The nation’s top elected Republican, House Speaker Paul Ryan (Wis.), unveiled the House GOP’s blueprint for an alternative to Obamacare Wednesday.
“Obamacare is making things worse by the day. It drives up premiums and deductible costs for individuals, families, and businesses,” the report’s authors wrote. “It forces people off the plans they like. It fuels waste, fraud, and abuse. And it cannot be fixed. Its knot of regulations, taxes, and mandates cannot be untangled. Obamacare must be fully repealed so we can start over and take a new approach.”
The plan includes using tax credits to allow people to buy their own coverage from private insurers, allowing the sale of insurance plans across state lines and expanding the use of health savings accounts. The authors of the plan also say it expands protection for conscience rights.
House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) speaks following the weekly meeting of the House Republican caucus at the U.S. Capitol Wednesday. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
The proposal would allow for some aspects of the Affordable Care Act to remain in place, including preventing insurance companies from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions and granting parents the option to keep their children on their insurance plans until they are 26.
In a statement provided to the Associated Press, a spokesperson for the White House denounced Ryan’s proposal as “nothing more than vague and recycled ideas to take health insurance away from millions and increase costs for seniors and hardworking families.”
The health care proposal is the fifth of six planks of the House Republicans’ “A Better Way” platform. Other planks included measures to combat poverty and to limit the regulatory authority of federal agencies.
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