A proposal created to spur the House GOP health overhaul to passage won praise from conservatives Wednesday and a heavy rebuke from Democrats, who said it made a bad bill worse and would insulate members of Congress from its effects. But an influential GOP House moderate is opposing the proposal, leaving party leaders to assess whether the idea could help one of President Donald Trump's premier but most problematic priorities spring back to life. "On top of all that, House Republicans have chosen to exclude themselves from the plan they want to impose on all Americans".
With Trump's 100th day in office coming Saturday, a White House looking for achievements has pressured GOP leaders to try pushing health care legislation through the House this week. "What we see is progress being made, showing that we're moving and getting on the same page".
White House officials and several Republican lawmakers claimed Tuesday they were nearing a deal on health-care legislation with the House Freedom Caucus, with at least three leading figures in the hard-line group ready to support an overhaul after the dramatic collapse of talks last month.
The entire House Freedom Caucus is set to meet later Wednesday to discuss the overall proposal.
Today, Freedom Caucus' chairman, Mark Meadows of North Carolina, had a meeting at the White House, and told reporters afterward, "There is a lot of optimism".
The House Freedom Caucus is prepared to approve a replacement for Obamacare if the new law includes the MacArthur Amendment, which would allow individual states to waive some Obamacare provisions.
Rep. Warren Davison, Ohio Republican and member of the Freedom Caucus, said the MacArthur changes and an amendment by Rep. Gary Palmer, Alabama Republican, that freed up $15 billion for high-risk pools flipped him from "no" to "yes" on the GOP health bill.
The language was crafted jointly in recent days by Rep. Tom MacArthur, R-N.J., the co-chairman of the moderate Tuesday Group, and Meadows, who heads the Freedom Caucus, with White House officials involved in those conversations, the officials said.
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The North recently celebrated the 105th anniversary of the birth of North Korean founder Kim Il Sung. Kang said none of her sources inside North Korea had reported a significant rise in fuel prices.
"I would not be the most shocked person in the building if we voted it this week out of the House", Franks said.
Republicans close to House GOP leaders said Tuesday that they remain skeptical of how much support would be behind any new legislation, and said House leaders are not driving the discussions with the Freedom Caucus.
But another moderate leader Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa., said the changes ignored his concerns that the health care bill would cut too deeply into the Medicaid program for the poor and leave many people unable to afford coverage. They also say high-risk pools have a history of being underfunded.
"Same concerns, and this didn't really address them", said Dent.
The carrot for conservatives is the opportunity for states to apply for waivers from some of the ACA's mandates, including its requirement for insurers to cover essential health benefits and its ban on swelling premiums for people with preexisting health conditions.
Critics say allowing insurers to boost premiums on the ill means insurers can charge them exorbitant premiums, effectively making such coverage unaffordable.
West Virginia Republican Sen. Sixty-one percent said Obama's law should be retained and fixed, with just 37 percent favoring repeal.
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