U.S. Vice President Mike Pence will pitch a Trump administration-backed health care overhaul plan Saturday to officials in Kentucky, the home state of one of the plan’s fiercest Republican critics on Capitol Hill.
Pence will make his case when he meets in the city of Louisville with small business owners and government officials, including Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin, who is skeptical about the administration’s plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare.
The vice president will visit an energy services company with the governor as part of an effort to reassure conservatives, including Rand Paul, a Republican senator from Kentucky.
Paul has called the initial draft of the replacement bill “Obamacare Lite,” joining a chorus of conservative lawmakers and groups who have raised objections to the measure that was authored by Republicans on Capitol Hill.
Despite the opposition, U.S. President Donald Trump posted on Twitter Saturday that the replacement bill is moving forward.
Opponents of the replacement bill have urged the Trump administration to stop providing the extra money Obamacare gives states to expand the federal-state Medicaid program for 70 million low income people. The replacement bill would cut off the additional funding in 2020, except for people already enrolled in the program, two years later than conservatives want.
Governor Bevin has warned that the state cannot afford to pay for its growing Medicaid program, which has cost millions more than originally expected and now covers more than one-quarter of Kentucky’s population.
Pence is no stranger to selling the replacement plan, known as the American Health Care Act, on the road, having done so recently in Missouri, Wisconsin and Ohio.
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