The Cato Institute

Did Republicans Just Repeal Obamacare?

Short answer: No. 

House Republicans have approved a bill to revise Obamacare with only one vote to spare. Democrats and the media are having such conniptions about the American Health Care Act, you’d think Republicans were really about to repeal Obamacare. They’re not.

Rather than do what their supporters sent them to Washington to do — repeal Obamacare and replace it with free-market reforms — House Republicans are pushing a bill that will increase health-insurance premiums, make health insurance worse for the sick, and ensure that Republicans rather than the real cause (Obamacare) will take the blame.

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Five Unavoidable Obamacare Reform Realities

The congressional Republican bill is flawed, but so are many of the talking points being used against it…

It has been barely a week since the Republican plan to (sort of) repeal and replace Obamacare was unveiled and already the proposal has been savaged from both left and right, by most of the media, by various interest groups, including doctors, hospitals, and insurance companies, and by virtually anyone else with an opinion. Outside of Paul Ryan, it is hard to find anyone who truly likes this bill.

While it is true that the American Health Care Act is a deeply flawed bill that perpetuates — and in some cases exacerbates — some of Obamacare’s worst aspects, many of the talking points being used against it are even worse.

Here are the top five things to keep in mind about healthcare reform…

1. There will be losers as well as winners. Every piece of legislation creates winners and losers. Obamacare did. There were far more losers than winners, but some of those who won under Obamacare will be losers under the Republican plan. 
   
2. There will be more winners than losers. Premiums would be lower under the GOP plan starting in 2020, about 10 percent lower by 2026. Plus, the more than $1 trillion in tax cuts — many for the middle class — and the $337 billion reduction in deficits over the next ten years mean more jobs and economic growth, a big win for everybody.
   
3. 14 million people are not having their insurance taken away. Much of the projected decline in coverage stems from CBO’s belief that, without the individual mandate, many people would choose not to buy insurance. 
   
4. Of the 25 million fewer insured in 2026, 14 million would come from a reduction in Medicaid enrollment. That may sound alarming, but Medicaid was not only fiscally unstainable in its current form, it provided barely minimal care. Reforming Medicaid in a way that encourages states to innovate and focus more of their resources on the most vulnerable populations can only benefit those most in need.
   
5. The alternative is Obamacare not utopia. Projections of how many people would be insured or what premiums would be ten years from now assume that Obamacare would survive that long. It couldn’t, not in its current form.
   

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