Republicans are turning to Paul Ryan to come up something that they hope will fool people into believing that they have alternative for the ACA.
A trio of Republican committee chairmen will immediately get to work on drafting the party’s ObamaCare backup plan, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) announced Friday.
The working group is forming one day after McCarthy announced the House would vote next week to fully repeal ObamaCare, marking the first repeal vote of the GOP-controlled Congress.
McCarthy said Friday that the party “recognizes that full repeal requires a thoughtful replacement strategy.”
The group, which includes Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), will also be charged with creating a “contingency plan” to prepare for a looming Supreme Court decision that could undo Obamacare subsidies in 34 states.
It is easy to predict what kind of ACA replacement plan Rep. Ryan will come up with. The Ryan budget is based on repealing the ACA and replacing it with nothing, but how Ryan treats Medicare/Medicaid speaks volumes about what his ACA alternative will look like. Rep. Ryan will most likely suggest some combination of the tax credits and vouchers that will allow people who are uninsured to buy health insurance. Ryan will probably throw in some language about medical malpractice reform and buying insurance across state lines for good measure.
In short, Ryan’s plan is going to be same tired ideas that Republicans have been trying to sell as health care reform for decades. What the Ryan plan will be is another repackage of more of the same. The bottom line is that Rep. Ryan and his Republican colleagues aren’t going to propose anything that will help people get affordable health insurance. The Republican plan has always been based on taking the affordability out of affordable health care.
Republicans are going to try to sell Ryan’s plan as something new, but it will be a con job. The ideology remains the same. Republicans aren’t going to come up with a practical alternative to the ACA, because their alternative is to go back to the old system where the number of uninsured Americans was growing, costs were increasing exponentially, and one illness could lead to financial ruin.
Paul Ryan’s proposal will contain a lot of buzz words, but what will be missing is an actual plan to help millions of Americans get access to affordable healthcare.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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