Peter Suderman on How Republicans Could Replace Obamacare
What is the GOP's health care plan? For years, this has been the rejoinder from supporters of Obamacare whenever asked to confront the flaws in their own legislation. It was an attack line, but also a question worth asking: For the last five years, Republicans have spent plenty of time bashing the president's health law, but far less time describing what they would do instead.
A new proposal from Republican Sens. Coburn, Burr, and Hatch represents a tentative attempt to respond substantively to the question. It's called The Patient Choice, Affordability, Responsibility, and Empowerment (CARE) Act, and it's not intended to be the answer, but one possibility—a first step toward a Republican vision for reform. It's less radical in scope than Obamacare, writes Senior Editor Peter Suderman, and more modest in its aims: The goal isn't to rethink the health care system. It's to make it better, cheaper, and more accessible for the majority of people.
