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.”