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The Freedom Caucus: What Kind of Healthcare Would They Support?

J. Scott Applewhite
/
AP

 

Congress is back in session today following a two-week break. It was right before they left that lawmakers failed to pass a repeal-and-replace bill on healthcare. Three Virginia Republicans are members of the far-right leaning House Freedom Caucus, who opposed that bill. Now that President Trump looks likely to bring healthcare back up, Matt Laslo caught up with Virginia’s Republicans to ask them what kind of legislation they could support.

 

Members of the tea party-tinged Freedom Caucus have been a perennial thorn in the sides of Republican leaders. They have enough votes to block legislation and when it came to health care reform they used that leverage. They demanded a full repeal, like the ones Republicans sent time and again to President Obama.

Virginia Republican Tom Garrett, who represents much of central Virginia, says that’s what he still wants.

"We’ve got a bill, it mirrors a bill that every single Republican has already voted for that was here in 2015, that’s HR1436, why was it okay to vote for that then but not now?” he asks.

Garrett says now that there’s no threat of a veto, his fellow Republicans are just trying to get political cover. 

“It’s a different occupant of the White House," Garrett says. "So it was a theoretical impossibility when it was President Obama. Again, that’s the political equivalent of standing behind the big guy on the playground screaming 'You’re lucky he’s holding me back.' Now we have a president who would sign it. Let’s bring it to the floor.”

Conservatives like Garrett fear the moderate wing of the GOP is trying to maintain large parts of Obamacare, like the Medicaid expansion that lawmakers in Richmond rejected. Virginia Republican Dave Brat says all parts of the Affordable Care Act have got to go. 

“And so central government, top down government control especially at the federal level does not work. We’ve seen that,” says Brat.

So is there any bill that Brat and the others can support? Or are they merely going to say “no” on anything short of an outright repeal? 

Brat says he could get behind legislation that will drive costs down.  

“I want our leadership to make the case. That was the whole premise behind this, right? Paul Ryan said for the umpteenth time, we’re going to amend the cost curve down," Bray says. "If this bill amends the cost curve down, I’m a yes vote.” 

But Virginia Republican Morgan Griffith, of southwest Virginia, supported the failed reform bill. He says it wasn’t just about tearing down the system — it was the first step of a number of reforms.  

“I was disappointed that it did not pass. Wasn’t a great bill, wasn’t even the best of bills that you could see," Griffith says. "But it was a first step in eliminating the problems with our health insurance industry and trying to bring down costs.”

After the bill was scuttled President Trump took to Twitter and threatened conservatives who blocked his top legislative priority, saying he’d back their primary opponents. There was even talk of working across the aisle with Democrats to craft a broader reform bill. 

Griffith says he still has hopes Republicans can come together and hammer out a compromise with members of their own party.

“Oh that’s yet to be seen but I don’t think you’ll see the president going to get Democrat support if we can get a bill passed in some measure similar to what we were doing where we repeal and begin replacement." 

Griffith says too many in his party were searching for the perfect bill instead of taking it one step at a time. 

"Was it the final step? No. So you know you have some folks who want it to be perfect, it’s not going to be that way. And we had people on both the left and the right of our party, and when I say that I’m not saying that those folks are liberals but you had both of those that dropped off because they wanted something different,” says Griffith.

Now the president is pressuring Republicans to pass a repeal and replace bill soon – but there still doesn’t seem to be consensus between moderates and conservatives. 

And with the federal government set to run out of funding on Friday unless lawmakers act, it doesn’t seem like health care reform will get much attention this week. 

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