Republicans are hoping to renew momentum on health care this week with a new amendment that may attract more conservative votes, but there are already problems brewing.
The MacArthur amendment, which was negotiated between Rep. Tom MacArthur, a New Jersey moderate, and House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows would give states the chance to apply for waivers that could gut several core Obamacare insurance reforms that protect consumers with pre-existing conditions, including the benefits insurers are required to cover in their policies and the ban on allowing carriers to charge more based on a person’s health history.
The proposal was intended to appeal to members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus — who have long advocated states need more flexibility to drive down insurance premiums — but the amendment also includes a provision that guarantees members of Congress and their staffs would still get the Obamacare regulatory protections that could be gutted for other consumers. That optics of that weren’t sitting well on Capitol Hill just hours after the amendment was unveiled even though multiple House GOP aides said that including the provision was necessary in order to comply with a special set of Senate rules.
According to a senior GOP aide, leaders were already promising Wednesday morning that once the health care bill as passed, members of Congress would vote separately to ensure that members wouldn’t be exempted from the new rules, but it’s a rocky start for an amendment that was intended to get Republicans back on track to repeal and replace Obamacare.
McArthur’s office responded to the criticism of special treatment in a statement: “Congressman MacArthur does not believe members of Congress or their staff should receive special treatment and is working with House leadership to make absolutely clear that members of Congress and staff are subject to the same rules, provisions, and protections as all other Americans.”
The exemption issue isn’t the only problem with the new amendment, however. There are still questions of whether the amendment will actually get Republican leaders any closer to passing their health care bill.
One Republican aide who has worked closely on the health care bill said “this probably is not the silver bullet everyone’s been looking for.”
While conservative group Club For Growth came out in support of the amendment Wednesday morning and members of the House Freedom Caucus say they are taking a serious look at the language, there are major questions as to whether the new changes get moderates any closer to supporting House leadership’s bill.
Moderates already had concerns that previous versions did not do enough to protect poorer, sicker and older Americans. Experts warn that the MacArthur amendment could allow insurers to charger those consumers more.
But some Republicans — all of whom were already supporting a previous version of the health care bill — were sounding optimistic Wednesday morning that the amendment was at the very least progress.
“We clearly had a very productive dialogue led by Tom MacArthur and Mark Meadows over the break and you could just sense the movement and the desire to get something done,” said Rep. Tom Cole, an Oklahoma Republican. “We’re not there yet, but we’re awfully close.”
Rep. Mark Walker, the leader of the Republican Study Committee, said that while leadership didn’t put a “concrete timeline” on when a vote on the health care bill would happen he said “I do believe there will be a vote on this by early next week.”
During the GOP conference meeting Wednesday morning, members said that Republican Whip Steve Scalise announced that the whip team would begin counting votes this week to see if the amendment was moving the ball.