Republican leaders have continued in their campaign to ensure that the Affordable Care Act, also known as ‘Obamacare’ is repealed and replaced.
Rallying for support
Following months of sensitization and all round meetings and discussions with more than 150 Republican members, Republican leaders in the House are still making attempt to resolve the long standing disagreements with their fellow house members over tax and the tax exclusion issue on employer plans.
Republican leaders taking the lead
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, US Vice President Mike Pence and Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price are said to be planning a grand rally in Janesville, Wisconsin, in Ryan’s hometown.
They may have to please both conservatives and moderates since they cannot rely on Democrats to get their support; this is in a way creating a delicate balance to ensure that there is no loss of any one of their core constituencies.
Conservatives concerns
Effort is underway right now in the House, and there are two committees working in tandem to get a bill that can address the concerns raised by conservatives, but also ensuring that the proposal gets to the finished line. The Committee is expected to work throughout the weekend to find a way of re-structuring the refundable tax credits in a manner that addresses the core concerns of conservative members. The Committee for Energy and Commerce has ensured that their committee staff is available to answer questions with Republican members.
Determined to repeal
Republican legislatures are still working on the important aspects of the bill, especially, on tax structure credits that would guarantee that low-income earners buy insurance. This proposal has created much debate with conservatives, who argue that refundable tax credits are a bit more than a subsidy or “Obamacare lite.” But there main concerns borders on the availability of the tax credit scheme to everyone, including the wealthiest people.
There are confirmed reports that one of the major idea being consider in the tax credit scheme is to limit the eligibility criteria so that the richest people won’t benefit from it, and this has been the bone of contention with the conservatives who are more concerned about the basic structure of the plan.
