Three powerful conservative groups have condemned the House Republicans’ Obamacare replacement bill: Club for Growth, Freedomworks, and Heritage Action for America.
Club for Growth, calling the bill “RyanCare,” stated it would “key vote” the bill, which it dubbed “RyanCare.” Club for Growth president David McIntosh stated:
The problems with this bill are not just what’s in it, but also what’s missing: namely, the critical free-market solution of selling health insurance across state lines. Such an injection of competition would lead to hundreds of billions of dollars in savings, nullifying any argument by Congressional Republicans that this provision cannot be included in the current bill. If this warmed-over substitute for government-run health care remains unchanged, the Club for Growth will key vote against it.
He added: “Republicans should be offering a full and immediate repeal of Obamacare’s taxes, regulations, and mandates, an end to the Medicaid expansion, and inclusion of free-market reforms, like interstate competition.”
Michael Needham, the president of Heritage Action for America, the sister organization to The Heritage Foundation, echoed, “The House Republican proposal released last night not only accepts the flawed progressive premises of Obamacare but expands upon them. Ronald Reagan once said, ‘Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.’ The AHCA does all three.” He added, “Many Americans seeking health insurance on the individual market will notice no significant difference between the Affordable Care Act (i.e., Obamacare) and the American Health Care Act. That is bad politics and, more importantly, bad policy.”
FreedomWorks, which has called for a March 15 “day of action” on the ACA, condemned the bill as “Obamacare-lite” and restated its support for a replacement bill introduced by Sen. Rand Paul and backed by the House Freedom Caucus.
FreedomWorks policy analyst Jason Pye slammed the House GOP bill, pointing out, “It creates a new entitlement through the refundable tax credits.It allows insurance companies to assess a 30 percent penalty on those who don’t keep continuous coverage for 63 days, which is an individual mandate by another name.”
“Republicans should be offering a full and immediate repeal of Obamacare’s taxes, regulations, and mandates, an end to the Medicaid expansion, and inclusion of free-market reforms, like interstate competition.”
Club for Growth president David McIntosh
Michael Cannon, from the libertarian Cato Institute, warned:
Flubbing ObamaCare would at once united and embolden Democrats while dividing the GOP base, driving the former to the polls in 2018 and 2020 while causing the latter to stay home. If ObamaCare is not doing well, and Republicans take the blame, it will create the potential for the sort of wave election Democrats experienced in 2008, when they captured not just the House and the presidency, but a filibuster-proof, 60-vote supermajority in the Senate. If that happens, and ObamaCare is not doing well, Democrats will be less interested in rescuing ObamaCare than repealing and replacing it themselves—with a single-payer system.