Dive Brief:
- President-elect Donald Trump told Congress to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act immediately, the New York Times reports. The demand came soon after Republican lawmakers publicly announced their recommitment to repealing the law earlier this week.
- Trump wants a repeal vote next week and a replacement vote soon afterwards, reports the Times. A budget resolution gives House and Senate committees until Jan. 27 to write legislation that could repeal major portions of the law.
- Republicans hope to get a Senate vote on Thursday and a House vote on Friday to draft parliamentary language preventing a likely Democratic filibuster. Democrats are defending the law and have vowed to stop Republicans from repealing it.
Dive Insight:
The President-elect made it clear that reforming the ACA isn’t an option, and that Republicans will move forward to repeal and replace the law. A vote to begin the repeal process might come soon, but coming up with a comprehensive replacement plan will take considerably more time — something even Republicans admit.
Rather than risk having leaving 20 million Americans without healthcare, GOP lawmakers could start removing some of the law’s provisions that employers find burdensome, such as tracking and analyzing workers for coverage purposes and large penalties for non-compliance.
Republicans tried to repeal the ACA several times during the Obama administration, but failed. Repealing overnight a law that took two years to pass and decades to formulate will be both challenging and costly.