Vice President Mike Pence on Tuesday huddled with Republicans who don’t like the Republican bill to repeal and replace Obamacare, and promised the bill will be tweaked to earn their support.
Pence, who was joined by Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, met with several small groups of GOP lawmakers, including members of the House Freedom Caucus, the most vocal opponents of the plan.
“It was more an airing of concerns,” Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., a key member of the conservative Republican Study Committee, said after one of the meetings.
Pence told Senate Republicans the Trump administration is “certainly open to improvements and to recommendations in the legislative process,” but warned voting against the final bill would be a vote to maintain Obamacare.
Moving across the Capitol, Pence and Price worked Tuesday to sell the proposal to House lawmakers — arguing to reluctant Republicans that the repeal-and-replace measure was one of a three-part plan to reform health care.
The second phase involves Price, the former House Budget Committee chairman who as HHS secretary has the power to repeal hundreds of Obamacare regulations as well as the ability to reshape or replace them with a patient-centered and market-driven outcome Republicans are seeking. The third phase will involve taking up additional health care legislation that would improve the insurance market, including a measure allowing consumers to purchase plans across state lines.
“All of the concerns that were brought up in the room were addressed,” Loudermilk said. “Either it’s going to be addressed in this bill, or in phase two or phase three.”
But House lawmakers said based on their meetings with Pence, they expect changes to be made to the repeal and replace measure that will help attract conservative lawmakers like Loudermilk, before a House floor vote occurs later this month.
“All of the concerns that were brought up in there by these members are going to be fixed in this bill,” said Loudermilk, who was joined by a small handful of lawmakers in the Capitol meeting with Pence.
Among those who met with Pence was Rep. Dave Brat, a member of the House Freedom Caucus who is known for bucking the leadership on critical legislation if he views it as insufficiently conservative.
Asked if Pence convinced him to get behind the House measure, Brat responded, “Not yet,” but he suggested he could be convinced.
“A lot of it hinges on the insurance regulations,” Brat said after the meeting, alluding to phase two of the GOP plan. “Price will be great on that.”
