Senate Republican leaders dropped provisions that wouldrepeal two taxes on high earners in a revised draft of their healthcare bill sent to the Congressional Budget Office, accordingto GOP senators.

Related: Study says ACA market isstabilizing

Republican leaders are now planning to retain Obamacare’s 3.8percent tax on net investment income for people who earn morethan $200,000 and couples with incomes over $250,000, as wellas a 0.9 percent Medicare surtax on the same incomes.

Those two tax increases generate nearly $231 billion in revenueover a decade, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation.Leaving them in place could create a way to cover the costs ofexpanded Medicaid coverage for the poor or other programs demandedby holdout moderate Republicans.

“Obviously that’s a direction I think that a lot of our memberswant to move, to keep some of those in place and use the revenuesto put into other places in the bill where it can make adifference,” John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 3 SenateRepublican, said Tuesday. The decision to explore changes was firstreported by the Wall Street Journal.

The reversal on tax cuts, aimed at winning over moderateholdouts, comes amid an announcement Tuesday by Senate MajorityLeader Mitch McConnell that he is delaying a planned summer recessby two weeks, giving Republicans more time to pass a healthcare bill.

McConnell told reporters that he plans to release his revisedbill on Thursday, with a new CBO estimate and an importantprocedural vote coming next week.

But Republican Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said Tuesdaythat he plans to release contours of an alternative health billthis week and that he is seeking the support of governors andsenators of both parties.

“I want to do the best I can, and I think the best we can is noton the table right now,” Graham said.

A number of moderate Republicans had recoiled from the billafter the CBO estimated that 22 million fewer people wouldhave insurance in a decade, and that premiums and deductibles formillions of low-income people would soar.

Related: Senate delays August recess amid unfinished healthcare plan

Closed-door talks

McConnell has been negotiating with his Republican colleaguesover revisions after more than a half-dozen of them objected to aplan last month that combines tax cuts with deep reductions inhealth spending.

Although Republican leaders decided to retain two of theObamacare taxes, others would still be repealed in their revisedbill.

"The taxes that will be repealed are all the taxes that havebeen driving up the cost of insurance," said Senator John Barrassoof Wyoming, the No. 4 Senate Republican.

Other changes under consideration include revising Medicaid cutsand adding more spending to stabilize premium costs in theindividual insurance market, according to a GOP aide who requestedanonymity.

Republicans are waiting to hear back from the CBO beforedeciding whether to include an amendment proposed by RepublicanSenator Ted Cruz of Texas.

Cruz wants to allow insurers to offer cheap, bare-bones plansalongside those that meet the more comprehensive coveragerequirements of Obamacare. Critics in both parties say the proposalwould essentially put people with pre-existing conditions in theObamacare insurance pool and allow young, healthy people to buycheaper plans in a separate pool.

“It’s important to a number of our conservative members who wantto see that in a final product,” Thune said. “We have other memberswho have a different point of view.” He added, “It’s something wewant to explore” to potentially give consumers more choices.

Republican leaders have said they want to hold a vote before therecess, which has now been pushed into mid-August, and are preparedto move on to other issues, including a tax-code rewrite, if theycan’t develop consensus around a proposed replacement to the 2010Affordable Care Act.

Related: Poll: Americans don't want to lose emergencyservices, other EHBs

Asked if GOP leadership will move forward with the vote even ifthey lack the 50 senators needed to secure passage of thelegislation, Barrasso said, "I’m convinced that there’ll be a votenext week to move to get on the bill."

If there were an imminent vote in the Senate, House Republicanleadership would keep their chamber in session into the beginningof August, according to a GOP aide familiar with the plans.However, if the Senate works further into August and manages topass a health care bill, there would be intense pressure from theTrump administration to bring House members back to Washington foranother vote, according to the aide.

For the bill to pass, and Republicans to live up to theirpromise to eliminate President Barack Obama’s signature domesticaccomplishment, they can lose no more than two GOP votes from their52-48 majority amid unanimous Democratic opposition.

Skeptical Republicans

A number of Republicans have been pessimistic about theprospects in recent days.

Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine, who opposesMcConnell’s earlier bill, said in an interview Monday that she washeartened at the majority leader’s suggestion last week thatRepublicans will have to work with Democrats on a scaled-backmeasure shoring up Obamacare’s insurance exchanges if the GOP billdies. She said she’s concerned about the impact of proposed cuts toMedicaid under the broader plan.

"I believe we should not repeat the mistake that President Obamamade in passing major legislation with no support from the otherparty," Collins said.

Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana said on “Fox News Sunday” thatMcConnell’s original plan is dead and that what happens with therewritten version remains to be seen. He put the odds of passing abill in July at “50-50.”

While moderates are balking at deep cuts to Medicaid and tosubsidies for individual market consumers, conservatives areseeking looser regulations for such policies that are sold onObamacare’s exchanges.

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