[caption id=”attachment_117800″ align=”aligncenter” width=”3418″] Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
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With the King v. Burwell Supreme Court case looking like it could leave Obamacare gutted, Republicans are eager to show that they have ideas for the next steps.
Republican Reps. John Kline, Paul Ryan and Fred Upton wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal Monday outlining their “off-ramp out of Obamacare.”
Their proposal offers two steps they believe the country should take should the court decision in King v. Burwell nullify the federal subsidies offered through the federal Obamacare exchanges, essentially making these healthcare plans too expensive to be feasible.
We would also force insurers to compete for your business, rather than force Americans to buy a government-approved health plan under the threat of IRS fines. Let people buy insurance across state lines. Stop frivolous lawsuits by enacting medical-liability reform. Let small businesses band together so they get a fair deal from insurance companies. Our committees and nonpartisan analysts alike estimate that these proposals will cut costs and raise quality across the board.
At the same time, we would set up other safeguards for patients. We would allow parents to keep children on their plan until age 26. We would prohibit insurers from imposing lifetime limits on benefits. We would protect people with existing conditions. And we would guarantee renewability for people already enrolled in a plan.
Second, help people buy coverage. Right now, those who get insurance through their employer get a lot of help from the tax code, while some people who buy insurance on their own, including potentially the millions of Americans the IRS put at risk, get no help at all. So we would offer those in the affected states a tax credit to buy insurance.
The credit would be “advanceable”—that is, you would get it when you needed it; you wouldn’t have to wait for tax season. It also would be “refundable”—that is, you would get the full amount no matter the size of your tax bill. And would adjust the size of the credit for age; the elderly, who face higher coverage costs, would get more support.”
Three Republican senators also proposed their own plan this week.
Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), and John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) also believe in a transitional period, but their plan relies more on a state-by-state model for the future.
