A bill that was being pushed by Majority Whip Eric Cantor that would have made it easier for sick people with pre-existing conditions to get insurance was pulled at the last minute yesterday because of conservative opposition.

The "Helping Sick Americans Act" would have taken money from a $5 billion fund on preventative care and transferred it to insurance pools for high risk patients. But after a day of growing outrage from conservatives, Speaker Boehner withdrew the legislation before the scheduled vote.

Reuters:

The House cleared the way to debate the bill, which was designed to help Americans with pre-existing medical conditions while preventing the administration from using an alternate source of funding to implement its healthcare law.

But the "Helping Sick Americans Now" bill was pulled from the schedule before members could cast their votes, suggesting that Republican leaders did not have enough support from their own members. Democrats called the bill a political ploy by the Republicans.

An aide to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said Republican leaders would bring the bill back up when Congress returns after a week-long recess in May. The legislation is not expected to go anywhere in the Democrat-controlled Senate and the White House has threatened to veto it.

"We're going to continue working on the bill. We had positive conversations today and made good progress," the Republican aide said, noting that they had run out of time with some members leaving town.

Before the House debate, several Republican conservatives were openly opposing the bill and questioning why their leaders were even offering up the measure.

They said that House leaders should give first-term Republicans a chance to vote on repealing the entire Obama healthcare law. The Republican-controlled House has voted to repeal or defund the law more than 30 times since it was enacted in 2010.

"The issue I think many of us are having with this particular piece of legislation... you're replacing one big government program with another big government program," said Representative Raul Labrador of Idaho.

Brent Bozell dubbed the bill "Cantorcare" which is not good news for the whip. Why Cantor offered this bill now isn't clear. Any assistance the GOP gives to aid in the implementation of Obamacare was never going to pass and only upset those who want another vote on outright repeal.

Despite Cantor's optimism, it isn't likely that this bill will ever be brought to the floor for a vote. It may be resurrected as part of a "repeal and replace" plan that the GOP is still insisting it wants instead of Obamacare. But as a stand alone measure, consider it dead.