Obamacare repeal coming, Ryan says
Health care law overhaul to get top priority in Congress.
WASHINGTON — Lawmakers will act this year on bills not simply repealing President Barack Obama’s health care law but replacing it as well, House Speaker Paul Ryan said Thursday.
Ryan also said the legislation would strip hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding from Planned Parenthood.
His remarks suggested a faster schedule than some had expected on reshaping the nation’s health care system. While Republicans have said they plan to vote this year on dismantling Obama’s law, Ryan went a step further, saying they also would write legislation to replace it in 2017. It won’t be easy. Despite unifying for years behind the notion of dismantling Obama’s 2010 law, Republicans have yet to rally behind a plan for replacing it, stymied by divisions over how to do it and pay for the changes.
“O u r l e g i s l a t i n g o n Obamacare, our repealing and replacing and transitioning, the legislating will occur this year,” Ryan told reporters, using a nickname for the law.
Ryan spokeswoman AshLee Strong said by “legislating,” Ryan meant lawmakers will write legislation and vote on it.
With Donald Trump set to become president on Jan. 20, Republic ans running Congress now face the politic al imperative to deliver on their oft-repeated promises to erase and replace the health law. The provision on Planned Parenthood — long a target of conservatives because, in addition to its federally funded health services, it is also the nation’s largest abortion provider — could serve as a unifying measure.
Democrats, who helped Obama enact the health care law without any GOP votes, are planning to defend it, but they’re outnumbered in the House and Senate.
No. 2 Senate GOP leader John Cornyn of Texas said writing a new health care law would be a top priority in his chamber but stopped short of saying senators would complete that this year.
“The Senate operating at warp speed is still nothing compared to what the House can do,” he said in a brief interview.
Republicans want to abolish the law’s penalties for individuals who don’t buy policies and for some larger businesses that don’t cover employees. They want to e a s e f e d e r a l c o v e r a g e requirements and have proposed providing tax credits to help people afford coverage.
Since the new Congress convened this week, Republicans have taken initial, procedural steps toward voiding the law.
Lawmakers hope to finish a budget next week that would prevent Democrats from using a filibuster to block a future bill repealing the health law. That same budget would give congressional committees until late February to write legislation annulling much of the overhaul.