House GOP budget again repeals ObamaCare

The House budget unveiled Tuesday again includes a full repeal of ObamaCare.

The 43-page proposal offered by House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price (R-Ga.) would eliminate all mandates, taxes, regulations and subsidies under the healthcare law, which the committee says would save $2 trillion.

{mosads}“It is imperative that the president’s health care law be repealed so that we can start over and make targeted, common sense reforms,” the committee wrote in the budget proposal. 

The GOP’s latest effort to repeal ObamaCare comes just after the fifth anniversary of the law’s passage. It is also a mostly symbolic move, as the proposals will not become law.

The blueprint mirrors the previous House budget by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), Price’s predecessor and budget mentor.

Like Ryan’s budget, this year’s proposal would keep the savings from ObamaCare to help make healthcare reforms, according to a GOP aide.

The healthcare law pinpoints about $700 billion in savings from Medicare, some of which would be kept under the new GOP budget. Budget writers promised to end the “raid on seniors’ health care” while ensuring that any additional savings in Medicare go toward bolstering the program.

Ryan had preserved Obama’s Medicare cuts in two consecutive budget proposals that repealed the rest of the Affordable Care Act. That approach differed from his former running mate, 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who pledged to repeal the Medicare cuts and restore the $716 billion in spending in 2012.

That position put him and Ryan in a difficult spot, as it essentially increased entitlement spending by the same amount.

Also in line with Ryan’s budget, this year’s proposal does not lay out specific ways to replace ObamaCare, though the committee writes that its budget “calls for starting over with a patient-centered approach to health care reform.”

Details of those reforms are minimal in the document, though it does promise to increase competition and transparency while “allowing individuals to join together voluntarily to pool risk.”

The budget writers leave open the option of reconciliation, a tool that can be used to prevent Senate Democrats from filibustering legislation.   

Republican committees would have until July 15 to submit reconciliation bills, about two weeks after the Supreme Court is expected to rule on the case challenging ObamaCare subsidies, King v. Burwell.

Republicans have eyed reconciliation as a way to avert the massive insurance meltdown that could occur if $28 billion in subsidies are struck down by the court.

While Committee chairmen will have broad leeway when crafting their bills, Price told reporters Tuesday that ObamaCare remains a priority.

The GOP budget would repeal the long-disputed formula for paying Medicare doctors, known as the sustainable growth rate — a proposal that is also included in President Obama’s budget.

Still, Price’s committee argues that the two proposals are not equal because they do not include the same cost estimates.

“Unlike the President’s budget, our budget reflects the cost of enacting a permanent reform to Medicare’s reimbursement formula,” the committee wrote. “It is time to restore certainty to the reimbursement system for patients and physicians.”

This story was updated at 5:02 p.m.