Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), who upended the prospects for Zombie Trumpcare Tuesday when he announced his opposition, has apparently bowed under pressure from leadership and has come up with yet another amendment. The idea? A little bit more money for subsidizing people who've been priced out because of pre-existing conditions or let their insurance lapse. Despite the fact that just yesterday, Upton told reporter Scott Wong from The Hill that more money "does not do the trick."
He would be right, considering the amount is just $8 billion, a compromise amount. Freedom Caucus guy Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) offered Upton and other holdout Rep. Billy Long (R-MO) $5 billion extra to the $130 billion in the stability fund and high-risk pool funding. The Tuesday Group, a bunch of "moderates" who've been holding out, countered at $15 billion. So the compromise is now $8 billion. The status of the amendment and agreement to it remains unclear.
Upton and other lawmakers are meeting with President Donald Trump Wednesday at the White House to discuss the bill, a senior White House official said. Republicans conservatives and moderates have been at odds over the bill, but a second official said that "all parties signed off on" the amendment. It's not clear, though, if that's the case. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the sensitive talks publicly.
Upton says it is "not quite a done deed yet, but it addresses many of my concerns." Even though, less than 24 hours ago it wouldn't have addressed his concerns. It shouldn't because we're talking about $138 billion for 5 years of funding. It's just an extra $8 billion to cover just 76,000 more enrollees, when there are 52 million people with pre-existing conditions. Larry Levitt—a real health policy expert—does the math on this.
House Republicans are hell-bent on ripping away our health insurance. Call your member of Congress at 202-224-3121, and demand they vote NO on a renewed Trumpcare that is worse than the one before. Remind them they work for you.
Oh, and as yet another health policy wonk points out, this is rewarding people Republicans usually revile—the free riders. It "weakens the incentive for the modestly sick to stay in if they have reason to believe that they are going to have a low cost year, they can drop coverage and then get back in at the next open enrollment." And this takes us back to something else that's a big problem here, the lack of Congressional Budget Office score. The CBO said the original bill would create that incentive for people, and now that'll be even bigger. That means more people losing insurance, even if it's some by choice.
And by the way, there is no CBO score and there won't be if they vote on this in the next few days. This is still bullshit. This doesn't not help the people with pre-existing conditions the so-called moderates have said they're most worried about. It still screws New York and California. The folks back home are not going to be mollified by this. That's the message Republicans need to hear.