After Revisions, U.S. Rep. Costello Remains A 'No' Vote On American Health Care Act

The latest GOP attempt to replace President Obama's Affordable Care Act will not have the support of Chester County's U.S. Rep. Ryan Costello (R PA-6).

Costello said in a statement Thursday afternoon that while he remained committed to reforming the controversial existing healthcare law, he still did not support the President Trump-backed American Health Care Act.

GOP lawmakers recently issued revisions to the act in hope of garnering additional support. Last month, "Trumpcare" did not even make it to a vote in the heavily-Republican U.S. House of Representatives, as GOP leadership did not believe they had the necessary votes to pass the bill.

The recent changes include an amendment from Rep. Tom McArthur which has convinced the conservative Freedom Caucus, which helped defeat the original bill, to support the new version.

"The MacArthur amendment will grant states the ability to repeal cost driving aspects of Obamacare left in place under the original AHCA. While the revised version still does not fully repeal Obamacare, we are prepared to support it to keep our promise to the American people to lower healthcare costs," the caucus said in a formal statement.

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Costello repeated on Thursday that he still does not believe the current bill will be an adequate replacement for Obamacare.

"Protections for those with pre-existing conditions without contingency and affordable access to coverage for every American remain my priorities for advancing healthcare reform," Costello said. "And this bill does not satisfy those benchmarks for me."

With reporting from Patch correspondent Cody Fenwick

Image via Rep. Costello's Office