Donald Trump’s administration continues to pushfor a vote this week in the House to replace Obamacare, which the president said onSunday is “in serious trouble.”

Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget,said on “Fox News Sunday” that the Senate Budget Committee sentlanguage on the health bill to the House on Saturday night, asnegotiations between Congress and the White House continue.

House members return from their Easter recess on Tuesday and areexpected to concentrate on a must-pass bill to keep the federalgovernment funded beyond April 28. Still, Mulvaney said theadministration sees no “structural reason” why the House couldn’talso vote on a health-care plan this week.

“Health care may happen this week, it may not,” White HouseChief of Staff Reince Priebus said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” onSunday. “We’re hopeful it will.”

Representative Dave Brat of Virginia, a member of theconservative House Freedom Caucus, said the health-care vote willmore likely come in early May.

“The odds of that are pretty good,” Brat said in an interview onFriday with a Richmond radio station. Also suggesting that timelinewas Representative Mark Sanford of South Carolina, who said onCNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that finding a way to vote inthe coming week would be “awfully tough.”

Working on compromises

Brat said if compromises that conservatives and moderates haveworked out with the administration materialize when the bill iswritten, “that gets a lot of us toward a ‘yes,’ along with a coupleof other items we’ve been negotiating.”

House Republican leaders and the White House haven’t announced atarget date for a vote. But Speaker Paul Ryan said on April 19 thatlawmakers were already negotiating “finishing touches.”

Reigniting talk that a vote is imminent risks anotherembarrassment such as the one in March, when Trump and Ryanabruptly scrapped a vote on an earlier version of a bill to repealand replace Obamacare because a number of Republicans didn’tsupport the measure.

But Brat said the divisions between party conservatives such ashimself and moderates, which undid the previous effort, are beingaddressed in a compromise that Vice President Mike Pence has helpedbroker.

Pre-existing conditions

Some of those proposed changes were circulating this week amongmembers in summary form, including an amendment co-sponsored byRepresentative Tom MacArthur, a New Jersey Republican andco-chairman of a group of House moderates.

The amendment would allow insurers to charge higher premiums topeople with pre-existing conditions in states that get awaiver. To obtain the waiver, states would have to provide sickpeople priced out of commercial insurance access to a so-called“high-risk pool” run by the federal government, or establish theirown, and satisfy certain other conditions.

Brat, asked in the interview whether the latest bill wouldactually repeal Obamacare -- a Trump campaign promise and along-time goal of congressional Republicans -- bluntly said“No.”

“This is not repealing Obamacare,” he said. “This maintainsthe rough structure of Obamacare.”

No longer symbolic

He said that it turns out after more than 50 symbolic votes inthe House to undo Obamacare over the years, there isn’t enoughsupport to actually do it, now that it can become a reality with aRepublican president to go along with the party’s control of theHouse and Senate.

Brat said he doubts House leaders would take up the health billimmediately because Congress must deal with passing a spendingmeasure to keep government funded beyond Friday, when a currentspending mechanism expires.

The White House has told Democrats that for every dollar theyallow in the spending measure to go toward the planned wall onthe U.S.-Mexico border, the administration would agree to equalfunds to continue Obamacare subsidies that help reduceout-of-pocket costs for low-income consumers.

“ObamaCare is in serious trouble,” Trump tweeted Sunday. “TheDems need big money to keep it going -- otherwise it dies farsooner than anyone would have thought.”

Copyright 2018 Bloomberg. All rightsreserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten,or redistributed.