Donald Trump and House Republicans have promised to repeal and replace Obamacare, but the key question posed by skeptics has been “with what?” It’s a valid question. American healthcare was no great shakes before Obamacare, and serious reforms are necessary if whatever replaces Obamacare will be successful. To that end, Republicans have started the process of figuring out what works best. As the Washington Examiner reports:
House Republican leaders are asking the nation’s governors and state insurance commissioners on how best to replace Obamacare.
“Obamacare is crumbling under its own weight and seriously harming people in the process,” Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said in a statement releasing the Friday letter. “With a unified Republican Congress and administration, we have the opportunity to repeal this law and undertake major healthcare reforms.”
“Because governors and state insurance commissioners are on the ground and see Obamacare’s problems every day, I and several House chairmen have sent a letter requesting their thoughts on what we need to do to deliver high quality and affordable healthcare to the American people,” he said.
The letter said Congress next year would begin debating and implementing legislation to repeal Obamacare and replace it somehow. But they said in the letter, “we need your ideas too.”
This is refreshing. An approach to healthcare reform that takes into account the unique problems faced by radically different states. Here’s hoping this is a sign that we’re moving towards the decentralization of American healthcare.