canadafreepress.com By Dan Calabrese 3/24/2017
Republicans have pushed the GOP health care overhaul past an initial procedural hurdle in the House.
Friday’s procedural vote was 230-194. That moves the chamber toward a climactic final vote that’s a big gamble for President Donald Trump and congressional leaders.
The early vote inserted changes into the measure that leaders hoped would win over unhappy Republicans. It would improve Medicaid benefits for some older and handicapped people and abolish coverage requirements President Barack Obama’s 2010 law imposes on insurers.
If they’re talking about the “Essential Health Benefits” that the House Freedom Caucus has been demanding be repealed, they’ve either decided this will fly under reconciliation in the Senate or they’ve just decided to get something passed in the House with the understanding the Senate’s going to change it anyway and the whole thing will end up in conference committee.
That was always going to happen anyway so I don’t really see the point of the HFC being so obstinate. Nothing can go anywhere if the House doesn’t pass some kind of bill. Some of them like to preen for their base and show everyone what heroes they are because they “stood up for conservative principles” or whatever, but the fact of the matter remains that if no bill ever even gets to the Senate because they won’t support it, then they’re the ones who saved ObamaCare.
My guess is that this amendment is Ryan’s move to get enough HFC members on board that he can get some sort of bill through the House and over to the Senate, which will then rip it to pieces and craft its own. But that was always going to happen, notwithstanding Mitch McConnell’s initial (and weird) insistence that he would take the House bill and send it straight to the Senate floor for an up or down vote.
More:
http://canadafreepress.com/article/house-republicans-approve-changes-in-advance-of-ahca-vote-later-today
