A member of the House Freedom Caucus hopes the House brings up Obamacare repeal again in the next few weeks, as House leadership and other Republican lawmakers are signaling they aren’t done yet on the issue.
Rep. David Brat, R-Va., told reporters that he would “guess in a few weeks” that a new bill could be created on Obamacare repeal after the prior bill was pulled by House leadership Friday due to insufficient support.
Brat’s comments come as House GOP leadership hopes to restart on Obamacare repeal after the defeat of the American Health Care Act, but House Speaker Paul Ryan doesn’t have a timeline on getting a new bill together.
Brat, a member of the far-right Freedom Caucus, said the group of 35 to 40 members is in talks to set up a meeting with the moderate Tuesday Group, in the hopes of reaching a deal.
Members of both the Freedom Caucus and Tuesday Group balked at the bill, albeit for different reasons, and were a key contributor in its defeat.
The largest sticking point for the caucus is Obamacare’s regulations on insurers, which were largely untouched in the AHCA. The caucus wanted to repeal a majority of the regulations, but House leadership was concerned it wouldn’t pass Senate budget rules.
The House leadership wanted to use an arcane rule called reconciliation to get the bill approved in the Senate by a majority vote, but that precluded some parts to be left out.
Freedom Caucus leader Mark Meadows, R-N.C., put together an amendment that leaked last week that called for a majority of the regulations to be cut. The amendment left a ban on insurers denying coverage to people with preexisting conditions intact, in addition to a rule that allowed people to stay on their parents’ health plans until age 26.
When asked whether the amendment must be included in full in a new repeal bill, Brat said that there is “wiggle room.”
“Any grouping that results in the lowering of premiums is the goal,” he said.
