Paul Ryan: You Can’t Just Repair Obamacare

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By Juliegrace Brufke

House Speaker Paul Ryan asserted Republicans will repeal and replace Obamacare, not just repair it, during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday.

While reports indicated Republicans plan to fix parts of the Affordable Care Act instead of fully replacing it, Ryan said the party plans to construct a new plan that will deliver more affordable options for Americans.

“If you’re going to repair the American health care system and fix its problems, you have to repeal Obamacare and replace it with something better … It is a collapsing law,” he told host Chuck Todd. “Five states have one plan to choose from. A third of all the counties in America have one plan to choose from. Seventy percent of all counties in America have one or two plans to choose from—that’s a monopoly or duopoly.”

Ryan noted that the law is self-imploding and Congress needs to act to ensure premiums don’t continue to sky rocket

“Somewhere along the line there was confusion that we were going to take the Obamacare architecture and, you know, tinker at the margins and repair it,” he continued. “You can’t. It is a collapsing law.”

Ryan said he thinks fixing failed policies could bridge the divide between parties.

“All the division, the polarization in America, I think a lot if it can be healed if we get people back to work, if we help get people out of poverty, if we keep us safe, if we get faster economic growth, and more jobs, and higher wages—if we can fix these problems that are solvable in this country, that’s what going to matter at the end of the day,” he said.

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