WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans began pushing their prized health care bill through the House Thursday, as the GOP sought a victory for President Donald Trump six weeks after nearly leaving the measure for dead and days after support from GOP moderates seemed to crumble anew.
A wafer-thin margin seemed likely, thanks to opposition expected from every Democrat and more than a dozen Republicans plus lobbying against the bill by the AARP seniors organization, doctors, hospitals and patients’ groups.
Since it collapsed in March, the measure was revamped to attract most hard-line conservatives and some GOP centrists. In a final tweak, leaders were adding a modest pool of money to help people with pre-existing medical conditions afford coverage, a concern that caused a near-fatal rebellion among Republicans in recent days.
The Republican drive was aimed at erasing much of President Barack Obama’s health care law. GOP candidates including Trump have made repealing that statute an epitome of their campaign pledges since its enactment in 2010, claiming it’s a failing system that’s leaving people with rising health care costs and less access to care.
“It’s time to live or die by this day,” GOP leaders told the rank and file at an early morning, closed-door meeting to rally support, said Rep. Dennis Ross, R-Fla.
Democrats defended Obama’s law, one of his crowning domestic achievements, for expanding coverage to 20 million Americans and forcing insurers to offer more generous benefits. They said the GOP measure would toss millions off coverage while delivering tax cuts to the wealthy.
“How can you do this to the American people, how can you do this to the people you represent?” asked Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass.
The bitter health care battle dominated the Capitol even as Congress prepared to give final approval to a bipartisan $1 trillion measure financing federal agencies through September.
The House passed that legislation Wednesday 309-118, and Senate passage seemed certain as early as Thursday. That would head off a weekend federal shutdown that both parties preferred to avoid —especially Republicans controlling the White House and Congress.
The health care vote was scheduled after the White House and congressional leaders barraged rank-and-file holdouts with pressure in recent days and claimed they had the votes to prevail.
Just Tuesday, The Associated Press had counted 21 Republicans saying they would oppose the bill — one short of the 22 defections that would kill it if all Democrats voted no. Many others were undecided.
House passage would send the measure to an uncertain fate in the Senate, where some Republicans consider the House measure too harsh. Polls have shown Obama’s much-maligned law has actually gained in popularity as the debate over a replacement health care program has accelerated.