GOP Explains Repeal and Replace Strategy as “Repeal with stable transition”

In the weekly House GOP press conference, Speaker Paul Ryan and other GOP leaders explained their approach to repealing and replacing Obamacare.

While Ryan spoke of a repeal and replacement happening “concurrently” he also mentions that the 2018 Budget will be used as a tool for repeal while other legislative and regulatory tools will be required to enact the replacement.

When asked what part Senate budget reconciliation will play in repeal and replacement, Ryan said that they, “will pass as much as we can through whatever vehicle we’ve got and then we’ll pass all the other things through regular order.”

Ryan’s comment at first brush appears to show a small difference in timing between repeal and replacement.

“Repealing Obamacare in the beginning,” Ryan said, “will help heal this problem we have.”

It may be that Ryan is expecting reconciliation to be able to enact some portion of the replacement as well as the repeal of Obamacare which would give some concurrency to the two aspects of the GOP plan. The timing could also be set so that while the reconciliation effort will put the repeal into law, it doesn’t happen until the replacement provisions and transition are encoded into law.

This allusion to a transition, instead of concurrent actions was also evident in a statement released on the House Speaker’s website:

“We need to make sure there is a stable transition period so that people do not have the rug pulled out from under them.”

View the entire press conference HERE.