Critics on the left and right are savaging the new House Republican health-care plan, and some have even dubbed the new bill “Ryancare.” In 2016, President Trump won election to the White House based, in part, on his promise to repeal the Obamacare “disaster…
Critics on the left and right are savaging the new House Republican health-care plan, and some have even dubbed the new bill “Ryancare.”
In 2016, President Trump won election to the White House based, in part, on his promise to repeal the Obamacare “disaster.”
Late Monday, House Republicans unveiled the text of the American Health Care Act and promoted it as a means of getting Washington out of health care, reducing costs and regulations, and setting the stage for market-based reforms.
The following are two of multiple perspectives WND and Radio America are presenting on the legislation as the debate continues.
‘This is a really terrible piece of legislation’
Former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli III, the first man to sue the federal government over the Affordable Care Act, says Republicans are breaking their campaign promises to repeal the health-care law and are instead abandoning free-market principles with legislation that will make health care even worse and let Democrats off the hook for the blame.
Cuccinelli launched the first constitutional challenge to the law, widely known as Obamacare, in 2010. His efforts, along with others, ultimately ended in a 5-4 U. S. Supreme Court decision that saved President Obama’s most significant domestic policy.
But Cuccinelli told WND and Radio America the bill is nothing more than a GOP version of Obamacare.
“This is a sloppy Democrat bill,” he said. “The people who call this Obamacare-lite are wrong. It’s not lite. It’s just a Republican form. This is a really terrible piece of legislation on its own merits. It’s even worse when you realize this is what’s supposed to pass for keeping their promise to actually repeal Obamacare.”
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He said any members trying to keep their promise to repeal the law have to vote against it.
Cuccinelli even revealed the Republicans’ “dirty little secret.” He said they’re really abandoning a full repeal because they do not actually want a market-based health care system.
“They don’t want the regulations to go away. That’s their dirty little secret,” he said. “They don’t want market-based health care. They want big-government control, even though someday it’s all going to come crashing down just because of how bankrupt it will all be.”
Read more about Cuccinelli’s position and listen to the WND/Radio America interview with her.
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Obamacare replacement: The good, the bad and the ugly by Jane Chastain
GOP’s Obamacare replacement is ‘a first step’
One of the leading advocates for a market-driven approach says the bill is a good start toward imploding Obamacare and setting the stage for additional conservative reforms.
Galen Institute President Grace-Marie Turner is a veteran of Washington health-care debates and was a fierce opponent of the Clinton health-care reform effort in the 1990s and Obamacare since 2009. She is encouraged by what she sees in the American Health Care Act and says the realities on Capitol Hill force this kind of legislation.
“It’s a first step. They’re pushing as far as they can with the process they have to go through. They do not expect any Democrats, in the House or the Senate, to vote for this. That means they have to do this through a particularly difficult process called reconciliation that limits the kinds of things you can repeal,” Turner told WND and Radio America.
“They can’t repeal everything in the law through this process because it has to have direct spending and budget implications. They’re doing as much as they can and they have plans to go forward with other pieces of legislation, for example, that will allow people to purchase health insurance across state lines. That’s not possible through this particular pathway.”
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She said this legislation is needed to gut the worst parts of Obamacare.
“There will also be follow-on legislation going forward, but not if this [doesn’t pass]. You can’t build change on the crumbling infrastructure of Obamacare. You’ve got to begin with changes that lead us in a new direction,” Turner said. “It’s like a battleship or an aircraft carrier. It takes a long time to turn this around.”
Read more about Grace-Marie Turner’s position and listen to the WND/Radio America interview with her.
