Conservative senators are considering significant changes to Medicaid out of concern that the American Health Care Act cannot pass the Senate without alterations, The Washington Post reports.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., appointed a group of conservative senators to ameliorate the potential loss of coverage for those under Medicare in the AHCA, which phases out much of former President Barack Obama's expansion of the program.
"Our own strategy, rather than relying on what the House did, is to look at this with fresh eyes and think, 'How do you ensure these people can continue to get coverage,'" Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, told PBS Newshour.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told reporters Tuesday that the GOP agreed that governors need "the flexibility to design Medicaid programs to meet the needs of their populations," though he did not say that would be in the final bill.
"The compromise that was reached in the House allowing states to opt out of the [insurance] mandates — I think that was a good compromise, but I think more improvement is going to be needed in the Senate," Cruz said on Larry Kudlow's radio show Saturday, according to The Post.