House GOP leadership on Friday pulled a bill to repeal Obamacare from the House floor, after President Trump asked House Speaker Paul Ryan to end work on the doomed measure.
The decision to pull the American Health Care Act off the House floor was a concession that they don’t have the votes for the controversial bill. Recent changes outlined on Thursday night and an ultimatum from Trump weren’t enough to sway wary moderates and far-right conservatives to support the package.
The White House confirmed the decision to pull the bill, which occurred just before House Republicans recessed the House to hold a meeting among all Republican lawmakers. A GOP leadership aide said Republicans were meeting in the Capitol basement to talk about the status of the bill.
The White House on Thursday agreed to changes to woo Freedom Caucus support, including adding an amendment to the bill that repeals the federal requirement for insurers to cover essential health benefits. The amendment would require states to outline the benefits.
The bill also added $15 billion for mental health and substance abuse treatment options to a $100 billion stability fund states can use.
But the changes weren’t enough to persuade some reluctant moderates who are worried about people in their districts losing coverage and making themselves open to attacks from Democrats in 2018.
Rep. Leonard Lance, R-N.J., a moderate, said that he was still no on the bill after a procedural vote on Friday.
What doomed the bill was what Republicans couldn’t include in there: a full repeal of Obamacare. Republicans planned to use an arcane procedure called reconciliation to get the bill through the Senate with simply 51 votes and not the 60 needed for a filibuster.
But to use reconciliation, a bill must decrease the deficit and address spending and budgetary levels.
That meant that Republicans couldn’t fully repeal Obamacare’s insurance regulations, which included the essential health benefits and other regulations on what plans insurers could offer. The decision infuriated the Freedom Caucus, which has said that they campaigned on full repeal.
Republican leadership and the Trump administration countered that such changes can be accomplished through the second and third phases of their healthcare effort. The second phase is to address changes via regulations in the Trump administration and the third phase was additional legislation that needed 60 votes to pass in the Senate.
It remains unclear where Republicans go from here on healthcare.
Rep. Mark Walker, R-N.C., said that there is no Plan B for Republicans on healthcare if the vote fails.
“This has been all in,” he said.
A GOP leadership aide also didn’t say what was going to be next if the bill fails, noting that leadership always tried to put together the most conservative bill possible that could pass both chambers.
Democrats, for their part, say the ball is in Republicans’ court on what to do next.
“We will see where the Republicans want to go. They are in control of everything,” said Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., told the Washington Examiner. “If they want to fix and repair the ACA then we have always said we are willing to sit down.”
Susan Ferrechio contributed to this story.
