House Speaker Paul Ryan painted a glowing picture Wednesday of the healthcare system Republicans say they could create if given the chance to repeal and replace Obamacare next year.
Making his first public pitch for the broad healthcare plan committee leaders crafted at his direction earlier this year, Ryan said it would put individuals in charge of their healthcare, upend government mandates and improve the quality of care.
“Obamacare focused on quantity because it put bureaucracy first,” Ryan said in a speech at the American Enterprise Institute. “Our plan will focus on quality.”
Ryan’s address marked a dramatic shift from House Republicans’ approach for the last six years, ever since President Obama’s 2010 healthcare law was passed. They had promised repeatedly to introduce their own replacement plan, but always stuck to criticizing the Affordable Care Act instead, unable to reach consensus internally.
But those days of gridlock are over, Ryan told a packed room at AEI.
“Here it is, a real plan in black and white, right here,” he said. “We are officially putting it on the table. If we don’t like the direction the country is going — and we don’t — we have a duty to offer an alternative.”
Ryan was flanked by Majority Whip Steve Scalise and committee leaders who worked on the proposal, including Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady, Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton, Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price and Education and the Workforce Chairman John Kline. They echoed Ryan’s desire for Republicans to embrace a positive message on healthcare reform, not just a negative message against Obamacare.
“This is something our entire Republican majority has embraced — the idea that we’re not just against Obamacare,” Scalise said.
“We felt strongly we needed to have a replacement plan,” Upton said. “We’ve talked about it for the last six years.”
But their policy-oriented approach contrasted sharply with the approach of their party’s presumptive presidential nominee.
In a speech earlier Wednesday, Donald Trump vowed to “repeal and replace” Obamacare. But Trump has given scant specifics about what he would replace it with. During the primary season, he posted a short list of reforms he would pursue as president but rarely speaks specifics on the campaign trail.
If Republicans were to have a shot at replacing the healthcare law, they presumably would have to do it with Trump in the White House next year. Trump hasn’t endorsed the House plan, but some House Republicans said his campaign has reached out to them about health issues in general.
“I don’t know that there are discussions going on specifically related to this proposal, but healthcare is a robust discussion, yes,” Price told the Washington Examiner.
“I have all the confidence in the world that the plan he will endorse is more consistent with this plan than it would be with Hillary Clinton,” Price added.
Rep. Mike Burgess, R-Texas, said Trump’s campaign has reached out to him to talk about healthcare issues, although he said the GOP plan is “separate and apart” from Trump’s campaign platform.
“Many of these ideas have been forwarded on for a long time,” Burgess said. “The difference is today they’re in one place.”
Democrats, who have long been irked by the House’s repeated votes to repeal the healthcare law, criticized the GOP plan, saying it would deprive millions of Americans of health coverage and cause insurers to reduce their benefits.
“After years of obsessing over the Affordable Care Act, living in denial of its success and undertaking dozens of futile votes to repeal it, Republicans have now unveiled a list of re-packaged, failed ideas to ‘replace’ the ACA,” Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said.
