CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) - Nevada U.S. Sen. Dean Heller joined fellow Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval Friday in opposition to a GOP bill that would kill much of former President Barack Obama’s health care law.
The bill has split the Republican Party and faces an uncertain future in the GOP-led Congress.
“I agree with Governor Sandoval,” Heller said in a statement provided by spokesman Mac Abrams. “I do not support the House bill in its current form.”
On Thursday, Sandoval and three other moderate Republican governors sent a letter of opposition to congressional leaders.
The GOP proposal would cut the federal government’s share of Medicaid in states like Nevada that expanded the program. The governors said that breaks President Donald Trump’s pledge to provide states ample Medicaid funding and policy options.
“It provides almost no new flexibility for states, does not ensure the resources necessary to make sure no one is left out, and shifts significant new costs to states,” said Sandoval and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson.
They proposed that states get the ability to tailor or freeze enrollment in Medicaid.
Trump made a deal with some conservatives Friday that would allow states to require that certain people hold a job to qualify for Medicaid, and giving states the option of accepting a lump-sum federal payment instead of funds that grow with the number of participants.
Sandoval and his colleagues oppose de-funding insurance coverage for the more than 2 million people in their states who gained it under expanded Medicaid.
Meanwhile, far-right Republicans are pushing for more cuts, and U.S. Health Secretary Tom Price is urging them to “collaborate.”
Nevada’s Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Amodei has not asserted a position, but said on Monday he was leaning against the bill due to people losing coverage as well as a lack of information and hearings on the proposal.
The four Democratic members of Nevada’s congressional delegation oppose it.
Also Friday, Nevada’s Democrat-controlled Legislature advanced two symbolic resolutions expressing opposition to the GOP bill.
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