A trio of House Republican committee chairmen have been tapped by the GOP leadership to come up with an alternative to Obamacare.
Republican leaders made the announcement Friday, responding to criticism that they repeatedly seek to repeal the 2010 healthcare law without their own plan to replace it.
The House plans another vote next week to repeal the law, one in a series of more than half a dozen efforts by the GOP in recent years to fully eliminate Obamacare.
Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Education and the Workforce Committee Chairman John Kline, R-Minn., comprise the group.
“The American people need patient-centered solutions to replace Obamacare,” the lawmakers said in a statement. “Ours will put individuals and families in the driver’s seat and use the principles of choice and competition to make high-quality health care more affordable and accessible for all.”
Republican lawmakers in both chambers are grappling with how to tackle their 2014 campaign pledge to repeal Obamacare.
The pressure to try to repeal the law has intensified now that both chambers are controlled by Republicans.
Republicans are considering options that include winning Democratic support to pass different legislation that strikes down unpopular parts of the law, such as the medical device tax, as well as using a procedural maneuver to repeal most of it in one bill.
The GOP has never devised a unified plan to replace the law, although Republicans have proposed different plans, such as allowing the purchase of insurance across state lines and limiting medical malpractice awards.
