Key GOPer says no to O’Care repeal bill

House Republican leaders frantically trying to convince moderate GOP holdouts to get behind the bill to repeal and replace ObamaCare suffered a severe setback Tuesday when Rep. Fred Upton said he can’t support the new measure because it doesn’t cover pre-existing conditions.

“Can there be a fix? Maybe, but it is not part of the equation before us,” said Upton (R-Mich.), a respected 16-term moderate who worked on previous bills to repeal ObamaCare.

His defection brought to 21 the number of Republican “no” votes. One more and the bill is doomed.

Fearing that Republicans’ window of opportunity will have passed if the bill fails to reach a floor vote by Thursday, Vice President Mike Pence and Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price were conducting private meetings with members to address individual concerns.

“Some members are wanting more. Some are just trying to figure out the implications of the legislation for their district. It’s really caseby-case,” an aide to the GOP leadership told The Post.

“The problem is that for a lot of our moderates, this isn’t an easy vote. They might think it’s good policy but it’s easy to turn into a political ad if anything goes wrong,” the aide said.

In addition to the 21 members who have said they would vote against the bill, another 16 Republicans remain undecided. Among them are Rep. Adam Kinzinger (Ill.), a former cochair of the moderate Tuesday Group and Trump critic, and Rep. Steve King (Iowa), who has changed his position on the bill more than once.

One member of the whip team that is trying to win support for the bill said Tuesday that opposition to the legislation is “probably stronger now than it was the first time around.”