GOP reveals plan for health care reform
WASHINGTON — House Republicans on Wednesday unveiled their plan to replace President Barack Obama’s signature health-care-reform law — the first such proposal in the six years since the Affordable Care Act’s passage to carry the endorsement of House GOP leadership.
The Republican plan discards the mandates and penalties that have made “Obamacare” a perennial target for GOP lawmakers, but it comes with uncertain costs and an unknown effect on the number of insured Americans. It is the most anticipated piece of the six-part policy agenda now being rolled out by House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, RWis., as GOP lawmakers move to establish a platform apart from presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
Uniting around a healthcare alternative has proven tricky. While various Republican lawmakers and conservative thinkers have proposed pieces of an Obamacare replacement, the GOP-controlled House has had more success rallying around the “repeal” part than the “replace.”
Republicans have vigorously attacked Obamacare since its passage, citing its costs, its effects on the health insurance market and its toll on the economy. Their opposition culminated in the two-week federal government shutdown in 2013, and repealing and replacing Obamacare remains at the center of GOP campaigns across the geographic and ideological spectrum.
“Obamacare simply does not work,” the new proposal reads, according to a copy distributed to reporters ahead of Wednesday’s launch. “It cannot be amended or fixed through incremental changes. Obamacare must be repealed so that Congress can move forward with the kinds of reforms that will give Americans the care they deserve.”
Developing a comprehensive alternative requires engaging in difficult tradeoffs to balance the Republican goals of decreasing costs and deregulating the insurance market against a potential decline in coverage rates and the demise of popular Obamacare provisions such as ending insurer denials for “pre-existing conditions.”
The new plan does not include any price tags but rather resurfaces ideas that have long been discussed in Republican policy circles.
A senior House GOP leadership aide who briefed reporters on the proposal Tuesday compared the document to the “white paper” issued by then-Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., days after Obama won the 2008 election that formed the blueprint for what became the Affordable Care Act — calling it a “framework” to be filled out later by congressional committees.
Ryan, speaking to reporters Wednesday ahead of the formal unveiling of the plan, played down the lack of detail. “What you’re seeing today is a consensus by House Republicans on the best way to replace Obamacare, and that is a very important achievement in and of itself,” he said. “The goal of this is not to show that we can send a bill and watch it get vetoed by the president. The goal of this is to show the country a better way on the big issues of the day that can get into law in 2017 with a Republican president.”
White House spokeswoman Katie Hill on Wednesday called the GOP health-care proposal “nothing more than vague and recycled ideas to take health insurance away from millions and increase costs for seniors and hardworking families.”