The Republican who will preside over the final assembly of a bill replacing Obamacare is backing two major changes that conservatives are pushing for.
Budget Committee Chairman Diane Black supports amendments to halt the healthcare law’s extra federal Medicaid payments two years sooner — next year instead of 2020 — and impose work requirements for childless, able-bodied Medicaid enrollees, a source close to her said.
Those amendments, offered by Reps. Joe Barton of Texas, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Morgan Griffith of Virginia, could help appease House conservatives who say the replacement bill being pushed by GOP leadership leaves too much of Obamacare still on the books.
Some members of the Freedom Caucus and Republican Study Committee are especially upset that the measure wouldn’t roll back Medicaid expansion for another three years, and even then would allow states to keep expansion if they kick in more of their own funds.
A spokesman for the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which is marking up the bill, said there’s “no guidance” on whether the committee will consider the Barton, Blackburn and Griffith proposals. The Republican Study Committee announced Thursday morning that it is backing both amendments.
After the Energy and Commerce Committee approves its part of the bill, called the American Health Care Act, it will be up to the budget committee to combine that section with the parts approved Wednesday by the Ways and Means Committee.
