Ryan: ObamaCare replacement coming this year

by Peter Sullivan - 01/05/17 12:17 PM ET

Republicans will put forward their plan to replace ObamaCare sometime this year, Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Thursday.

Republicans are planning to pass a repeal bill quickly without having a replacement ready, but Ryan said that the replacement would follow this year.

He said he did not yet know when the repeal bill and replacement bill would take effect, because Republicans are still working out how long to make the transition period.

{mosads}“Our legislating will occur this year,” Ryan said at a press conference. “Our legislating on ObamaCare, our repealing and replacing and transitioning, the legislating will occur this year.”

“What date all this gets phased in on is something we do not now know because we’re waiting for the Trump administration to be stood up, we’re waiting for Tom Price to be confirmed and become the secretary of Health and Human Services,” he added.

Ryan’s commitment that the replacement will occur this year means Republicans will have to put in the hard work of ironing out the details of a bill and dealing with competing interest groups and winners and losers.

Republicans currently do not have a consensus on a detailed replacement plan, which requires hard tradeoffs to put together.

Ryan would not commit to saying the replacement will cover just as many people as ObamaCare, which has provided coverage to 20 million people.

“Look I’m not going to get ahead of our committee process, we’re just beginning to put this together,” he said. “We haven’t even gotten scores from [the Congressional Budget Office] yet on these things.”

“But let me say this: Can we in this country have a healthcare system that gives us access to affordable healthcare in this country without a costly government takeover and a death spiral, which ObamaCare’s giving us? And the answer is yes,” Ryan added.

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