Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) is making an aggressive bid to win over Senate Republican colleagues who have balked at hundreds of billions of dollars in Medicaid spending cuts, hoping to clear obstacles in time to bring the bill to the floor next week.

Thune is under pressure to speed up the pace of talks in order to meet the July 4 deadline President Trump set for Congress to pass the bill — a deadline the Senate risks blowing past.

Republican senators who have voiced concerns about tough new restrictions on states’ ability to use health care provider taxes to collect more federal Medicaid funding say they are working with Thune on proposals to help rural hospitals in their states from going out of business.

GOP senators are in discussion with Thune and Senate Finance Committee Chair Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) about provisions related to Medicaid’s work and eligibility requirements.

They are also hashing out their concerns that the Senate bill would shift too much of Medicaid’s costs onto the states and lower-income Americans.

“We’re looking for solutions, and without getting into specifics or the details, but we’re just talking through some potential options,” Thune told reporters Wednesday afternoon.

Republican sources familiar with the negotiations say they expect Senate GOP leaders and the holdouts to work out some sort of deal to provide direct financial assistance to rural hospitals that would be in danger of closing if the Senate bill passes in its current form.

“I have been supporting the inclusion of a provider-relief fund aimed at rural hospitals, nursing homes and community........

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