Bloomberg is reporting that Republicans are continuing to move quickly towards repealing Obamacare early in the new year. However, Republicans still don’t have a plan to replace Obamacare that would come close to covering the 20 million people who stand to lose their insurance in an Obamacare repeal.
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Republican fervor to repeal Obamacare is particularly troubling because they continue to show no regard for the millions of people who will lose their healthcare under an Obamacare repeal. In fact, their current plan is to vote on a repeal immediately in the new congress but to delay that repeal for a few years while they figure out what their plan for replacement would be.
Republicans have no plan to replace Obamacare
Bloomberg quoted Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former adviser to Senator John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign as saying about Republicans, “They haven’t come to a consensus in the House and the Senate about the possible replacement plans. They don’t know Point B.”
Republican staffers involved in the repeal deliberations have said that some aspects of Obamacare will be ended quickly, like the regulations affecting insurer health plans and businesses. However, other parts of the law could be maintained for up to three or four years, such as insurance subsidies and the Medicaid expansion. And a few aspects of Obamacare may never be repealed, like the provision letting parents keep their children under the age of 26 on their health plan.
According to the Bloomberg article, “House conservatives want a two-year fuse for the repeal. Republican leaders prefer at least three years, and there has been discussion of putting it off until after the 2020 elections, staffers said.”
Republicans plan to use a budget procedure in order to be able to pass the repeal through the Senate using a simple majority, rather than the having to overcome a filibuster. The house would then approve the repeal after the Senate.
In order to limit to political blowback of repealing Obamacare, Republicans are trying to convince the public that Obamacare as collapsing on its own.
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However, that couldn’t be further from the truth. The Department of Health and Human Services has announced that signups reached 6.4 million by the Dec. 19 deadline, which is an increase of 400,000 over the previous year’s number at this time. And President Barack Obama had prior announced that more than 670,000 Americans signed up for coverage in a single day on December 15, “the biggest day ever for Healthcare.gov.”
According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, Repealing Obamacare would increase the number of uninsured Americans by 24 million over 10 years.
Democrats for their part have been daring the Republicans to try and repeal Obamacare. Democratic Leader in the Senate Chuck Schumer has said, “Bring it on. They don’t know what to do. They’re like the dog that caught the bus.”
Meanwhile, Democratic governors have begun quietly reaching out to the Republican congressional delegation in their states urging them not to throw millions of people off their health insurance.
Another challenge facing Republicans as they look to repeal Obamacare, is the budget consequences. According to the Congressional Budget Office, repealing Obamacare would increase the federal deficit by $353 billion over a decade. Republicans have no plan for how to fill that budget gap.
Obamacare provisions are very popular with Americans
The other challege facing Republicans is that the major aspects of Obamacare are very popular with Americans.
Obamacare’s most popular provisions:
- Obamacare prevents insurance companies from denying coverage or charging more for people with pre-existing conditions.
- Allowing children under the age of 26 to remain on their parent’s healthcare plans
- Obamacare provides tax credits to small business to provide health insurance to their employees
- The creation of healthcare exchanges continues to be a popular element of the law
- Subsidies to middle-class Americans so they can afford to buy health insurance
- Medicaid expansion for poor Americans who cant afford health insurance
