House may vote on the GOP health-care bill Friday, after the new version wins a few GOP moderates

House Republican leaders huddled with more moderate members of the GOP caucus for two hours Wednesday night to drum up support for the latest version of the American Health Care Act, after the hardline conservative House Freedom Caucus threw its support behind the newly amended health-care bill on Wednesday and influential outside conservative groups dropped their opposition.

After the meeting, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said "we got a few more to yes tonight — yeah, a couple moderates," and did not rule out a House vote as early as Friday. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), chairwoman of the House GOP conference, said it is "yet to be determined" if the House votes on Friday, but Rep. Ted Yoho (R-Pa.), one of the few Freedom Caucus members to attend Wednesday night's meeting, said of a Friday vote, "It sounds kind of like they're going to do that."

The new amendment that won over the Freedom Caucus, written with Rep. Tom MacArthur (R., N.J.), a leader of the more centrist Tuesday Group, would allow states to apply for federal waivers to requirements in the Affordable Care Act, including that insurance plans cover a set list of essential health benefits, that prices have to be the same for people with pre-existing conditions, and caps on annual out-of-pocket costs. States could not request waivers for the requirement that insurers offer coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, but health policy experts say the ability to charge higher premiums for those patients, if they let their health-care coverage lapse, would effectively drive sick people out of the insurance market. The AHCA still includes deep cuts to Medicaid and other provisions.

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House GOP aides tell The Wall Street Journal that a vote could be held on Saturday, giving President Trump an accomplishment to tout on his 100th day in office, but that depends on picking up centrist GOP support, and many of those lawmakers who opposed the bill in March say they haven't changed their minds. And even if the bill does pass the House, it won't survive a Senate vote as is, says Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.), a Tuesday Group leader who still opposes the AHCA. A successful vote in the House, he added, would be "an exercise in blame shifting" away from the Freedom Caucus.