Cruz and Lee also played an integral role in halting Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s quick strike plan to pass a bill and avoid a recess facing the bill’s many critics. But they are operating with a greater goal in mind: creating a bill conservative enough to quickly pass the House and avoid dragging out the party’s health-care battles any further.
“It’ll make it much easier for conservatives in the House” if they succeed, said Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina, the House Freedom Caucus chairman and an ally of Lee and Cruz. “Really, the greatest flux you have with getting 218 in the House is probably more with conservatives than it is moderates.”
However, the exact nature of the policies they are pushing may be both politically and procedurally impossible to achieve. The Consumer Freedom Act that they are advocating would create parallel health insurance markets in states, with one containing protections for people with pre-existing conditions and another that would allow the sale of plans outside Obamacare’s regulatory regime, likely with no subsidies.
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