of certain provisions conservatives demand, such as the ability to purchase insurance across state lines, Democrats can filibuster the reform and kill it.
“We as Republicans, who fought the creation of this law and accurately predicted it would not work, ran for office in 2010, in 2012, in 2014 and in 2016 on a promise if given the chance we would repeal and replace this law,” he said earlier Thursday. “This is the closest we will ever get to repealing and replacing ObamaCare. The time is here. The time is now. This is the moment and this is the closest this will ever happen.”
President Donald J. Trump, who People’s Pundit Daily has confirmed with use the bully pulpit of the presidency to push separately for interstate competition, will host members of the House Freedom Caucus at the White House for a bowling and pizza party to sell and hatch out a deal.
He has already begun to bring in those who have concerns, such the Club for Growth. David McIntosh, the Club’s president, met with the president on Wednesday to discuss potential additions to the bill.
“The President wants to get something done and he urged us to stay supportive. We laid out our major concerns about the lack of free-market reforms in this bill, the continuation of the Medicaid expansion, and the refundable tax credits,” Mr. McIntosh said. “The President listened and he told his staff to continue working on the bill, so we’re hopeful that this process will lead to a bill that actually repeals Obamacare and puts in free-market health care reforms.”
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