Trump says Republicans uniting on health care, but resistance remains
US President Donald Trump said Friday he has won over several Republican lawmakers skeptical of the Obamacare replacement and insisted the health care overhaul was "coming together beautifully," despite resistance from some in his party.
"We have a plan that's getting more and more popular with the Republican base," Trump said at a joint press conference with visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Earlier the president met with a dozen members of the conservative Republican Study Committee, which has gone on record saying they want important changes to what is being called the American Health Care Act. Trump said he won them over.
"These folks were no's, mostly no's yesterday. And now every single one is a yes" on the legislation, Trump said.
"They all have given me a commitment that they're voting for our health plan."
The House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on the bill, which Trump said he backs "100 percent," on Thursday, in what may be the most important congressional vote yet in the Trump era.
Keenly aware of the importance of the vote, Trump portrayed himself as a leader bridging divides between factions.
"I think I have a unified party," Trump stressed.
But several Republicans who were not at the White House huddle have voiced either outright opposition or deep reservations, putting the outcome of the vote in doubt.
The House Freedom Caucus, comprised of 30 far-right Republicans, threw cold water on Trump's pronouncements.
"The House Freedom Caucus still opposes the GOP replacement bill in its current form," the group tweeted.
- Obamacare Lite? -
Some conservatives have said the Republican plan is too similar to Obamacare in that it replaces the 2010 law's health coverage subsidies with tax credits that fulfill a similar role.
They also call for changes to the provision that rolls back the expansion of Medicaid, the health coverage program for the poor and the disabled.
Republican Study Committee chairman Mark Walker, who attended Friday's meeting with Trump, has said his group's 170 members support instituting work requirements for able-bodied, childless adults on Medicaid.
Some conservatives also want to see the Medicaid expansion ended after 2017, not 2020 as required in the bill.
Moderate Republicans are nervous that the plan would cause struggling families to suffer, a prospect highlighted this week by a damning congressional projection that 24 million people could lose insurance within a decade under the new bill.
Trump signaled that he and the Republicans in the meeting agreed to having the legislation "rejiggered."
"It's coming together beautifully," he said.
Trump is reportedly considering a change that would make the tax credits more generous for low-income people, especially adults between ages 50 and 64, and adding a Medicaid work requirement.
The key question is whether the changes will convince enough Republicans to toe the line and help pass the bill in the House, where the party can afford no more than 21 defections if all Democrats vote no, as expected.
House Republican Justin Amash was having none of Trump's strong-arm tactics.
"Absolutely not true that conservatives have flipped to yes on the health care bill," Amash wrote on Twitter. "It doesn't repeal Obamacare. It remains a disaster."
Twenty-three Republicans including Amash have gone on record either opposing the bill or leaning against it, according to a CNN tally. None on that list was in the White House meeting.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, one of the bill's architects and chief champions, refused to say this week whether the bill could pass his chamber without changes.
On Thursday he acknowledged the legislation would need "improvements," but it remained unclear just how or when the changes would be made before Thursday's vote.
The overhaul is also encountering resistance from some Republicans in the Senate, where the party holds a slim 52-48 majority. If three Republicans vote no, along with expected full Democratic opposition, the bill would fail.