Late-night ObamaCare meeting leaves no signs of progress

House Republicans left a meeting with Vice President Pence in the Capitol on Tuesday night without any apparent progress toward a deal to try to revive their ObamaCare replacement bill. 

There was not legislative text presented at the meeting as lawmakers continued to debate what changes would be made, despite hopes by the conservative House Freedom Caucus that the text would be made available for them to review.

Conservatives are facing pushback from other lawmakers as they seek to allow states to apply for waivers to repeal ObamaCare protections for people with pre-existing conditions, which they argue are driving up premiums. 

{mosads}Those protections are known as “community rating,” which prevents insurers from charging sick people more, and “guaranteed issue,” which prevents insurers from denying coverage to sick people. 

Conservatives argue high-risk pool funding would help people with pre-existing conditions get coverage, but Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) acknowledged objections from more moderate members to removing regulations on pre-existing conditions. 

“Even though we have a high risk pool that deals with this, I think there’s probably a lot more concern over the guaranteed issue portion of that and what that may mean,” Meadows said leaving the meeting. 

Lawmakers said they plan to meet again on Wednesday to continue the search for an agreement, but there are doubts from many corners about whether a deal is possible anytime soon. 

The meeting included Pence as well as the leaders of different House GOP factions: Meadows, Republican Study Committee Chairman Mark Walker (R-N.C.), and moderate Tuesday Group co-Chairman Tom MacArthur (R-N.J.). House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-Ore.) and Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) were also among the small group attending. 

Walker said there was “great consensus” on high-risk pools for people with pre-existing conditions, but he didn’t go into detail. He said the group would meet Wednesday to discuss ObamaCare Title I regulations.

Conservative Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) said “a lot of common ground” was established at the meeting. 

“We’re basically working on the concepts where the differences have been. We found a lot of common ground,” he said, but would go into detail. 

“You find common ground, you set that aside, and then you start working on some of the differences.”