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Michigan Republican deals a fresh blow to GOP health care bill

5 min read
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WASHINGTON – A respected moderate Republican lawmaker dealt a significant blow Tuesday to the languishing GOP health care bill by coming out against it. The White House and House leaders sought holdouts’ support in hopes of pushing the measure through the chamber this week, but remained short of votes.

The latest opponent was Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., who until this year chaired the House Energy and Commerce Committee and is considered a leader on health issues. He said the measure would undermine insurance protections the current law gives people with pre-existing illnesses, which legislation supporters disputed.

The issue even seeped into popular culture after late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel delivered an emotional 13-minute monologue Monday describing the recent birth of his son, who had heart disease that required immediate surgery that proved successful. Kimmel said before Obama’s law took effect, many such infants could die because they’d be uninsured due to their pre-existing conditions.

“If your baby is going to die and it doesn’t have to, it shouldn’t matter how much money you make,” Kimmel said in comments viewed online by more than three million people. “We need to make sure that the people who are supposed to represent us, people who are meeting about this right now in Washington, understand that very clearly.”

The bill is a top priority for President Donald Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., since it embodies a long-standing GOP pledge to annul much of former President Barack Obama’s health care law. They’d like to resurrect a revised version of the measure that collapsed in March and send it to the Senate before a weeklong House recess starting this weekend, when it might further lose momentum.

Upton’s defection is important because at a moment when every vote counts, opposition by the 16-term House veteran could make it easier for other unhappy moderates to vote no. Despite White House prodding, House leaders have said a vote will occur only once they can succeed.

Upton told the Associated Press the bill’s treatment of people with pre-existing illnesses “does not fit” with comments Trump made in an interview last weekend. The president said “Pre-existing conditions are in the bill.”

“Can there be a fix? Maybe, but it is not part of the equation before us,” Upton said.

Upton pointedly noted the bill’s language on pre-existing conditions was backed by the House Freedom Caucus, whose deeply conservative members mostly support the legislation.

In a radio interview earlier on “WHTC Morning News” in Holland, Mich., Upton made similar remarks and said “a good number of us have raised real red flag concerns” with leaders.

Trump referenced the health care measure during a White House ceremony honoring the U.S. Air Force’s football team, asking lawmakers how the bill was faring.

“I think it’s time now, right?” he said. “They know it’s time.”

A senior Trump adviser said the White House counts them five votes short on the bill, which he said could drop to zero or grow to 15. The official signaled the White House would blame GOP leaders for falling short, saying “Let’s see if the hill can deliver.”

Ryan said leaders are “making very good progress,” but other Republicans voiced pessimism.

Rep. Chris Collins, R-N.Y., a Trump ally who supports the legislation, said GOP lawmakers were worrying Democrats could use the pre-existing condition issue for damaging if inaccurate attack ads in next year’s congressional elections.

“In the last 24 hours, things have moved in the negative direction,” Collins said of the bill’s support.

Kimmel’s remarks prompted Obama to take to Twitter.

“Well said, Jimmy. That’s exactly why we fought so hard for the ACA,” he wrote, referencing his Affordable Care Act.

The legislation would lose if 22 Republicans vote no, assuming all Democrats oppose it.

Since last week, 21 Republicans have said they’re against the legislation, according to an Associated Press count. At least 11 others said they are undecided. Those numbers can change with lobbying by the White House, House leaders and industry groups.

Under Obama’s 2010 law, insurers may not charge seriously ill customers more than healthy ones. The revised GOP bill bars insurers from limiting access to coverage for people with pre-existing conditions.

But states can obtain federal waivers letting insurers raise premiums on people with pre-existing illnesses if the person let their coverage lapse the previous year. The state must also have a high-risk pool or another mechanism to help such people afford a policy.

The bill’s supporters say it protects those with pre-existing conditions and the exclusion would affect only some of them.

Opponents say it diminishes their protections by letting insurers charge unaffordable prices. They say high-risk pools have a mixed record because government money financing them often proves inadequate.

The bill would let states get waivers to Obama’s requirement that insurers cover specified services like preventive care and would let them make premiums on older people more than five times higher than for younger ones.

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