Obamacare revisions win conservative support

The GOP’s Obamacare repeal-and-replace plan cleared a major hurdle today by winning the support of the conservative House Freedom Caucus. The group of about three dozen congressmen announced today its support for the American Health Care Act after negotiating changes with the White House.

An amendment to the bill would allow states to repeal some aspects of Obamacare, such as requiring young, healthy people to buy extensive coverage.

“So we allow liberal states to keep Obamacare and all the policies they want, and conservative states can do it the way they see best for their people,” Rep. Dave Brat, R-Va., told me. “That’s just good Republican philosophy, giving power back to the states.”

Brat said the compromise legislation introduces more free market principles to healthcare regulation.

“At least it opens the door to free markets by allowing states to work on some of this in their own way,” Brat said.

Many members of the House Freedom Caucus last month opposed President Donald Trump’s proposed healthcare law because it did not fully repeal Obamacare and was not expected to lower health insurance premiums drastically.

“While the revised version still does not fully repeal Obamacare, we are prepared to support it to keep our promise to the American people to lower healthcare costs,” a statement from the Freedom Caucus said today. “We look forward to working with our Senate colleagues to improve the bill. Our work will continue until we fully repeal Obamacare.”

Some moderates also opposed the law, and it’s unclear now whether support from the Freedom Caucus will be enough to pass the bill out of the House. Brat said he was optimistic, though: “It makes moderates happy, makes conservatives happy. It’s better coverage and lower prices, and so that’s a win-win. I think late this week or early next week we’ll see a vote on healthcare, and I’m predicting some success.”

Listen to “White House Wednesday” on the April 26 edition of The World and Everything in It.