According to the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, themajority of the group would support a health care replacement thateliminates three provisions of the Affordable Care Act that regulate insurers.

The Hill reports that Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) madethe declaration after the Freedom Caucus was responsible for thefailure of the GOP’s efforts to repeal and replace the ACA last month, sayingthat the intended replacement bill failed to lower insurancepremiums.

This week, however, Vice President Mike Pence made the offer toeliminate three major provisions in the bill: essential healthbenefits, which mandate what services insurers must cover;community rating, which prevents insurers from charging sick peoplemore for insurance; and guaranteed issue, which compels insurers tocover people with preexisting conditions.

Although pointing out that legislators would have to actuallysee the text of the bill before making a firm commitment, Meadowsis quoted in the report saying, “The majority of the Freedom Caucuswould be favorably inclined to vote for that.”

According to the Freedom Caucus, those provisions — some of themost valuable to sick people who need insurance — are the ones thatprimarily drive up the cost of premiums for the healthy.

Meadows says that in addition to eliminating the threeregulations, the bill will also have to have an amendment thatcreates an invisible high-risk pool for people who have medicalconditions requiring expensive treatment that come with highpremiums. He adds, “We've got to act to lower premiums. Until I’mconvinced that it does that, we won’t vote yes.”

While the Rules Committee is expected to add that amendment —sponsored by Reps. Gary Palmer (R-Ala.) and David Schweikert(R-Ariz.) — it’s doubtful that moderate Republicans will support abill that eliminates those provisions. That could make it tough toget the amended bill passed by the House.