From left, Republican Representatives Fred Upton of Michigan; Michael C. Burgess of Texas; Greg Walden of Oregon and Billy Long of Missouri spoke to reporters after discussing health care legislation with President Trump at the White House on Wednesday. Credit Stephen Crowley/The New York Times
WASHINGTON — House Republican leaders planned to hold a showdown vote Thursday on their bill to repeal and replace large portions of the Affordable Care Act after adding $8 billion to the measure to help cover insurance costs for people with pre-existing conditions.
“We have enough votes,” Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the House majority leader, said Wednesday night. “It’ll pass.”
A breakthrough came earlier Wednesday thanks to an amendment proposed by Representative Fred Upton of Michigan, with the support of Representative Billy Long of Missouri, to add the money to the bill. The two Republican lawmakers had come out against the health care legislation, warning that it did not do enough to protect the sick, but they threw their support behind it on Wednesday.
President Trump blessed Mr. Upton’s proposal at a White House meeting with the two lawmakers as he pressed hard for a vote that could at least ensure House approval of the bill, which embodies one of his central campaign promises. The vote Thursday will carry enormous potential consequences for millions of patients, for Mr. Trump’s legislative agenda and for Speaker Paul D. Ryan, who has failed twice in recent weeks to bring the bill to the House floor.
