House Republicans have already set the date for another symbolic vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act, despite bipartisan support for some provisions of the law. Despite Republicans’ promises to eliminate Obamacare, the children of several congressional Republicans join the 6.6 million young adults up to age 26 covered through their parents’ health care.
According to the Huffington Post, these Republicans include Sen. Bob Corker (TN), Rep. Joe Walsh (IL), and Sen. Scott Brown (MA). This has not stopped Republicans from calling for a full repeal, without proposing a viable alternative:
“He [My 24-year-old son] is on his health plan right now — on his mother’s plan — but again, that wouldn’t weigh in on where I stand on the issue,” said Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) last week, before the Supreme Court handed down its ruling. “Again, I just think the whole thing needs to be scrapped. And I don’t even want to think about certain provisions yet.”
But Walsh and his GOP colleagues are soon going to have to start thinking about which provisions they want to keep if they are going to try to repeal Obamacare. Republicans are almost completely unified in wanting to get rid of the health care law, but they are significantly more divided on what a plan would look like going forward — and whether they should keep some of the law’s most popular provisions.
On Sunday, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Republicans would not require parents’ health insurance plans to extend eligibility to adult children if Obamacare is repealed.
Walsh demurred when asked if he supported maintaining the provision.
“No, I don’t know that I do. I don’t know that I do,” he said. “I don’t know where I am on that, and that’s a lousy thing to say. My oldest is 24. That doesn’t matter to me, though, irregardless of that.”
Other lawmakers, including Reps. Mark Amodei (R-NV) and Pete Sessions (R-TX) assume the Republican alternative would include the provision. “Oh, sure. … It would be [incorporated] in any Republican proposal,” Sessions said. Rep. Allen West (R-FL) defended key provisions, including insurance for young adults, as well.
So far, it is unclear what Republican alternative would be. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) said they would revert to the GOP’s 2009 plan, an option that would leave 52 million Americans uninsured.