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BREAKING: Leaked House Republicans’ Affordable Care Act Replacement Bill

June 20, 2016
Blog

Six years after the Affordable Care Act was signed into law, Republicans have finally drafted a bill to replace the health care law. See the leaked legislative text HERE.

It's about time! In their own words, 35 times Republicans committed to producing an ACA alternative "in the next hour," "tomorrow," in "a month or so," "this year" or just "soon":

August 24, 2010:
"We will stop the out of control spending and tax increases, and repeal and replace Obamacare."
– Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell [CNN]

September 22, 2010:
"We offer a plan to repeal and replace the government takeover of health care with commonsense solutions focused on lowering costs and protecting American jobs."
— House GOP "Pledge To America" [GOP.gov]

January 18, 2011:
"This health care system should be replaced with a patient-centered health care system."
– House Speaker Paul Ryan [CNN]

January 19, 2011:
"Repeal means paving the way for better solutions that will lower the cost without destroying jobs or bankrupting our government. Repeal means keeping a promise. This is what we said we would do."
– Former House Speaker John Boehner [NY Times]

January 19, 2011:
"We'll start tomorrow with a replacement. The difference is that we'll lower the cost. The difference is the American public will be a part of it."
– House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy [Nexis]

March 22, 2012:
"Obamacare needs to be repealed and replaced."
– Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell [C-SPAN]

May 16, 2013:
"I expect our conference in the coming weeks to have a discussion about Obamacare and how we're going to deal with it, and what the replacement legislation would look like."
– Former House Speaker John Boehner [Politico]

December 18, 2013:
"I'll be on the floor next hour to introduce a bill to repeal & replace #Obamacare w/ a common sense health care reform alternative"
– Senator John McCain [Twitter]

January 6, 2014:
"Paul Ryan says he's going to develop an alternative to the health care law in 2014"
– [CQ HealthBeat]

January 16, 2014:
"It's one of the big issues for conversation in terms of our agenda for this year, and I think you'll see Republicans come forward with a plan to replace Obamacare."
– Former House Speaker John Boehner [The Hill]

January 30, 2014:
"This year, we will rally around an alternative to Obamacare and pass it on the floor of the House."
– Former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor [TPM]

February 14, 2014:
"As we continue to work to finalize our Obamacare replacement plan, we will also act to highlight and address the serious consequences of the law."
– Former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor [TPM]

February 27, 2014:
"Our members will offer an alternative when it comes to Obamacare. We'll offer better solutions on jobs, on job training, education and a host of other issues while Democrats will sit on the sidelines and we'll continue to lead and offer better solutions for the American people."
– Former House Speaker John Boehner [Speaker.gov]

March 16, 2014:
"House Republican leaders craft their vision for an alternative to health-care law"
– [NY Times]

April 8, 2014:
"We are about proposing real health care reform that will be patient centered -- and a plan that we will put forward this year."
– Former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor [TPM]

April 25, 2014:
"(To) repeal Obamacare ... isn't the answer. The answer is repeal and replace."
– Former House Speaker John Boehner [TPM]

May 28, 2014:
"The American people can't afford to wait any longer for Congress to repeal and replace Obamacare. The time is now to bring an Obamacare replacement bill to the House floor that lowers costs and puts patients back in charge of their health care decisions."
– Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) [Politico]

June 4, 2014:
"Majority Leader Cantor continues to work towards bold legislative solutions to replace 'Obamacare.'"
– Doug Heye, Deputy Chief of Staff for Former Majority Leader Eric Cantor [Associated Press]

July 24, 2014:
"The discussions about Obamacare and what the replacement bill would look like continue."
– Former House Speaker John Boehner [Huffington Post]

September 11, 2014:
"[Senator Rob] Portman said that Senate Republicans should present an alternative health care proposal to couple with the repeal effort. ‘I think we should,' he said. ‘I think it is something that ought to go along with repeal to say, "Yes, we think this is the wrong way to go. But we also think the health care system must be improved."'"
– [Huffington Post]

November 4, 2014:
"We would repeal Obamacare and replace it – replace it with a health care system that empowers the individual."
– House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy [FOX]

November 10, 2014:
"Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep. Paul Ryan are preparing to release a health care alternative to Obamacare, a proposal that could get more traction under a Republican-controlled Congress but set up a confrontation with President Barack Obama."
– [Tampa Bay Times]

January 3, 2015:
"What the King case does is gives us an opportunity and a reason to come to a consensus sooner so, when we get the ruling of the Supreme Court in June, we are then prepared to say, ‘Here is what is better for the American people in terms of affordability, quality and choice."
– Rep. John Barrrasso (R-WY) [Politico]

January 28, 2015:
"There are three committee chairmen that have the jurisdiction over the health care policy in our country. And those three chairman are working to craft what we believe would be a better approach to health care than Obamacare. There will be an alternative, and you'll get to see it."
– Former House Speaker John Boehner [FOX]

February 13, 2015:
"Paul Ryan says he'll unveil a GOP health plan by end of March. ‘I don't want to reinvent the wheel.'"
– [CQ HealthBeat]

March 2, 2015:
"Americans should have an off-ramp from ObamaCare—a legislative alternative that leads them away from an expensive health-care wreck and toward a patient-centered system."
– John Kline, Paul Ryan, and Fred Upton, Chairmen of the House Committees on Education and Workforce, Ways and Means, and Energy and Commerce [WSJ]

March 15, 2014:
"Committees are continuing to work on that and I'm sure we're gonna see one soon."
– Former House Speaker John Boehner [TPM]

June 14, 2015:
Chris Wallace: "Do you have a plan that would make sure that would make sure that 16 million Americans who didn't have health insurance will get health insurance?"
House Speaker Paul Ryan: "Yes we will." [FOX]

June 30, 2015:
"We have an opportunity here, but let there be no more talk of waiting until some future date to produce the Republican health-care alternative. Now is the time."
– Sen. Ben Sasse (D-NE) [National Review]

December 3, 2015:
"We think this problem is so urgent that, next year, we will unveil a plan to replace every single word of Obamacare."
– House Speaker Paul Ryan [WSJ]

January 8, 2016:
"Obamacare will be gone. And then… we can replace this law with a truly patient-centered health care system. It's just a matter of time."
– House Speaker Paul Ryan [Speaker Paul Ryan's YouTube channel]

January 10, 2016:
"We have to be more than just an opposition party. We have to be a proposition party. So, if we don't like this, we have got to show how we would do things differently."
– House Speaker Paul Ryan [CBS News]

February 3, 2016:
"What do we replace it with? We have to show you. We owe you. If we don't like this Obamacare what would we replace it with?"
– House Speaker Paul Ryan [Speaker.gov]

March 23, 2016:
"We don't just oppose someone or something. We propose a clear and compelling alternative."
– House Speaker Paul Ryan [Speaker.gov]

April 18, 2016:
"Give us a little time, another month or so, I think we'll be pretty close to a Republican alternative."
– House Energy and Commerce Chair Fred Upton [The Hill]

Why haven't the Republicans been able to produce an alternative? Well,as one "GOP health aide" put it:

"The problem with replace is that if you really want people to have these new benefits, it looks a hell of a lot like the Affordable Care Act. ... To make something like that work, you have to move in the direction of the ACA. You have to have a participating mechanism, you have to have a mechanism to fund it, you have to have a mechanism to fix parts of the market."

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Issues:Affordable Care Act