Republican leaders were working on several revisions to the bill that would be considered ahead of the floor vote.
The White House and House Republicans have agreed that the bill will be amended to let states impose work requirements on some healthy Medicaid recipients. States will also be allowed to alter the entire federal-state program for poorer people so states would receive a lump sum federal payment to cover some costs — not an amount that’s pegged to the number of beneficiaries in the state, as the current bill provides.
On Sunday, Ryan said the bill will also be changed to provide more assistance to older people. A CBO report said many older people would receive less aid under the bill than under current law — a major concern to many wavering lawmakers.
The White House was trying to win over conservatives who are part of the House Freedom Caucus, including the group’s chairman, Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C. Meadows joined two Senate conservatives, Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah, for a weekend meeting at Trump’s Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, with top White House aide Steve Bannon and other White House officials.
But several Republicans continue to criticize the bill. Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., wrote on Twitter on Monday that he couldn’t recall a more “universally detested piece of legislation” than the GOP’s health care bill. He wrote that fellow Freedom Caucus members had suggested several changes but had been rebuffed.
The rally Monday night was the Trump administration’s second high-profile event in Kentucky in 10 days and took the president to the home state of one of the most outspoken critics of the plan, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. Vice President Mike Pence was in Louisville earlier this month to build support for the Trump-backed bill.
Paul said Monday to a group of Louisville business leaders that he hoped the Republican bill would fail so that “true negotiations” could begin. The senator, who was re-elected last year, has dismissed it as “Obamacare lite” and asserted that the bill had no chance of becoming law.
Paul was not attending the rally, saying he planned to fly back to Washington to continue building a coalition to defeat the plan.
