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Republicans Make Some Big Changes To Their Health Care Bill

Some of those changes include additional tax support for older Americans and further restriction of the federal Medicaid program.

By: Katherine Biek

Posted at 1:08 PM, Mar 21, 2017

and last updated 2017-03-21 13:08:51-04

With just a couple days until the House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on the Republican health care bill, they're proposing some changes.

House Speaker Paul Ryan shared the amendments, and they make some changes to how the law affects tax credits and Medicaid

The American Health Care Act includes age-based tax credits to help pay for insurance. The new amendment allows the Senate to increase tax credits for older Americans — something that opponents criticized in the original bill.

Other changes include moving up the expiration of Obamacare taxes to 2017 and allowing states to enforce more restrictions on Medicaid.

Medicaid is currently funded at the federal level and is tied to how much a state spends on it. Under the new legislation, states could decide to receive their federal funding in a block grant; this means the state would receive a set level of funding no matter how many participants are signed up for Medicaid.

The revisions would also prohibit states from expanding Medicaid and would give them the option of requiring Medicaid recipients to work if they're able to.

One piece of good news for Speaker Ryan is that the House Freedom Caucus won't formally oppose the bill, making it easier for some of its members to vote in favor of it.

If those 40 members joined all the Democrats in voting no, it would have been enough no votes to kill the AHCA in the House.

President Donald Trump met with House Republicans on Tuesday morning to try to drum up more support. Trump reportedly said, "I honestly think many of you will lose your seats in 2018 if you don't get this done."

Republicans will need at least 216 votes to pass their health care plan on to the Senate.