Who knows? It seems to change every single week. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) have now said that they would settle to repair Obamacare instead of a full repeal:
And Hatch, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee — another panel with a crucial role in the effort to repeal the ACA — said Thursday that he “could stand either” repealing or repairing the law. “I’m saying I’m open to anything. Anything that will improve the system, I’m for,” he said.
Alexander compared it to a bridge that needs repairs:
Alexander, chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, said at a hearing Wednesday: “I think of it as a collapsing bridge. . . . You send in a rescue team and you go to work to repair it so that nobody else is hurt by it and you start to build a new bridge, and only when that new bridge is complete, people can drive safely across it, do you close the old bridge. When it’s complete, we can close the old bridge, but in the meantime, we repair it. No one is talking about repealing anything until there is a concrete practical alternative to offer Americans in its place.”
Look, as much as I want Obamacare to completely disappear because socialized health insurance has no place in America, I also know that we are stuck with this awful law. But I thought the GOP planned on working on a replacement for Obamacare rather than just fixing it.
Maybe the law really is too complicated to repeal and replace, but maybe they should have thought about it before speaking out. Then again, we all know the GOP has a YUGE messaging problem. On Thursday, Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) even admitted miscommunication among the GOP:
On Thursday, Ryan tried to right the party’s message on health care by insisting that repair is the same thing as replace.“There’s a miscommunication going on,” he said Thursday morning on “Fox & Friends.” “If we’re going to repair the U.S. health-care system . . . you must repeal and replace Obamacare.”
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) admitted on CNN that the party can only do so much when it comes to repealing Obamacare:
We only have so much power to repeal certain elements of ObamaCare through reconciliation — 51 votes — the taxes, the subsidies,” Johnson told CNN on Friday morning.“So many of the market reforms — I would call them the market distortions — that have caused premiums to skyrocket and out-of-pocket maximums and deductibles to skyrocket, those are probably going to need 60 votes. And it doesn’t sound like the Democrats are really willing to bear the responsibility of the mess they created.”
Johnson has been one of the few that has talked about just repairing the law, but has found that no one can fix it “and that repairing the law simply meant fixing the damage that it has already done.” But Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) don’t think they can even repair the law:
“It gets a little confusing,” Cornyn said. “I don’t think even if we wanted to repair Obamacare we could do it. That’s why I believe we’re going to do repeal and replace.”—“If you’re talking about repairing the Affordable Care Act, it’s unrepairable,” said Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), chairman of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus. “We need to repeal it. We need to replace it. If you want to call that a repair, so be it, but I don’t know that that makes it any more palatable to the folks back home.”
Vice President Mike Pence said that President Donald Trump intends to stick with the “repeal and replace” plan he has touted:
“We are absolutely committed to follow through on President Trump’s directive to repeal and replace ObamaCare and to have the Congress do it at the same time,” Pence told Fox News’s Sean Hannity.
Last week, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) delivered his plan to replace Obamacare. Paul concentrated the most on Health Savings Accounts. His plan will eliminate “the maximum allowable annual contribution” so people can put as much money into the HSA as they want. He also removed the requirement that those with an HSA must enroll “in a high deductible health care plan.” That way those who use Medicare, VA, TRICARE, and IHS have to the option to establish their own HSA.
Paul’s plan allows people to use money in their HSA to purchase health insurance. People may also rollover their HSA account to a child, parent, grandparent, or spouse.
Paul showcased his plan a few days after his colleagues Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Susan Collins (R-ME) unveiled their combined plan. This plan would leave the majority of the power to the states, letting each one decide “whether the want to keep ObamaCare.” The states that want Obamacare can keep the entire with “its subsidies, mandates and protections for people with pre-existing conditions.” Those that choose to opt out will have another plan to “provide a uniform tax credit linked to a health savings account to help people afford a basic, less comprehensive health insurance plan.”
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