Even Ryan admits changes coming to health care plan

WASHINGTON — Their health care overhaul imperiled from all sides, the White House and top House Republicans acknowledged Wednesday that they will make changes to the legislation in hopes of nailing down votes and pushing the party’s showpiece legislation through the chamber soon.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., declined to commit to bringing the measure to the House floor next week, a fresh indication of uncertainty. Republican leaders have repeatedly said that was their schedule, but opposition mushroomed after a congressional report concluded this week that the measure would strip 24 million people of coverage in a decade.

Ryan told reporters that GOP leaders could now make “some necessary improvements and refinements” to the legislation, reflecting an urgency to buttress support. The measure would strike down much of former President Barack Obama’s 2010 overhaul and reduce the federal role, including financing, for health care consumers. It is opposed uniformly by Democrats.

“We’re going to arbitrate, we’re all going to get together, we’re going to get something done,” President Donald Trump promised a crowd at a rally in Nashville.

At an all-hands meeting Wednesday evening of House GOP lawmakers, Vice President Mike Pence and party leaders urged their rank-and-file to unite behind the legislation.

“‘It’s our job to get it out of here and get it to the Senate,’” Pence told the Republicans, according to Rep. Dennis Ross, R-Fla. That would let Trump pressure “Democrats in these red states to come on board,” Ross said, referring to Republican-leaning states where Democratic senators face re-election next year.

Health Secretary Tom Price was using phone calls to lobby Republican governors, some of whom oppose the bill’s phaseout of Obama’s expansion of Medicaid.

Amid the maneuvering, a government report said more than 12 million people have signed up for coverage this year under the very statute that Trump and congressional Republicans want to repeal.

The 2017 government signup numbers missed Obama’s target of 13.8 million people. Experts said the figures undercut Republican claims that the health law’s insurance markets are teetering toward collapse.