GOP group submits ObamaCare replacement plan

The conservative Republican Study Committee (RSC) on Friday submitted its recommendations for a Republican replacement for ObamaCare as it seeks to shape a plan being formed by a group of House chairmen. 

The recommendations come from the RSC’s already-existing legislation, the American Health Care Reform Act, which would completely repeal ObamaCare and replace it with a new system. 

{mosads}“This bill relies on conservative principles and increased state flexibility to transform our top-down health care system into one that creates competition, growth and increased access for all Americans,” the group said in a statement. 

The proposal would replace ObamaCare’s refundable tax credits with a tax deduction, which tends to provide less help to low-income people by reducing the taxes people owe rather than allowing for the possibility of getting money back in a refund. 

The RSC argues this change would “encourage work while ensuring the federal government does not create another new entitlement program.”

The law would undo ObamaCare’s provision that bars insurance companies from refusing to cover people with pre-existing conditions and instead set up a system of high-risk pools for them. 

By repealing ObamaCare, the measure would also undo the law’s expansion of Medicaid, which has provided much of the coverage gains that have led to an estimated 20 million people gaining insurance from ObamaCare. 

The RSC says Medicaid spending is climbing at an unsustainable rate and is too often providing care for able-bodied adults.

The plan would create block grants to states for Medicaid funds, which many Democrats say would limit funding for the program and lead to cuts in benefits. 

Republicans have promised a replacement to ObamaCare for years but have so far failed to coalesce behind a single alternative or bring one up for a vote. 

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, part of the task force put together by Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), said recently the group needs “another month or so” to come up with a plan.