Conservative Group Targets 10 Republicans on Obamacare

Ten moderate Republican representatives will see ads during their Easter recess this week calling on them to support a “real” repeal of Obamacare.

Lawmakers left Washington last week without a deal to resurrect the American Health Care Act, which House GOP leaders pulled last month after it became clear it did not have enough votes to pass. The conservative group Club for Growth announced Monday it would roll out a $1 million ad buy to promote a compromise plan that would allow states to opt out of many regulations of the Affordable Care Act.

“Conservatives are working to get it done. A big win for American families, and our economy. Tell Congress — support Trump’s plan to get rid of Obamacare.”

Andy Roth, Club for Growth’s vice president of government affairs, said the ad would run nationally on TV beginning Tuesday and in 10 House districts of moderate Republicans on Thursday. He named two of the targeted Republicans — Reps. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) and Chris Collins (R-N.Y.).

“Conservatives are working to get it done,” a narrator says in the national version of he ad. “A big win for American families, and our economy. Tell Congress — support Trump’s plan to get rid of Obamacare.”

Representatives for Kinzinger and Collins did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

[lz_third_party align=center includes=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqAOpw2P3Us&feature=youtu.be”]

David McIntosh, president of the Club for Growth, told reporters on a conference call that Vice President Mike Pence and House Republicans came up with an innovate solution to bridge the gulf between moderates and conservatives. Rather than repeal costly insurance regulations outright, the proposal would allow states opt out of some of them.

“But as you know, there are a few moderates that have worked to thwart these efforts,” McIntosh said. “Our message in this ad is, ‘Come on board. Keep the promise that you and our party has made to finally repeal Obamacare and lower health care insurance costs for Americans across the board.”

The ads that will start running Thursday will be targeted, calling out members of Congress by name. Roth said the group is “specifically calling on them to support the real Obamacare repeal that they compromised on.”

[lz_related_box id=”678467″]

The conservative House Freedom Caucus helped defeat last month’s reform effort by holding out for provisions that would repeal the mandates and regulations that they blame for driving up the cost of health insurance. Without those changes, they argued, the American Health Care Act would not have reduced the rapid escalation in health care costs.

House leaders originally planned to include those changes in a separate bill. It was necessary, they said, because only measures tied to the budget could avoid a filibuster in the Senate. But McIntosh said repeal advocates now are confident that the regulatory changes could avoid a filibuster as well.

“The really smart guys who’ve been working on this bill in the White House and up on the Hill realize by attaching it to some of the spending programs, essentially … it really is a legitimate budget matter,” he said.

To try to overcome the objections of House moderates, negotiators agreed not to touch the most popular regulations of Obamacare — protections for people with pre-existing medical conditions, allowing adults up to age 26 to to covered by their parents’ insurance, and prohibiting insurers from charging women more than men.

But states could get waivers from other regulations, including a requirement that insurance companies offer a list of “essential health benefits” in all plans and restrictions on charging different prices to different customers. Some moderates have balked at the idea, however.

“Collins, Kinzinger and others have publicly expressed their opposition to getting rid of those regulations, so it’s nothing that is secret that we’re proposing here or speculating about,” Roth said.

McIntosh downplayed concerns that the proposal would cause premiums to spike for sicker Americans. He pointed to a proposal endorsed last week by House leaders to reduce the risk for insurance companies covering people with pricey pre-existing conditions.

“The message is gonna be, for 99.9 percent of the people, your premiums are very likely to go down,” he said. “And that’s what needs to get through.”