Seven million veterans would become ineligible for a tax credit thanks to a "technical change" if the American Health Care Act is enacted as is, according to conservative health care analyst Chris Jacobs.
The change would affect veterans who are eligible to receive Veterans Administration health care but are not enrolled in it. Republicans said they are eligible now, thanks to a regulation, and would not be shut out, according to Axios.
The Senate refused to allow Republicans to put that regulation into the Obamacare replacement bill because it might go against the rules of reconciliation that the House is using. Republicans said they would attempt to pass the regulation as a separate law, the Axios report said.
Jacobs questioned what other issues could be in the bill.
"Who will find them — and when? What if they aren't found until after the measure's enactment, and then can't be fixed legislatively? Lawmakers should think long and hard about these unintended consequences before they vote to assume responsibility for them for a long time to come," he wrote.
He said it's possible that the lawmakers did not mean to make the change. He said it could have been caused by "harried, sleep-deprived congressional staff rushing to complete work on the bill."
Passing the health care bill is an "all-hands-on-deck situation," a senior aide in the House GOP said, according to CNN.