House Republicans are planning to get an Affordable Care Act repeal bill on President-elect Trump's desk by Feb. 20, while the administration moves forward with executive actions to start unwinding the ACA on day one, according to a report from The Hill.
The article posted today by The Hill’s Peter Sullivan cited a House Republican as well as Vice President-elect Mike Pence. In the article, Sullivan wrote, “The Feb. 20 target date was put forward by incoming House Budget Committee Chairman Diane Black (R-Tenn.), said Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), who was leaving a meeting with House Republicans and Vice President-elect Mike Pence on Wednesday.”
The article further states, “Pence said Trump plans to take executive actions to start unwinding ObamaCare on day one, but did not get into specifics.”
In his reporting, Sullivan quoted Pence: “It will be an orderly transition to something better ... using executive authority to ensure it’s an orderly transition," Pence told reporters. "We’re working now on a series of executive orders that will enable that orderly transition to take place even as Congress appropriately debates alternatives to and replacements for ObamaCare.”
Further, Sullivan also reported, “Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.), an early Trump supporter, added that, ‘The president in his first day in office is going to do some level of executive orders related to ObamaCare.’”
“But Collins said there were ‘no details whatsoever’ on the orders discussed in the meeting,” Sullivan wrote in the article.
And, further in the story, Sullivan wrote, “GOP lawmakers emerging from the meeting with Trump’s inner circle said no details for a replacement were discussed. Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) equated the gathering to a ‘pep rally’ aimed at boosting enthusiasm among Republicans for the job ahead.”
As Congress prepares to repeal portions of the ACA and President-elect Trump has announced his intentions for ACA repeal, healthcare industry leaders have voiced concerns about any repeal without an immediate replacement.
James Madara, M.D., the CEO of the American Medical Association (AMA), issued a letter to House and Senate leadership yesterday urging policy makers to provide “reasonable detail” about their replacement plan before moving to alter insurance coverage under the ACA.
In that letter, Madara wrote, “Health system reform is an ongoing quest for improvement. The AMA supported passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) because it was a significant improvement on the status quo at that time. We continue to embrace the primary goal of that law—to make high quality, affordable health care coverage accessible to all Americans. We also recognize that the ACA is imperfect and there a number of issues that need to be addressed. As such, we welcome proposals, consistent with the policies of our House of Delegates, to make coverage more affordable, provide greater choice, and increase the number of those insured.”
Further, Madara also wrote that “it is essential that gains in the number of Americans with health insurance coverage be maintained.”
Madara wrote, “Consistent with this core principle, we believe that before any action is taken through reconciliation or other means that would potentially alter coverage, policymakers should lay out for the American people, in reasonable detail, what will replace current policies. Patients and other stakeholders should be able to clearly compare current policy to new proposals so they can make informed decisions about whether it represents a step forward in the ongoing process of health reform.”
