The provision is an updated version of an amendment originally proposed by Cruz and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah.

“I think this new bill represents a substantial improvement over the previous version, and there are several changes that significantly improve our ability to reduce premiums,” Cruz said.

Cruz acknowledged that the bill is not a full repeal and replace of the Affordable Care Act, and said that while he preferred a clean repeal vote, there are not the votes for that to take place.