U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, the Republican congressman for Tennessee's 3rd District, said Friday the House needed to repeal the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, because the system was imploding and unsustainable - even if it meant doing so without having a firm replacement worked out ahead of time.
"We've got to start somewhere," Fleischmann said about the American Health Care Act that passed the House on Thursday.
"Let's face it, the House voted on something yesterday that I supported, but it's going to go to the United States Senate. The United States Senate will change that bill. We know that. Let's see what comes back," Fleischmann said in an interview before the Armed Forces Day parade in Chattanooga.
He dismissed claims by the Congressional Budget Office that 24 million Americans would lose insurance under the House Republican plan.
"What we have to be careful about CBO scoring is that's a rather nebulous thing," Fleischmann said. "We've put money in the bill to make sure that those with pre-existing conditions will be covered, that states that have actually started down the, I think, unfortunate path of being in the Obamacare system will ultimately be able to extricate themselves out of that and have more control."
The Republican plan calls for federal funding of state "high-risk" pools to support people with pre-existing conditions.
Fleischmann seemed optimistic when asked whether the Tennessee General Assembly might get behind such a measure in light of its crushing defeat of Gov. Bill Haslam's Insure Tennessee plan in 2015. That plan, which applied market dynamics to Medicaid, failed to even make it out of committee for a floor vote.
"I think it [the pre-existing pool plan] would probably work better," Fleischmann said.
House Republicans wrestled with variations on the American Health Care Act for about four months before passing the latest version Thursday.
Fleischmann said he urged Democrats to bring their ideas to the table so both political parties could work together to fix America's health care system to give people lower premiums and better choices.
"Let's get the real health care reform we should have had before Obamacare, that we needed before Obamacare," Fleischmann said. "Republicans and Democrats need to work together to try get to that special place."
Contact staff writer Paul Leach at pleach@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6481.