Rep. Mark Amodei, who provided a crucial vote in favor of the Republican health care plan, said protections provided to Nevada's Medicaid expansion got him to vote in favor of the controversial measure.
The Republican who represents the northern half of Nevada had initially opposed the American Health Care Act, but voted for the measure, which passed the House by a 217-213 vote on May 4.
The GOP bill “protected the Medicaid expansion population as it was expanded under the Affordable Care Act,” Amodei said. Nevada was among the 31 states and the District of Columbia that expanded Medicare eligibility and qualified for additional federal funding under the ACA.
However, Amodei did say he was not happy with how the bill was passed. Many people have criticized Republican House leadership for pushing the bill through without a rating from the Congressional Budget Office and without hearing from stakeholders, including people in the medical industry.
Despite his view of the process, Amodei felt the protections for Nevada were sufficient for a "yes" vote.
Amodei said he was home in his district last week when President Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey and wanted to learn more about the matter before passing judgment.
“There has been a lot of controversy on both sides about the director and so now it appears we’ve got a bunch more controversy,” he said. “If there’s a way to put it behind us, we ought to.”
Amodei said he could live with an independent counsel to look the matter, but wants to avoid a protracted investigation.
“I’m a guy who’s OK with erring on the side of caution,” he said. “I don’t want it to be something that is open-ended.”
He also believes "treading water" on some of these issues can make things worse.
“I’m frustrated that now we’re going to spend major amounts of energy on what the heck was going on in the FBI or not. What the heck was going on in the election or not, and they’re important things but it’s like, you want to get something that’s really important…then guess what? Health care affects people from pre-natal to death. That’s even more so than Russia,” he said.
Rep. Mark Amodei (R)-NV, Congressman representing Northern Nevada