Pelosi warns Ryan over changing healthcare bill

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Wednesday warned the House GOP that any changes to the bill to repeal and replace the healthcare law must be fully vetted before any floor vote.

In a letter to Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), Pelosi stressed that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) should be given time to assess any amended version of the legislation, known as the American Health Care Act.

House GOP leaders are aiming for a floor vote on the legislation sometime next week.

{mosads}Members of the conservative Republican Study Committee left a meeting with Vice President Pence Wednesday afternoon under the impression the legislation could be changed before reaching the floor. 

Conservatives are hoping to freeze the Medicaid expansion by next year and establish work requirements for the program’s recipients, among other changes. But meeting those demands could alienate centrists wary of scaling back the Medicaid expansion in the first place.

One possibility would be changing the bill at the House Rules Committee, which determines how legislation is considered on the floor. Pelosi reminded Ryan that Democrats, under her leadership, made sure an updated CBO score for the final legislation was available before the full House voted.

“If any changes are made at Rules, the American people and Members have a right to see an updated CBO score on the consequences of the final legislation before any vote by the House,” Pelosi wrote.

“You will remember that when Democrats amended the Senate-passed Affordable Care Act at Rules, we ensured that the American people had an updated CBO score for the final legislation before the House voted.”

Two House committees, Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce, approved the GOP healthcare plan last week, two days after its public unveiling and before the CBO released its analysis.

The CBO estimated in a report published Monday that 24 million fewer people would be ensured under the GOP plan by 2026, including 14 million next year alone.