Senator Rand Paul urged Sunday a “clean repeal” for ObamaCare, deriding a current Senate proposal as one that offers a healthcare law replacement that’s “ObamaCare-lite”, Politico reports.
In remarks on Fox News Sunday, the Kentucky Republican said he favors two bills to repeal and replace former President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act.
“Let’s do clean repeal like we promised. I think you can get 52 Republicans for clean repeal. You can have a simultaneous bill or a concurrent bill that they can call replace and that I think, perhaps if it’s big spending, they could probably get Democrats to go along with big spending,” he said.
“I’m not for that, but I’m saying I want repeal to work, and the way you do it is you separate it into two bills and you do it concurrently,” Paul added.
He added that most of his Senate colleagues think the current replacement plan is simply replacing ObamaCare with “ObamaCare-lite”.
“Here’s the problem… I don’t think we’re getting anywhere with the bill we have. We’re at an impasse. Every time you add federal money, more spending, for the big government Republicans, it offends the conservatives. So right now, this bill, which is not a repeal, has become the kitchen sink,” he said.
Meanwhile, Senator Ted Cruz’s proposal to allow insurance companies to sell non-ObamaCare compliant plans as long as they also sell at least one ObamaCare-compliant plan is being given a hard look by Senate Republicans, Axios reported Saturday.
Axios reports that GOP senators have asked the Congressional Budget Office to analyze Cruz’s proposal and have asked for a score that includes his changes and a score that doesn’t include his changes.
Cruz reportedly has negotiated the proposal with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has grown increasingly frustrated as the Republican healthcare bill sits in limbo following the release of a CBO score last Monday that said the legislation would leave 22 million more Americans uninsured in 2026 than under former President Barack Obama’s healthcare law.
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