Republican leaders in the House are beginning to sell their Obamacare replacement bill to members of the GOP who are not necessarily on board with what is known as the American Health Care Act.
The GOP made its bill public Monday and many lawmakers in the party support it. But others, such as Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, think it is a lighter version of the current Affordable Care Act and have vowed not to support it in its current form.
"Keep the Cadillac tax in place? Keep Medicaid in place until 2020?" Jordan, one of the co-founders of the House Freedom Caucus, told The Washington Post. "We didn't have Medicaid expansion in the bill we sent to President Obama, but we have it in the one we send to President Trump? That makes no sense to me."
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., aired his thoughts about the bill Tuesday morning on Twitter:
Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, on the other hand, appeared on CNN on Tuesday morning and stepped in to defend the bill. The proposal, he said, is all about giving Americans choices.
"We're getting rid of the individual mandate; we're getting rid of those things that people said that they don't want," Chaffetz said. "Americans have choices, and they have got to make a choice. So, maybe rather than getting that iPhone they just love, that they want to go spend hundreds of dollars on, maybe they should invest in their own healthcare. They've got to make those decisions themselves."
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said on the Senate floor Tuesday his chamber will take up the House's Obamacare replacement bill.
"I encourage every member to review it, because I hope to call it up when we receive it from the House," McConnell said, per The Hill.
Republican lawmakers are expected to meet with President Donald Trump at the White House on Tuesday to discuss the healthcare bill. The president tweeted his support of it in the morning:
The results of a new poll, meanwhile, show Americans are divided as to whether they support the individual mandate — in other words, forcing Americans to have healthcare coverage or pay a fine. Fifty percent of Americans are in favor of keeping the individual mandate, with 48 percent wanting to see it go away.
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