WASHINGTON (AP) – With the Republican drive to craft a new health care plan sputtering, House GOP leaders are offering options to rank-and-file lawmakers for replacing President Barack Obama’s health care law with a conservative approach dominated by tax breaks and a transition away from today’s Medicaid program.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and other House leaders planned to discuss details of their plans with lawmakers Thursday and gauge their receptiveness. The briefing was coming hours before a weeklong recess sends Congress home to energized voters – mostly Democrats – who have recently crammed town hall meetings to complain noisily about GOP efforts to repeal Obama’s statute. Lawmakers are eager to have something to show constituents.
“This is complicated work. We’re not going to rush it,” said Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, one of the panels helping craft the legislation.
Walden said by the end of March, his committee would start writing its part of the measure voiding much of Obama’s law and substituting GOP programs. That’s the most recent of several self-imposed deadlines that President Donald Trump and GOP leaders have set, but until now failed to meet, for reconfiguring the nation’s health care system.
With Senate Republicans straining to coalesce around plans, new Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price met privately with GOP senators Wednesday, but participants said no specifics were discussed. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., said lawmakers and the White House are trying to decide who should release a plan to replace Obama’s law first – the White House or Congress.