House GOP Releases RINOcare Amendments

The Republican leadership of the House of Representatives released an 11th-hour “manager’s amendment” to the American Health Care Act, otherwise known as RINOcare (Repeal In Name Only), their bill to repeal and replace portions of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

The amendment, which was meant to give some concessions to conservatives and Democrats in an effort to earn enough votes for passage, does the following:

• allows states the option of accepting the Medicaid per capita limits, or receiving their funding through block grants that provide more flexibility in spending,
• allows states to invoke minimum work requirements to qualify for Medicaid,
• allows Medicaid costs to be adjusted for inflation when applied to the elderly and disabled and
• moves up the full repeal of Obamacare taxes by one year.

But these amendments fall completely short of providing the wholesale changes many conservatives wanted to see in the bill. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) says he has the votes to get the bill passed in the House, but Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) isn’t so sure.

He tweeted:

They haven’t changed the bill’s general framework. They don’t have the votes to pass it. They have seriously miscalculated.

The conservative opposition to the bill prompted President Donald Trump to visit the House Republican Conference’s weekly meeting Tuesday, where he gave a stern warning to those who planned to vote against the bill. Those meetings are held behind closed doors, but bits and pieces of what the president had to say were leaked to the media.

According to one report, Trump singled out Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, who had supported him in the 2016 election, saying he would “go after him” in the 2018 mid-term elections if he didn’t support the bill. Although Meadows was the only member he singled out, the president made it clear that he would take on anyone who didn’t support the legislation.

“I honestly think that many of you will lose your seats in 2018 if you don’t get this done,” he reportedly told the members of Congress. {eoa}