This week Republican leaders in the House of Representatives released legislation to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and Vice President Mike Pence went to Congress today to support it.
Other republicans, like Republican Kentucky Senator Rand Paul are calling the bill “Obamacare Lite,” while critics prefer previous bills -- like the Health Savings Account (HSA) Expansion Act reintroduced last month by Representation Dave Brat of Virginia with Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona.
According to the Cato Institute, HSA expansion plans are a better resolve than what House Majority Leader Paul Ryan has proposed. Update March 3rd: The Hill reported that Rand and fellow Republican Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio will introduce their Obamacare repeal bill, which is a complete repeal, essentially what republicans proposed and failed to pass in 2015.
“Large HSAs would drive down prices by making consumers cost-conscious at every margin, and would reduce the problem of preexisting conditions by freeing consumers to buy portable coverage that stays with them between jobs,” wrote Michael F. Cannon.
Ryan and Pence recently traveled together to Janesville, Wisc. -- Ryan’s hometown -- to promote the approach at an invite-only event hosted by retailer Blain’s Farm and Fleet.
According to the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel, Pence held a listening session and then the audience that the replacement process would begin in “just a matter of days.”
Let me make you a promise: The Obamacare nightmare is about to end...Obamacare has failed and Obamacare must go,” Pence reportedly said.
Ryan’s “Obamacare Lite” bill heads to committee tomorrow.
