Republicans take first steps in repeal of Affordable Care Act
WASHINGTON — The Republican-led Congress passed a plan Friday to start the process of repealing the Affordable Care Act, but the road ahead remains unclear.
House Republicans approved the budget blueprint, 227-198, following a similar party-line vote earlier this week in the Senate, which sets a month-end timetable to draft a repeal bill. But leaders warned the process could take longer.
The week was full of theatrics as Republicans struggled to fulfill one of their major campaign promises. One by one, Republicans rose at their desks to criticize Obamacare — Rep. Drew Ferguson, R-Ga., compared the ACA to a goat ransacking the interior of a house. “I have to get the goat out,” he said.
And after each GOP speech, Democrats reminded lawmakers of how many hundreds of thousands of Americans might lose their health care coverage in that lawmaker’s state if Obamacare is repealed — more than 580,000, for example, in Georgia.
But the beginning the repeal process was the easy part. Republicans aren’t any closer to fulfilling their longtime promise to “repeal and replace Obamacare,” even though they will now control the House, Senate and White House.
President-elect Donald Trump said this week that he expects Congress to act swiftly, promising that a plan will be coming as soon as his pick for Health and Human Services secretary, Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., is confirmed for the Cabinet.
“It’ll be repeal and replace. It will be essentially, simultaneously,” Trump said. “It will be various segments, you understand, but will most likely be on the same day or the same week, but probably, the same day, could be the same hour.”
Republican leaders, though, know that is a promise easier made than kept.
Ever since President Barack Obama signed the health care bill into law in 2010, Republicans have been unable to coalesce around a viable option.
“We’re not holding hard deadlines, only because we want to get it right,” said House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, R-Wis. He has committed to having repeal and replace done “this year.”
But without a clear path forward, rank-and-file GOP lawmakers are becoming increasingly nervous that constituents back home will lose their health care coverage if the ACA is repealed before a replacement is enacted.
In closed-door meetings over the past two weeks, Republicans have expressed much “hand-wringing,” as one lawmaker put it. One congressman quoted Scripture in asking colleagues to ensure they had a sturdy foundation before pressing ahead with the repeal.
“We do have members who feel if we don’t do them together, the replacement plan will never happen,” acknowledged Rep. Chris Collins, R-N.Y., an early Trump supporter. “People will, I hope, fall in line with our new president, make sure we are supportive of him coming right out of the gate.”