As Congressional Republicans rally the troops for an Obamacare rollback in President-elect Donald Trump's first 100 days, the question remains: What's going to replace it?
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy says nothing.
"My personal belief — and nothing has been decided yet — I would [move through] and repeal and then go to work on replacing," the California Republican told reporters on Capitol Hill on Tuesday. "I think once it is repealed you will have, hopefully, fewer people playing politics."
The new Congress convenes on Jan. 3, but Rep. McCarthy said he saw no opportunity to repeal the Affordable Care Act before Jan. 20. Still, he refused to provide a timeline for a potential replacement.
"Look, we are going to start on this right away," he said. "I don't want to get into timeline."
The news came the day Bloomberg Politics revealed Senate Republicans were planning to utilize a budget loophole, called reconciliation, to avoid the 60-vote requirement to prevent a filibuster that would stop the Affordable Care Act repeal.
Still, repealing the ACA is only half of a solution. Republicans need a viable, agreed-upon replacement.
If a replacement isn't presented, Talking Points Memo noted, "any sort of delay between repealing Obamacare and replacing it could jeopardize the entire individual health insurance market and send insurers fleeing the market."
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