A House lawmaker who played a key role in getting a partial Obamacare repeal bill out of the House isn’t keen on holding a conference to reconcile the two versions.
The Senate unveiled a draft of its version of the American Health Care Act on Thursday, and leadership hopes to vote next week. The AHCA passed the House by a slim margin of 217-213.
Rep. Tom MacArthur, R-N.J., hopes that there isn’t a conference to reconcile the differences between the House and Senate.
“A conference is just a more difficult, challenging process and a lot more negotiations sent back and forth,” MacArthur said.
MacArthur helped break a logjam between conservatives and centrists in the House by introducing waivers that let states opt out of certain insurer mandates such as essential health benefits and a mandate called community rating that prevents insurers from charging sick people more money.
“The fact that they started with our bill increases the likelihood that we might be able to vote on the bill that comes back from them,” MacArthur added.
However, there are some key differences between the two chambers’ versions that conservatives may be wary of in the House.
Already four conservatives in the Senate are withholding support for the bill until further changes are made.
Key differences include more money for tax credits and a three-year phase-out of the Medicaid expansion after 2020. The House bill ended the expansion in 2020.
The Senate draft also differs from the waivers that MacArthur spearheaded in the House. The draft still lets states waive essential health benefits but not community rating.
Rep. Mark Sanford, R-S.C., a member of the conservative Freedom Caucus, said there are parts of the Senate bill that “give conservatives pause, whether that is a further expansion of Medicaid in contrast to where the House was on Medicaid.”
He was also worried about the changes to the waivers.
“Those kinds of things that are ingredients on the Senate side that weren’t ingredients on the House side,” he said.
The draft could change before the bill gets out of the Senate, especially with conservatives angry over parts of the bill.
However, the Senate is working with a smaller margin of error than the House, which had 20 Republicans vote against the AHCA.
The Senate can afford to lose only two Republican senators out of its 52-48 majority. Vice President Mike Pence could break a 50-50 tie.
