The Supreme Court’s decision to uphold ObamaCare shows that the only way to fix the healthcare system is to elect Republicans, the party’s national chairman wrote Thursday.
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus joins scores of GOP lawmakers bashing the court’s opinion with an op-ed published hours after the ruling.
{mosads}“The Supreme Court’s decision today doesn’t change the facts: Obamacare was so poorly written, so sloppily created, that all these years later it is still creating confusion and frustration for Americans,” he writes.
“The country is ready for a new direction, and today’s ruling makes it clear that if we want to fix our broken health-care system, we will need to elect Republican leaders with proven ideas and real solutions that will help American families.”
Priebus laments the costs of the healthcare law, attributing it to “slow job growth, rising insurance premiums and even shuttered small businesses.
He also bashes President Obama for promising that everyone would be able to keep their plans and doctors and pushes back at the assertion that the GOP doesn’t have its own health care plan.
“Democrats continue to suggest that Republicans don’t have other plans. That’s because they want people to think there’s no choice but to put up with Obamacare,” he writes.
“There are Republican alternatives, proposed by members of both the House and the Senate. All Republican plans are better than what Democrats, President Obama, and Hillary Clinton have forced on us — and would continue to force on the country. All are better than the mess we’re in.”
His rival, Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.), critiqued similar arguments in comments Thursday on CNN’s “Wolf.”
“This is a case of sour grapes and a case where Republicans are entitled to their opinions but not their own facts,” she said.
“The facts are that healthcare insurance rates are increasing at their slowest rate in 50 years. We have 16 million people who have health insurance coverage who didn’t have it before.”
Priebus’s piece adds that the party is in agreement on providing access to those with preexisting conditions, keeping young adults on their parents’ plans until they turn 26, a patient-centered approach instead of a government-centered approach, insurance competition across state lines and lawsuit reforms.
Those first two points are addressed by the Affordable Care Act.
— This story was updated at 4:14 p.m.