Rep. Mark Meadows, the leader of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, reportedly got emotional talking about family members' struggles with preexisting conditions after reading the Congressional Budget Office's analysis of the Republican healthcare bill.
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Top Republican tears up about family after discussing the latest CBO score on the GOP healthcare bill
Rep. Mark Meadows reportedly got emotional after reading about the potential effects of the House GOP's healthcare bill on sick Americans.
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According to Haley Byrd at the Independent Journal Review and Robert King at the Washington Examiner, reporters showed Meadows a section of the Congressional Budget Office's report on the American Health Care Act, which passed the House with only Republican votes on May 2, that pertained to preexisting conditions.
The report said people with preexisting conditions in states that could accept a waiver under an AHCA provision could see their premiums skyrocket and even be priced out of the insurance market.
Byrd reported that Meadows was "surprised" when he was shown the section and he became "emotional" and "choked back tears" talking about his father's and sister's battles with cancer.
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"Listen, I lost my sister to breast cancer," Meadows said, according to Byrd. "I lost my dad to lung cancer. If anybody is sensitive to preexisting conditions, it's me. I'm not going to make a political decision today that affects somebody's sister or father because I wouldn't do it to myself."
The Examiner similarly reported that Meadows became "emotional."
Meadows told reporters he would support changes to the bill in the Senate to properly fund high-risk pools to protect people with preexisting conditions. He said that if the bill did not have "enough funds there to handle preexisting conditions and drive down premiums," then "we will have failed."
The CBO cited an amendment from Rep. Tom MacArthur that would allow states to get the waivers as the primary way the bill would undermine protections for people with preexisting conditions.
The amendment — added after the AHCA was pulled from the House floor before a vote in March, in part because of a lack of support from Meadow's Freedom Caucus — helped win over about 20 members of the Freedom Caucus to support the bill's eventual passage.
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