Conservative lawmakers are pressing the White House to end the Medicaid expansion sooner in a bill to repeal Obamacare, as the White House looks to take a larger role in negotiations over the beleaguered bill.
Members of the Republican Study Committee, a collection of more than 100 lawmakers, met with Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday to express concerns about the American Health Care Act. House leadership also signaled that the White House will play a larger role in getting the bill passed, after facing criticism over not taking an active role.
“I think you’re going to hear a lot more from both the president and the vice president on how strong this bill is,” said House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, of Louisiana.
But committee members came away from the meeting thinking that changes are in the offing, even though they conceded that any changes could cost the support of moderate Republican senators.
“I think this bill is gonna be on the floor by next week,” said Rep. Phil Roe, R-Tenn. “I think you have seen the mold of [the bill]. What the absolute amendments will be to change the bill I really can’t say.”
Pence wouldn’t commit to any changes to the bill, but lawmakers said they were confident that their concerns about the bill were being heard.
“The vice president took a copious amount of notes,” Roe said.
The biggest change committee members want to see is speeding up the end of the Medicaid expansion, which would be in 2020 in the American Health Care Act.
The Republican Study Committee wants Medicaid expansion enrollment to freeze on Jan. 1, 2018, and to establish work requirements for able-bodied beneficiaries and childless adults on Medicaid. It also wants to reduce Medicaid per-beneficiary growth rates so they don’t exceed historical rates.
And it wants to ensure tax credits are “fiscally responsible and promote work,” according to a committee statement.
Some lawmakers wanted to go even further on Medicaid.
“I would like to see block grants … go to the states,” said Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga.
The legislation would end the expansion in 2020 and convert Medicaid into a per-capita cap that limits federal funding per beneficiary. Under block grants, the federal government would give each state a fixed amount of funding.
Lawmakers said after the meeting that they are pushing for changes to the bill either through a manager’s amendment brought up before the House Rules Committee or through amendments on the House floor.
“I don’t think you will see any hard changes until the rules committee meets,” Loudermilk said.
But he conceded that any conservative changes to the bill could cost moderate GOP senator support.
“That is the needle that has to be threaded. Where is the sweet spot,” he said. “We would like to see it move more conservatively, but it has to be something that passes the House and the Senate.”
Nicole Duran contributed to this report.
