Page 3 - Upton Amendment News Today

It would stop medicaid expansion and require those who are able-bodied to work. it would include refundable tax credits for those who dont receive insurance from their employers. it would expand health savings accounts designed to give consumers greater choice and flexibility in buying coverage and it would defund planned parenthood for one year, blocking more than 500 million federal dollars. >> our bill rescues families by focusing on lower premiums and putting people back in charge of their h...

Sufficient. sean spicer when he was asked about this at the white house yesterday said well, i dont know how you could possibly trust a projection that all these peoples premium will go up because theres no way to project whats going to happen. we didnt know enough specifics about the bill. if thats the case its hard to make the case to the public and to members who may be on the fence how their constitch wepts will be affected by this, will they pay a political price for supporting it that no, ...

Its 160 plus pages. yes, many people can read that very easily and have read it over the last month and a half. this amendment that came out at 8:00 last night is nowhere near 100 pages. i would say nowhere near ten pages. it can be easy read, easily debated. what were talking about now is finding a solution that is going to aress the 60 million people in the country thattill dont have coverage or cant afford to use the coverage they have. that is what we are doing today. >> there are several ne...

Bill. why not wait until there is a score before there is an analysis and you have a better idea of what this bill might actually accomplish? >> well, look, this bill has been debated two years ago. now its been changed by a number of amendments. the amendments are the only things were talking about. the amendments actually make it a little better. in my mind they help those that are going to need the safety net which i think is important. so again, i think what we need to do is this is process,...

All know, prevention is much cheaper than treating chronic diseases. so in this discussion, i could echo what all the analyses have said. the premiums are going to go up, the access is going to go down, there is a limitation that this is a drop in the bucket of what the cost burden is going to be. but i think the larger discussion not being addressed here are all the other things that were not doing to make a dent in the health care costs in this country. prescription drug kocoverage, a the laye...

>> reporter: thats absolutely right. of course, some people could still be making up their mind, but we saw really that flood yesterday after that upton amendment was added. a lot of no votes shifting to yes. that certainly was the intention behind that amendment. and a lot of members here saying that thats something that helped them get over the finish line. so, certainly coming out of this meeting today a sense that this is going the right direction for republican leadership. i should note tha...

Is this the repeal that conservatives were looking for? >> i dont think it is. i think it is a compromise bill, and today we have seen this upton amendment that would add $8 billion toward the high risk pool which would fund people with pre-existing conditions in states that choose, or that request a waiver. this is a compromise that moderate republicans go to make it more paletteable. if it passes the house it will be a lot different before it becomes law. >> it is kind of like obama care, is i...

>> now i have to say to my friends on the other side, you sold out cheap, as we say in new jersey. all to give a tax cut to insurance companies and the most well off. the upton amendment is, of course, it admission. after seven years, you came up with this? youve got to be kidding me! >> house republican leaders say they expect to have the votes to pass it, soon up to the members of congress to act on it. >> jon: that voting starts when, any minute now? >> i saw the speaker had for the floor so ...

One of the people critical of the fast vote on obamacare was your speaker, paul ryan. who said you have to give people a chance to look at it. 8:00 last night, to a vote less than 24 hours later, is that the way you think republicans and democrats should be serving their constituents? >> well, theres a big difference between what happened before i got here when the affordable care act passed with 2700 -- >> 8:00 last night. theres a vote less than 24 hours later. without people having a chance -...

Bill. >> have you given them time to read the bill? >> well, sure. our bill has been out there for over a month. theyre very small amendments. when you look at pre-existing conditions, those folks are covered. they will continue to be covered. and again, this is an exaggeration that is not based on any reality that im living in. first of all, anyone who has insuranceill continue to have insurance. >> cgressman -- >> so those who may have a pre-existing condition under obamacare continue to have ...