U.S. Republicans quibble over effective
date of Obamacare repeal
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[December 08, 2016]
By Susan Cornwell
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Republican
senators are leaning towards a plan to delay the effective date of an
Obamacare repeal for three years, a senior Republican said on Wednesday.
But some conservatives in the House of Representatives think that is too
long to wait for the end of the Affordable Care Act, as President Barack
Obama's signature health insurance program is known.
"In the Senate, there's consensus for three years," Senator Orrin Hatch,
chairman of the chamber's finance committee, told reporters, saying it
could take that long to work out a replacement for Obamacare. "It takes
time to do things around here."
Republicans in both the House and Senate say they want to repeal
Obamacare early in 2017; it will be the first order of business in the
Senate in January, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican,
said on Tuesday.
Donald Trump's election as U.S. president last month means Republicans
will control the White House, Senate and House of Representatives in
2017. The new Congress goes to work on Jan. 3; Trump will be sworn in on
Jan. 20.
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But Republicans have not agreed on how quickly the Obamacare repeal
should go into effect. A delay would give them time to work on a
replacement, instead of throwing millions of Americans out of their
health insurance with no substitute.
Some House conservatives favor phasing out Obamacare and getting a
replacement within two years, because three years would not lapse until
after the next congressional election, with the attendant uncertainty
about who will be in the majority then.
"We don't think it's very wise to leave a long-term plan like that up to
a (future) Congress that you can't necessarily control," said Ben
Williamson, spokesman for Representative Mark Meadows, the incoming
leader of the Freedom Caucus, a group of about 40 House conservatives.
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![](../images/120816pics/news_I15.jpg)
President Barack Obama signs the Affordable Care Act, dubbed
Obamacare, the comprehensive healthcare reform legislation during a
ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington, U.S.,
March 23, 2010. REUTERS/Jim Young/File Photo
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"There is a potential that some members of the Freedom Caucus might vote
against repeal, if the replacement was going beyond two years,"
Williamson said.
The Affordable Care Act has provided some 25 million previously
uninsured Americans with health coverage. Republicans have repeatedly
tried to dismantle the law, which they call a government overreach.
Another senior senator said some Republicans are worried about whether
they will have to raise taxes in three years to pay for an Obamacare
replacement, which could for example involve tax credits to subsidize
health insurance.
"What Republicans could be faced with in three years, is voting for a
tax increase ... and that's not exactly a place that Republicans relish
being," said Senator Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign
Relations committee.
(Reporting by Susan Cornwell; Editing by Bernard Orr)
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