WASHINGTON — Republican anxiety is mounting over voting to unravel the healthcare law without having an alternative in hand, fanned by words of encouragement from Donald Trump to a GOP senator who wants to simultaneously repeal and replace the statute.
GOP leaders have made dismantling President Barack Obama’s treasured healthcare overhaul their premier 2017 priority. But even as the Republican-run Senate moves toward passing a budget that would make it harder for Democrats to protect Obama’s law later, at least six GOP senators have expressed qualms about repeal without having a substitute — something Republicans have failed for years to produce.
“We should start immediately to repeal, reform and replace Obamacare, and it shouldn’t be finally repealed until we have a replacement ready,” Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., who is chairman of the Senate Health Committee that will be at the center of this year’s battle, said in a brief interview.
The Affordable Care Act, signed into law in 2010, has required people to obtain coverage. It also created subsidies to help lower-earning people buy policies and expanded Medicaid, but the overhaul has been troubled by rising costs for many consumers and markets that some insurers abandoned.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who wants repeal and replace together, said the president-elect telephoned him January 6 to voice support for that timing. Trump voiced that opinion shortly after his November election, but he called Paul as GOP congressional leaders have moved in a different direction: A quick repeal vote, followed by work on an alternative that could take months or years to craft.
“He’s aware of my arguments for doing replacement at the same time, and he agreed,” Paul said.
House Speaker Paul Ryan said Republicans would try to repeal and replace the healthcare law “concurrently.”
Ryan told reporters, “It is our goal to bring it all together concurrently.”
