House Republicans are once again fast-tracking consideration of their ObamaCare replacement bill without knowing the full impact of the legislation they’ll vote on Thursday. 
 
 The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is not expected to have completed its analysis detailing the effects of the latest changes to the legislation overhauling the nation’s healthcare system in time for the Thursday vote. 
 
 Leadership’s decision to press ahead with the floor action means lawmakers will be voting on the bill without updated figures from their nonpartisan scorekeeper on how many people would lose coverage under the bill or how much it would cost. 
 
 Some lawmakers acknowledged that it would be helpful to have an analysis, known as a “score,” from the CBO, but said they could not wait for it. 
 
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 When asked why the vote would not wait for the score, Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) — the lead sponsor of a new amendment to the bill that might push it over the finish line — said, “Because I don’t expect it probably for a couple weeks.” 
 
 “I wish that we had it, all right?” Upton added. “I wish that we had had it in committee. I said so at the time.” 
 
 The lack of a score comes despite years of GOP attacks on Democrats for what Republicans argued was a rushed process that rammed through the Affordable Care Act in 2010. 
 
 The latest bill text was posted Wednesday, just one night before the vote. 
 
 Upton’s amendment adds $8 billion over five years aimed at helping people with pre-existing conditions afford their premiums in states that choose to repeal ObamaCare protections preventing sick people from being charged exorbitantly high premiums. 
 
 Many health policy experts doubt that $8 billion is enough money. And Upton himself said Wednesday that he doesn’t know for sure that it will be. 
 
 “Is it enough money? I don’t know,” Upton said. “That’s the question that I asked and was led to believe that $5 billion would be enough, which is why it’s $8 billion.” 
 
 He noted that “at some point, this will be scored by CBO,” and said that if the analysis finds there is not enough money, more could be added by the Senate or at another point. 
 
 The CBO also has not provided an analysis of the amendment authored by centrist Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-N.J.) and Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) that lets states apply for waivers from ObamaCare provisions preventing insurers from charging sick people higher premiums and mandating minimum insurance coverage requirements so long as high-risk pools are offered. 
 
 When asked if there are concerns the process is being rushed without a CBO score and limited time to review late-breaking changes, Meadows said Republicans have waited long enough to fulfill a nearly decadelong campaign promise. 
 
 “We’ve been talking about repealing and replacing ObamaCare for seven years. That’s the first time that I’ve had anybody say that we rushed anything,” Meadows said. 
 
 At the same time, he conceded, “It’s a valid point.” 
 
 The CBO score of the underlying bill gave many moderates pause when it found that 24 million more people would become uninsured under the measure over 10 years. 
 
 Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) downplayed the notion that lawmakers didn’t have enough time to review the legislative text of the original bill or amendments authored by GOP Reps. Gary Palmer (Ala.), MacArthur and Upton. 
 
 “The bill has been out there for a while. I mean, the MacArthur amendment’s pretty short if you want to read it. The Palmer amendment’s pretty short. I assume this amendment that may be added before the final vote with the $8 billion will be short,” Harris, another Freedom Caucus member, said. 
 
 “Look, the bottom line is we’re going to deliver to the American public what we said, that premiums are actually going to go down,” he continued. 
 
 The Palmer amendment is four pages long, MacArthur’s is eight pages, and Upton’s is three pages. The original underlying bill was unveiled in March. 
 
 The lack of a CBO score isn’t the only sign of a markedly rushed process. 
 
 House GOP leaders gave themselves flexibility earlier this week to speed up consideration of the bill if they decided to bring it up for a vote. 
 
 The House voted along party lines in a Tuesday procedural vote to waive a rule requiring lawmakers to wait a day before considering a measure out of the Rules Committee, which determines how legislation is considered on the floor. 
 
 The move, known as “martial law,” is typically reserved for tight deadlines like avoiding an imminent government shutdown. 
 
 It’s highly unusual for leaders to invoke the procedure while trying to move legislation that doesn’t face a pressing need for passage, especially for something as far-reaching as healthcare reform. 
 
 If the rushed process sounds familiar, that’s because GOP leaders used the same tactics when they tried to bring the bill up for a vote in March. 
 
 As with this week, House Republicans voted to invoke martial law to speed up the floor vote. And GOP leaders also posted an amendment that would have repealed ObamaCare’s minimum insurance coverage requirements the night before they planned to vote on it. 
 
 GOP leaders ultimately canceled a vote when it became clear the legislation didn’t have the support to pass. 
 
 Thursday’s planned vote comes after years of Republicans mocking House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who was the Speaker when ObamaCare passed, for saying, “We have to pass the [healthcare] bill so that you can find out what’s in it.” 
 
 Now, on the eve of the vote on the GOP plan, Pelosi is charging that Republicans are deliberately trying to conceal the impact of their proposal. 
 
 “Forcing a vote without a CBO score shows that Republicans are terrified of the public learning the full consequences of their plan to push Americans with pre-existing conditions into the cold,” Pelosi said. 
 
 “But tomorrow, House Republicans are going to tattoo this moral monstrosity to their foreheads, and the American people will hold them accountable.” ||||| Rep. Upton: Health bill 'likely now to pass' in the House 6:23 PM ET Wed, 3 May 2017 | 01:12 
 
 The Republican effort to replace Obamacare got a much-needed boost Wednesday when two congressmen agreed after meeting with President Donald Trump to drop their opposition to the GOP bill and vote for it. 
 
 Reps. Billy Long and Fred Upton said they are now "yes" votes on the bill because of the addition of an amendment that will add $8 billion in federal funding to reduce insurance costs for people with pre-existing health conditions. 
 
 "I think it [the bill] is likely now to pass in the House," Upton told reporters at the White House after meeting with Trump. 
 
 Long, R-Mo., and Upton, R-Mich., earlier this week said they would oppose the bill because it could harm people with pre-existing conditions by allowing states to win waivers for insurers who wanted to charge such customers higher premiums under certain conditions. 
 
 Bloomberg reported that a White House official said the GOP is still two or three votes away from being able to ensure the bill would pass the House. 
 
 Republican leaders have said they won't call for a vote until they know it will pass. 
 
 Leslie Dach, director of the Obamacare-supporting group Protect Our Care Campaign, said the amendment that swayed Upton and Long is "nothing more than a bailout for House Republicans as their latest desperate attempts to repeal health care continue to face strong public opposition." 
 
 "This possible amendment doesn't change the underlying truth of the Republican health-care repeal — it guts protections for people with pre-existing conditions. The GOP plan requires people with pre-existing conditions to get special insurance that costs more and covers less," Dach said. 
 
 
 
 "Now they think they can fix it by handing $62 per person to the estimated 129 million people with pre-existing conditions in this country? It isn't a solution, it's an insult," he said. "The health-care repeal will cut coverage from millions, raise your premiums and eliminate your protections, and nothing they are proposing changes those facts." 
 
 A Politico/Morning Consult poll released Wednesday found that 50 percent of Americans oppose allowing states to opt out of requiring that insurers cover pre-existing conditions. Another 38 percent support the idea of that. 
 
 And nearly 60 percent of poll respondents said that Congress should wait for the Congressional Budget Office to analyze the revised bill before voting on it. A CBO study of a past version of the bill found that it would lead to 24 million more people becoming uninsured over the next decade, and sharp premium hikes over the next two years for individual health plans. 
 
 Watch: Health care breakout? ||||| poster="https://v.politico.com/images/1155968404/201705/3949/1155968404_5420376308001_5420366772001-vs.jpg?pubId=1155968404" true Upton, Long reverse themselves and back Obamacare repeal bill GOP leaders are tweaking the bill to lure resistant House members as the White House pushes for a vote as soon as Thursday. 
 
 Two prominent Republican opponents of the House GOP’s Obamacare repeal bill reversed course and backed the measure Wednesday morning, after negotiating a last-minute amendment with President Donald Trump at the White House. 
 
 Reps. Fred Upton of Michigan and Billy Long of Missouri, whose defections this week rattled rank-and-file Republicans, emerged from their session with the president and said an amendment to add $8 billion to help cover people with pre-existing conditions would return them to the "yes" column on the bill. 
 
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 Though there were concerns the revised measure might repel conservatives already reluctant to back the GOP plan, early signals suggested most would remain on board. 
 
 "I believe they will find broad support among [House Freedom Caucus] members for their amendment," said caucus Chairman Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) in a statement to POLITICO. 
 
 Some White House officials want a vote on the bill quickly, and House Republican leaders are warning Democrats that the bill might come up for a vote as early as Thursday. Two senior White House officials said they feared members leaving for recess without voting could doom eventual passage, but many in Congress have grown frustrated with the White House's timetables. 
 
 Upton, the former chairman of the House energy and commerce committee and author of several Obamacare repeal bills, had declared Tuesday that the House plan fell short of GOP promises to protect people with preexisting conditions. His opposition threatened to derail delicate last-minute negotiations to pass the legislation, known as the American Health Care Act. Long, a staunch Trump ally, also threatened to scramble the GOP whip count. 
 
 After the White House meeting, Long told reporters at first he resisted pressure from Trump to support the bill. 
 
 “We need you, we need you, we need you,” Long said Trump told him in phone calls on Tuesday. “I said, ‘I’m a no' and I stayed a no. I said, ‘Fred Upton and I have been working on some language, if we can get [it] in there, it can get us both in a position we need to be on pre-existing conditions and make sure those people are covered. Because they need to be covered. Period.’” 
 
 Even as he switched his position, Upton expressed caution, noting that the measure will almost certainly not become law in its current form. 
 
 “This bill will change from where it is today" once the Senate takes it up, Upton said. 
 
 The last-minute talks appeared to pay dividends with some fence-sitting moderates in the House. Shortly after Upton and Long's White House visit, Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.) said in a statement that if House leaders "work to tighten" protections for people with preexisting conditions, he would support the bill. A spokeswoman Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla.) said the congressman would "review" the amendment to see whether it addressed his concerns with earlier versions of the bill. 
 
 The White House now feels as though they are on the precipice of passage, an administration official said after the announcement. A vote isn’t necessarily vital this week, the official said, but would be “preferable.” 
 
 Early Wednesday, the White House began to lean on House leadership to call a vote on the measure — known as the American Health Care Act — this week. 
 
 "If I were the speaker of the House, and I'm not — and by the way I'm thankful that I'm not, it's a miserable job — I’d probably go to the floor because it’s just that close," said Trump's budget director Mick Mulvaney, during an appearance on "Fox & Friends." 
 
 Similar comments have irked House leaders in the past because they're conducting a delicate whip operation to try to corral hesitant colleagues. And despite Mulvaney's pronouncement, House Speaker Paul Ryan declined to commit to holding a vote when asked Wednesday morning. He said the House leaders were "extremely close" to securing enough support to pass the AHCA. 
 
 But leaders seemed cautiously optimistic they had struck the right balance. 
 
 "I think we have a solution that addresses some of their concerns, gives us the ability to bring more people into the yes column without losing any of our current yes votes," said Majority Whip Steve Scalise on Fox News on Wednesday morning. 
 
 GOP leaders can only afford to lose 22 votes and still pass the bill. Already about 20 lawmakers, mostly moderates concerned about the bill's impact on constituents, have said publicly they will vote "no." Even more have said they're undecided and have yet to make up their minds. 
 
 Trump is pouring a lot of political capital into the latest effort to pass the bill. The president made at least a dozen phone calls seeking support for the bill Tuesday. 
 
 The White House is hoping changes to the bill will win over wary moderates, and they're crossing their fingers that Trump can secure an endorsement from those opponents after his meeting with lawmakers Wednesday. 
 
 Jennifer Haberkorn, Burgess Everett and Matthew Nussbaum contributed to this report. ||||| WASHINGTON — Anxious congressional Democrats are threatening to abandon President Obama on a central element of his signature health care law, voicing increasing support for proposals that would allow Americans who are losing their health insurance coverage because of the Affordable Care Act to retain it. 
 
 The dissent comes as the Obama administration released enrollment figures on Wednesday that fell far short of expectations, and as House Republicans continued their sharp criticism of administration officials at congressional hearings examining the performance of the health care website and possible security risks of the online insurance exchanges. 
 
 In addition, a vote is scheduled Friday in the Republican-controlled House on a bill that would allow Americans to keep their existing health coverage through 2014 without penalties. The measure, drafted by Representative Fred Upton, the Michigan Republican who is the chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, is opposed by the White House, which argues that it would severely undermine the Affordable Care Act by allowing insurance companies to continue to sell health coverage that does not meet the higher standard of Mr. Obama’s health care law. 
 
 But a growing number of House Democrats, reflecting a strong political backlash to the rollout of the law, are warning the White House that they may support the measure if the administration does not provide a strong alternative argument. The approaching House vote is shaping up as an important test for both the health measure and the unity that Democratic leaders have so far been able to maintain around it despite a fierce Republican attack. 
 
 In a closed-door meeting Wednesday of House Democrats and White House officials, tensions flared as several lawmakers upbraided the administration, saying that the president had put Democrats in a tough political position by wrongly promising consumers that they could keep their existing health care plans. In fact, hundreds of thousands of Americans have received cancellation notices from their insurers because their health care coverage does not meet the minimum standards dictated by the new law. 
 
 “I’m frustrated in how it rolled out, and I let them know in no uncertain terms,” said Representative Mike Doyle, Democrat of Pennsylvania. “The point I was making in caucus to the administration is don’t give us this techno-babble that you’re going to do some administrative fix down the road. There’s a bill being put on the floor on Friday.” 
 
 The overall message of the meeting, said several attendees, was that the White House and the House Democratic leadership have until Friday to come up with a satisfactory alternative, or House Democrats may be forced to support Mr. Upton’s bill, which already has two Democratic co-sponsors: Representatives John Barrow of Georgia and Mike McIntyre of North Carolina, who represent more conservative districts. 
 
 “I think the Upton bill is terrible, but we need something else to vote for in order to keep our word to the American people,” Mr. Doyle added. “We told people in those plans that they were grandfathered in, and if they wanted to stay in them, they could, and we need to honor that.” 
 
 A similar proposal, which would allow people to keep their current health insurance permanently, is also drawing support in the Senate under an effort led by Senator Mary L. Landrieu, Democrat of Louisiana. Ms. Landrieu said she remained committed to her bill, despite White House expressions of reluctance to embrace a legislative fix. Still, the White House spokesman, Jay Carney, said Wednesday that the Landrieu proposal “shares a similar goal to what the president has asked his team to explore.” 
 
 “We are happy to work with her and any member of Congress who has ideas on how to make the Affordable Care Act better,” he said. 
 
 Ms. Landrieu drew a distinction between her plan — which she said would maintain the key provisions of the Affordable Care Act — and those offered by Republicans that would dismantle the law, like the one introduced by Mr. Upton.
– House Republicans promise to call a vote on their plan to replace ObamaCare on Thursday, but the Hill notes that lawmakers will cast those votes without an official estimate of how much the plan costs or how it will affect coverage for Americans. That is, the Congressional Budget Office hasn't had time to assess the American Health Care Act and score it. "I wish that we had it, all right?" said Rep. Fred Upton, a key figure who switched from no to yes when the White House agreed to add $8 billion for pre-existing conditions. But Upton said any such CBO estimate is probably weeks away, adding that the measure could be changed, perhaps by the Senate, at that point. At Vox, Sarah Kliff writes that the rush to vote is a risky move for the GOP. "The CBO score will come out sooner or later, and Republicans might be faced with defending a bill they don't like much at all." The sticking point over pre-existing conditions had threatened to derail the measure, and critics say the $8 billion amendment still won't do enough to ensure that people with pre-existing conditions will be adequately covered. An analysis by the Fact Checker blog at the Washington Post says the issue is so nuanced that the simplistic talking points coming from both sides on the issue are useless. "If the bill ever became law, much would depend on unknown policy decisions by individual states—and then how those decisions are implemented." Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reports that even if the vote is successful, it would "face uncertain prospects" in the Senate. Among other things, the House bill would reduce funding for Medicaid, which provides coverage for low-income and disabled Americans.