Now that House Speaker Paul Ryan and his fellow Republicans’ first proposed health care bill has failed, New Jersey health industry experts may have a better chance at implementing their own changes to the state’s Medicaid program.
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“We continue to work toward spring action from the Ways and Means Committee and continue to work to get this done in 2017”, Brady told reporters.
The effort by the Rules Committee to rush to adopt an amendment to a bill-without much time for anyone to read it or any immediate intent to take the measure to the House floor-is highly unusual, but it reflects the strong desire by the White House to demonstrate that the effort to repeal Obamacare isn’t dead. This proposal would likely prevent premiums from skyrocketing because insurers would get federal help to cover their most expensive patients. Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., called on hard-right advocates to step up their tough tactics as a group.
Earlier in the week, it had appeared Republicans were making progress on repealing Obamacare following the withdrawal of the bill last month, reports the Hill magazine.
High-risk pools, however, had gained broad support during a late Tuesday meeting that brought together Vice President Pence and other White House officials with conservative and moderate House leaders. These people asked for anonymity in order to discuss private conversations.
The new idea roughed out in negotiations between the White House and leaders of the conservative House Freedom Caucus would allow states to seek waivers of two requirements in the 2010 Affordable Care Act. Large shares of Democrats (80%) and independents (65%), and one-third of Republicans (34%), also said that because Trump and Republicans in Congress are in control of the government, they are now responsible for any problems with the PPACA in the future.
None of these accomplishments has gotten much attention amid blaring headlines on investigations into alleged ties between the Trump campaign and Russian Federation, the meltdown in the GOP-controlled House over health care and repeated reports of Trump missteps and White House infighting. Ryan also met briefly with Trump, the aide said. The timetable changed when the Trump administration began to crack resistance among some conservatives and moderates to a restructured bill, giving and taking from both factions.
When the GOP leadership’s healthcare bill died, Trump took to Twitter to excoriate the roughly three dozen members of the House Freedom Caucus. “We’re still working on it”.
However, high-risk pools have always been criticized for their hiccups, and the Republican amendment remains unclear on its specifics. “We’ll be showing up at Rep. Goodlatte’s open-door meeting on April 13”, said John Schaldach, of Harrisonburg Indivisible, a liberal-leaning protest group.
Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and the Democratic-led Senate, which refused to pass any spending bill that would suck funds away from the Affordable Care Act, President Obama’s signature health care law.
Huge roadblocks remain in the way of such a deal.
Representative Patrick McHenry on Wednesday said the idea of allowing states to waive requirements for covering people with pre-existing conditions is a “bridge too far for our members” and can not get enough votes to pass, the Hill magazine reported. And the authors of this amendment will go into more detail.
Policy analysts said Republicans are underestimating the cost of subsidizing pools of high-risk consumers. It would create a $100 billion fund that states can use for a variety of purposes, including high-risk insurance pools where people with medical problems can get coverage.
Roth said conservatives are different from the majority of House Republicans, who he musingly referred to as “zombies, walking around collecting a paycheck”.
High-risk pools have always been a staple of conservative health-care reform plans, allowing insurers to rope off patients with exponentially higher costs from the rest of the population they insure.
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Information for this article was contributed by Robert Costa, Abby Phillip and Paul Kane of The Washington Post.
