The House Freedom Caucus officially backs an updated version of the GOP health care bill that includes a significant amendment co-sponsored by the group’s chairman, the conservative bloc’s spokeswoman announced early Wednesday afternoon. She did not respond immediately to a Twitter inquiry asking if the caucus’s support meant all of its members would vote yes on the legislation.
The so-called Meadows-MacArthur amendment, from House Freedom Caucus chairman Mark Meadows and moderate Tuesday Group co-chairman Tom MacArthur, would allow states to waive a limited number of Obamacare regulations under certain conditions. Conservatives have argued that the regulations in question are health care cost-drivers, and their total preservation in the original draft of the American Health Care Act was behind the lawmakers’ initial opposition to the legislation.
