WASHINGTON — (CNN) House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows — a target of President Donald Trump’s most recent Twitter attacks — said Friday his group isn’t caving on Obamacare despite a strategic public pressure campaign against fellow Republicans.
“Right now. It’s not about blame. It’s not about tweets. It’s really not even about a narrative that is out there. It’s all about the American people and lowering premiums,” Meadows told CNN in a phone interview. “If at the end of the day the Freedom Caucus position of asking for two Obamacare mandates out of twelve to be repealed is an unreasonable request than the American people are going to have to judge that.”
Meadows said he still believes that House leadership’s bill to repeal and replace Obamacare was flawed and didn’t do enough to drive down premiums and insurance costs in his district despite the very public rebuke his group has faced this week.
“It is certainly a bill that does not do what we promised. For my district, it is not better than the current system,” Meadows said.
Trump tweeted at Meadows and other Freedom Caucus members Thursday, suggesting they need to get on board with the GOP plan.
“The Freedom Caucus will hurt the entire Republican agenda if they don’t get on the team, & fast. We must fight them, & Dems, in 2018!” Trump tweeted.
He later added: “Where are @RepMarkMeadows, @Jim_Jordan and @Raul_Labrador? #RepealANDReplace #Obamacare”
Meadows and other members of the Freedom Caucus have been under intense scrutiny since last week when Republican leadership was forced to pull its health care bill from the floor because they were short on votes. Since then, the Freedom Caucus has taken a majority of the blame for blocking the party from delivering on its signature campaign promise even though a number of moderates were also opposed to the bill.
Meadows said at this point, the Freedom Caucus is asking for two things. It wants to repeal the essential health benefits provision that requires insurers to cover benefits like maternity, substance abuse and prescription drugs. Eliminating that measure was included at the last minute in the House leadership’s bill last week. The caucus also wants to repeal the community rating provision, which prevents insurers from basing premiums on health status, gender or age in a specific area.
Meadows said that at this point if those were included “the vast majority of the Freedom Caucus would be a ‘yes.’”
Behind the scenes, there’s been little movement. Caucus members have tried to reach out to the moderate Tuesday Group hoping to get to a solution, but no meetings have been scheduled.
When asked if more pressure from the White House might get him to change his mind on leadership’s bill, Meadows said, “in the end, I don’t work for Washington, DC, I don’t work for the leadership. I work for the American people.”
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