The co-founder of the House Freedom Caucus said that maybe the group of far-right conservatives did the country a favor killing the American Health Care Act, which aimed to gut Obamacare but was pulled on Friday due in part to limited support from the caucus.
“Maybe we did the country a favor because this bill didn’t repeal Obamacare, said Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, on Fox News Sunday. “It didn’t repeal Obamacare. It didn’t bring down premiums.”
Jordan entered into a testy exchange with host Chris Wallace, who said the caucus doesn’t appear to “take yes for an answer” after it got concessions from the White House on the bill.
“You pocketed that and said that we need more,” Wallace said.
Jordan pushed back, saying that that “narrative is just not accurate.”
“We want those regulations and mandates … placed on the cost of insurance to go,” he responded.
The caucus wanted to gut most of Title 1 on Obamacare, which included insurance regulations that determine how insurers price their plans. However, those regulations weren’t included in the bill because of budget rules in the Senate.
Wallace accused Jordan of wanting to remove a ban on insurers denying coverage to preexisting conditions.
“We wanted to remove the regulations,” Jordan said, adding that the bill could have included money for high-risk pools to serve preexisting conditions.
An amendment leaked earlier this month from the Freedom Caucus wouldn’t have touched preexisting conditions, but other insurance regulations such as the prohibition on lifetime caps on insurance plans.
