Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) says that not all conservatives are warming to the GOP House leadership’s bill to repeal and replace ObamaCare.
President Trump won support Friday for the legislation from key members of the conservative Republican Study Committee (RSC), GOP sources told The Hill.
{mosads}The Hill’s Republican sources said RSC members now supporting the plan were won over by an agreement to give states the option to impose work requirements on Medicare recipients.
The option to replace Medicaid’s cap system with block grants was also a factor, they added.
President Trump said Friday that he successfully wooed 13 members of the RSC at a White House meeting on the proposal’s support.
“I want to let the world know: I am 100 percent in favor,” he said of the legislation. “These folks were no’s, mostly no’s, yesterday, and now every single one is a yes. I want people to know that ObamaCare is dead. It’s a dead healthcare plan.”
“Only because everyone knows it’s on its last, dying feet, the fake media is trying to say good things about it, the fake media. There is no good news about ObamaCare. ObamaCare is dead.”
Trump noted the White House agreed to make “certain changes” to successfully woo lawmakers but not did not elaborate on the details.
The president and House GOP leaders are trying to shepherd the American Health Care Act (AHCA) through the lower chamber amid fierce party infighting over its contents.
Moderate House Republicans have voiced concerns over its cuts to Medicaid, while conservatives like Amash, a House Freedom Caucus member, say the legislation does not move far enough away from ObamaCare. The legislation also faces a difficult path in the Senate.
GOP leaders cannot afford more than 21 defections in the House during a full vote there expected within weeks. Only two Republican senators can defect from the bill without affecting its chances in the Senate.
The Hill’s Whip List currently states that Amash is one of 16 House Republicans who oppose the AHCA in its current form.