The Republican-led House of Representatives has released more details of its replacement for President Obamas Affordable Care Act. Opinions are mixed, depending who you talk to.
Among the key provisions, the Republican “American Health Care Act” would eliminate the individual mandate that requires most Americans to have health insurance or pay a penalty.
It would keep some aspects of Obamacare, including allowing parents to keep kids on their health insurance until the age of 26, and allow states to continuing enrolling people under Medicaid expansion through the end of 2019.
Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers praises the plan saying, “We’re assuring a stable transition, we’re doing it right, through the step by step committee process,t hrough regular order, open hearings and debates, were giving transparency and the opportunity for input.”
But Washington insurance commissioner Mike Kreidler is critical for the very reason that he says the plan is not transparent.
He cites the speed at which the bill has been scheduled for a hearing in committee Wednesday. Kreidler says, “And yet we haven’t had 24 hours with the bill that got released yesterday. We don’t have a congressional budget office, non-partisan assessment of what it’s going to cost, and the kind of impact it’ll have. I’ve never seen this kind of speed with very little opportunity for anybody, even republican members much less democrats, to understand what they are proposing.”
Some conservative groups are also critical of the new Republican plan, saying it is not the repeal of Obamacare they were promised.
The Club for Growth dubbed the proposal “RyanCare” and threatened to record names of Republicans who vote for the bill unless it includes significant changes. Americans for Prosperity has labled the plan "ObamaCare 2.0
