Nobamacare or Trumpcare?

The Republicans are on a fast track to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) commonly referred to as Obamacare. They now have the majority in both Houses of Congress and as of January 20th, will control the White House. 

Here is my question. What will the replacement healthcare look like? The Republicans have been railing against the ACA since it was enacted in early 2010. The House of Representatives, under Republican control, has voted over 30 times to repeal the bill. There have been numerous lawsuits including Supreme Court rulings.

After almost seven years of opposition, we still have no idea what the Republican replacement will look like. It seems to me that seven years is more than sufficient time to construct a comprehensive plan. There is not even a proposed outline in place. The only parts of any new bill we do know are: 

children will stay on parents plan until age 26

pre-existing conditions will continue to be covered

older / sicker people will get more support

low income people will get more support

Women will pay the same premiums as men

These are all provisions in the current ACA.  

So what changes? That's a secret for now because apparently, seven years isn't enough time. Like almost every bill that comes out of Congress, there is plenty of room for improvement in Obamacare. Democrats agree too. The problem has been that the Republicans have been hell-bent on repeal and have not even entertained fixes or modifications to the current law. Failure to fix flawed laws is more egregious than passing flawed laws in the first place.

There are over 20 million people covered in some form by the ACA. The number of uninsured American has been reduced by millions. I'm sure they would like to know where they stand.

The ball is in your court Mr. Trump, Mr. Ryan and Mr. McConnell. No excuses. 

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