House Speaker Paul Ryan said today that his healthcare proposal must change to pass the House, marking a significant retreat from his earlier position that the carefully crafted legislation would fail if altered.
The shift came after a private meeting of House Republicans from which Ryan emerged to tell reporters that his proposal to revise the Affordable Care Act would "incorporate feedback" from the rank-and-file.
Ryan attributed the change of strategy to the impact of an analysis issued on Tuesday by the Congressional Budget Office. Among other details that prompted a fresh round of criticism of the proposal was a projection that 14 million fewer Americans would be insured after one year under the Republican plan.
Ryan backed away from his previous rhetoric of calling the measure's fate a "binary choice" for Republican lawmakers.
"Now that we have our score ... we can make some necessary improvements and refinements to the bill," he said, referring to the CBO's estimate of the impact on the number of those covered by health insurance and what the GOP proposal would cost.