Trump Said to Make Final Offer to GOP Holdouts on Health Bill

For now markets are calm and trading in narrow range even after the news that the vote has been postponed, if the bill is passed, this may be a positive news for the markets.

The Trump administration made what it called a final offer to the House Freedom Caucus in a bid to bring conservatives on board with Republicans’ embattled health-care bill, according to a senior White House official.

The Freedom Caucus hasn’t responded yet to the offer made at a White House meeting with President Donald Trump. The official said the proposal includes repealing the so-called essential benefits requirements in Obamacare for the individual market only, not for employer-based plans.

The Freedom Caucus called a meeting Thursday to discuss the offer.

Negotiations over the GOP Obamacare repeal measure dragged late into Wednesday night, and Republicans postponed until Thursday a key procedural step before the bill gets to the floor.

Holdouts in the House Freedom Caucus also pushed for changes in Obamacare’s requirements that insurers cover people with pre-existing conditions, but the White House gave them a hard no, according to a White House official. Mark Meadows of North Carolina, who chairs the House Freedom Caucus, disputed that. “Addressing pre-existing conditions has always been a requirement for any replacement plan that HFC would support,” he said late Wednesday.

Meadows said earlier Thursday that there was no deal yet with the White House, and that it was too early to tell if one would be reached. House Republicans leaders delayed a conference meeting scheduled for Thursday morning.

“We know the areas that have to be addressed and are still working to find consensus,” Meadows said Thursday morning in an email. “We do not have a deal, but remain optimistic that all parties are working in good faith for the benefit of the people we serve. It would be premature to suggest that there are enough votes to get it passed in the House.”

Last Procedural Step

The House Rules Committee, which will make final changes to the bill before it gets a floor vote, postponed a session that lasted for more than 12 hours on Wednesday as the talks with the conservatives dragged on. The committee plans to reconvene Thursday, finalize changes to the bill and set the rules for how it will be debated in the full House. President Donald Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan have been working to win over conservative rebels who stand in the way of their Obamacare replacement measure. Early Thursday, Meadows said there are signs of movement.

Losing Moderates?

Yet as Trump and Ryan pick up conservative members with some of the potential changes, they risk losing moderates.

Republican Representative Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania, leader of the moderate Tuesday Group in the House, reiterated Thursday morning that he would oppose the bill.

"I just feel this bill misses the mark,” Dent told MSNBC in an interview. Dent issued a statement Wednesday saying he believes the bill “will lead to the loss of coverage and make insurance unaffordable for too many Americans, particularly for low-to-moderate income and older individuals.” Republican Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington also came out Thursday against the bill. The list of GOP defections also includes Staten Island’s Dan Donovan, as well as southern New Jersey’s Frank LoBiondo, Iowa’s David Young and Florida’s Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, none of whom are members of the Freedom Caucus Meadows and other conservative Freedom Caucus members have been demanding changes to the essential benefits portion of the Affordable Care Act, which requires insurers to cover 10 categories of services. Those services include hospitalization, ambulance services, maternity care, pediatric services, mental health and substance abuse treatment, prescription drugs, rehabilitative care and laboratory services. The goal of limiting the required essential health benefits would be to bring down health insurance premiums. Freedom Caucus founder Representative Jim Jordan, the Ohio Republican, told Fox News Thursday that members haven’t been shown any amendments or agreements in writing yet. “We want to see the language first”, and make sure “it does what needs to be done.”

Senate Rules

It’s unclear whether changes to these requirements could survive procedural challenges in the Senate. "What the proponents aren’t telling conservative House Republicans is that the plan to repeal essential health benefits will almost certainly not be permissible under Senate reconciliation rules,” Matt House, a spokesman for Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, said in a statement late Wednesday. “It will require 60 votes to repeal these protections, and the votes just aren’t there in the Senate.”

Earlier Wednesday, Alyssa Farah, a spokeswoman for the Freedom Caucus, wrote on Twitter that more than 25 members of the group remain opposed -- enough to defeat the bill -- and that GOP leaders should “start over.” Trump met with nearly a dozen Republican lawmakers Wednesday morning who still have concerns about the legislation. Separately, about 26 Republicans met with senior White House officials, including Vice President Mike Pence.

‘To the Closer’

“We’re bringing them to the closer,” Representative Patrick McHenry, a senior member of the House GOP vote-counting team, told reporters at the White House, referring to Trump White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer noted that at least two lawmakers who had expressed reservations as recently as Tuesday are now backing the bill. “I think the trajectory is going very well for us,” he told reporters. “This is the only way that we will repeal and replace Obamacare.” But the Freedom Caucus has said that the current bill is not a complete enough repeal of the health-care law. The floor vote scheduled for Thursday could be the first sign of whether the caucus will be able to enforce its conservative principles in the age of Trump. “How can you talk about repealing the ACA, Obamacare, without repealing the essential benefits and the guaranteed issue?" Representative Scott Perry of Pennsylvania said, referring to the required benefit packages under the Affordable Care Act and the law’s preexisting condition rules. Freedom Caucus members said White House officials made the pitch that conservatives should pass the bill so that the Senate can amend it and address their concerns, but several lawmakers said they weren’t buying it. “Pence made a play for more support for the bill based on the Senate being able to change it,” Representative Randy Weber said in an interview, adding that he’s still a no. “That’s a hard row to hoe.”“Because we’d like for it to be as strong as possible going over to the Senate,” he added.

Do It Now

Weber said many Republicans were elected to Congress because of Obamacare, and said they can’t wait years for costs to come down. “In 10 years none of us will be here," he said. "Probably at this rate, in two years none of us will be here.” If the Freedom Caucus is unable to win major changes -- or block the measure -- it could mark a double victory for Ryan by diminishing the influence of a group that led the ouster of his predecessor, John Boehner. Indeed, a Republican aide said that House leaders see the prospect of damaging the clout of the Freedom Caucus as a satisfying byproduct of passing the health-care measure.

Last Holdouts

So far, about a dozen members of the Freedom Caucus have come around to embrace the bill. The group claims to have roughly 40 members, but doesn’t publish an official roster. Whether any of the Freedom Caucus’s remaining holdouts will drop their opposition to the health-care measure before Thursday’s vote will determine the outcome. Those holdouts are being cheered on by several Senate conservatives, including Rand Paul of Kentucky and Mike Lee of Utah. Meadows was singled out as a holdout by Trump during a closed-door meeting with House Republicans Tuesday morning. Representative Richard Hudson, a Republican from North Carolina, said the Freedom Caucus will damage itself if it ends up blocking the measure, though he predicts most members eventually will come on board.

“How can they go back and face their constituents if they’re the reason we didn’t get the most significant entitlement reform in a generation, if they’re the reason we didn’t keep our promise of repealing Obamacare,” Hudson said.

“It defies me to understand where they’re coming from.”

For now there is no agreement and the health bill continue to be changed, so that all parties are satisfied, but it will be difficult for the changes to be passed if they are worst for the people than before.  Possibly the insurers have big lobbies that are also working behind the scenes and playing a part of the negotiations.

Source: Bloomberg

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