Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives unveiled an alternative plan to overhaul the nation’s healthcare system on Wednesday, slamming Obamacare even as they aimed to keep some of its more popular provisions.
Their proposal, part of broader effort by House Speaker Paul Ryan to offer a Republican agenda ahead of the Nov. 8 elections, is conservatives’ latest bid to “repeal and replace” the 2010 law.
Ryan, the country’s highest-ranking elected Republican, is offering the proposal as the party seeks to maintain control of both the House and the Senate and take over the White House. Other proposals cover tax reform, address poverty as well as national security.
Republicans have challenged President Barack Obama’s signature Affordable Care Act since it was enacted and have voted repeatedly to repeal it. Obama, a Democrat, has said it has helped some 20 million Americans get health care coverage.
Ryan acknowledged his agenda was unlikely to displace current law anytime soon.
“We’re not going to repeal Obamacare when the current president of the United States is a guy named Obama,” he told reporters. “What we are laying out today is a first-time-in-six-years consensus by the Republicans in the House on what we replace Obamacare with.”
In their plan, which is not formal legislation, House Republicans blasted Obamacare for limiting patients’ choices, increasing consumer costs, and burying employers and health care providers under new regulations.
