Sen. Tom Cotton dismissed House Speaker Paul Ryan’s future plans for healthcare after repealing Obamacare.
The Arkansas Republican has consistently criticized the quick approach GOP leadership is using to push the American Health Care Act, which would gut and partially replace Obamacare. But Cotton also hinted that phase II and phase III of the GOP leadership’s efforts, to be introduced after the bill is passed, are unlikely to become law because of the need for Democratic support.
“We have no guarantees on what might happen in the mythical Phase II or Phase III,” he said on Laura Ingraham’s radio show Monday. “It is all talk.”
Ryan has long said that healthcare repeal will be a three-phase process. The second phase would use administrative actions to reform healthcare and the third phase is another piece of legislation that focuses on insurance reforms.
The American Health Care Act didn’t include those reforms, which include selling insurance plans across state lines, because Republicans wanted to get it passed by the Senate.
Republicans are using a procedural move called reconciliation to get the legislation approved in the Senate via a simple majority vote instead of the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster.
The legislation in phase III would have to get 60 votes, meaning Republicans would need some Democratic support, which Cotton was dismissive Republicans could get.
“If we had Democratic support, we wouldn’t need Phase II or Phase III,” he said.
