House Freedom Caucus members and White House officials are hopeful they can reach an agreement in negotiations over the resurrected plan to repeal and replace Obamacare, despite President Trump’s threats to ditch the conservative voting bloc and strike a healthcare deal with Democrats instead.
“I’m cautiously optimistic that we may be able to reach a path forward by week’s end,” a Freedom Caucus source told the Washington Examiner. “Despite the administration saying a week or so back they’d no longer pursue healthcare reform at this time, that has changed and we continue to be in active communication with the White House.”
The administration’s initial attempt to shepherd a Republican healthcare bill through the House ended on March 24 in a bitter defeat when, amid flagging GOP support for the legislation, Speaker Paul Ryan canceled a planned floor vote and signaled negotiations would conclude for the foreseeable future.
But talks have proceeded quietly in the days since Ryan pulled the bill, with both sides still searching for a way to keep the diverse Republican conference together for what is expected to be a party-line vote.
Freedom Caucus members, whom Trump has blamed for the implosion of his first healthcare deal, want to see Obamacare’s Title I insurance regulations dismantled in the GOP legislation. The Freedom Caucus source said White House officials “could get 216 for the [American Health Care Act] today if they included language to strip out the Title 1 insurance regs.”
“There’s some movement but we aren’t there yet,” the source said.
Conservative lawmakers maintain that regulations left intact by the AHCA will continue to drive up the cost of premiums, while moderate members have shied away from gutting what they see as necessary protections for constituents covered under the current law.
Meanwhile, Trump has repeatedly hurled Twitter threats at the House Freedom Caucus in general and several of its most prominent members in particular, threatening to turn to Democrats for his missing healthcare votes — once Obamacare unravels enough to pressure Democrats into a deal with Republicans.
Conservative Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., hit the links with Trump on Sunday and expressed optimism after their round of golf that conservatives are “getting closer to an agreement on healthcare.”
Paul’s spokesman declined to elaborate on what the president and the senator discussed on the golf course, but their warm exchange over the weekend marked a turning point for the Senate’s most vocal critic of the House Republican legislation.
The White House declined to comment on the status of healthcare negotiations.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer has said healthcare talks are proceeding on a “dual track” with tax reform discussions.
