Republicans, who have long promised to replace the ACA, have not agreed on a way to do it. According to The Hill, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said his committee chairmen are working to combine many past plans into one. According to the report, when he was asked why a replacement was not included with the most recent repeal bill, Speaker Ryan said, “Just wait.”
Republicans expect to discuss further healthcare alternatives at their retreat next week, according to The Hill.
The conservative party is in need of a clearer consensus on healthcare going into the presidential election. As the Los Angeles Times noted, Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump has offered sparse plans for healthcare reform beyond “everybody’s going to be taken care of” and “the government’s gonna pay for it.”
If the repeal approved in Congress were enacted, it could save $516 billion over the next decade, but it would leave millions uninsured or unable to afford premiums without an alternative law in place.
Some of the pieces already exist — like a plan from Speaker Ryan to use vouchers for Medicare, or a 70-page blueprint from conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute that would use tax breaks instead of subsidies to help lower income Americans afford health coverage, according to the Los Angeles Times.
However, other questions remain unanswered without a unified plan, such as how Republicans plan to maintain coverage without the ACA and Medicaid expansion.
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