Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
GOP Unveils Obamacare Alternative
Los Angeles Times: Republicans Outline Their Obamacare Alternative
A group of leading Republican lawmakers on Wednesday proposed an outline for replacing the Affordable Care Act in a bid to advance traditional conservative healthcare goals, including deregulating health insurance, curtailing Medicaid spending and changing how health plans are taxed. The outline, which parallels a blueprint that senior GOP senators proposed in the last Congress, is not a formal bill. That precludes the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office from calculating its cost and its precise effect on the nation's healthcare system. (Levey, 2/4)
The Associated Press: GOP Lawmakers: Scrap Obama Health Law, Use Tax Credits
Republicans released the outline Wednesday as Democrats continue pounding away at them for pledging to repeal and replace Obama's law, practically since its 2010 enactment, without advancing a substitute. That's a growing political liability for Republicans because the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that this year, 19 million Americans will receive coverage as a result of the law, including large numbers in GOP-dominated states. (2/4)
Kaiser Health News: GOP Chairmen Offer Alternative To Health Law
Kaiser Health News staff writer Mary Agnes Carey reports: "Key GOP chairmen from the Senate and House plan to unveil a blueprint Thursday for repealing the health law and replacing it with a proposal the lawmakers said would reduce health care costs, improve quality and expand coverage. The measure retains many elements of a proposal Republican Sens. Orrin Hatch of Utah and Richard Burr of North Carolina released a year ago with former Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla. That proposal did not get traction, but the senators are pushing it again and now are working with House Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich." (Carey, 2/5)
