Vice President Mike Pence said congressional Republicans should pass a repeal only" bill if they can't reach an agreement on legislation to replace Obamacare."
In an interview Monday on "The Rush Limbaugh Show," Pence said President Donald Trump has "made it very clear."
"We believe if they can’t pass this carefully crafted repeal and replace bill — do those two things simultaneously — we ought to just repeal only," he said. "And then have enough time built into that legislation to craft replacement legislation in a way that’s orderly and allows states to adjust to different changes in Medicaid over maybe a three or four-year window that allows the insurance markets to evolve."
White House legislative director Marc Short, however, said "we still believe that the bill before the Senate is the preferable path," The Hill reported.
But lawmakers are divided on a clear path to securing the necessary 50 votes; 10 Republican senators oppose the current legislation, with more than a dozen undecided, The Hill reported.
In his radio interview, Pence also endorsed an amendment being heavily promoted by Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah that' would give insurance companies the freedom to sell any kind of healthcare plan they want, as long as they also sell at least one plan that qualifies under the regulatory requirements of the Affordable Care Act.
"Freedom policies… would say to a state, 'Look, if you offer an insurance plan that meets what remains of the federal regulations, then you can also offer — to Americans — to be able to buy a health insurance product that doesn’t meet those same criteria,'" he said.
"You know, Rush, that’s what freedom looks like, isn’t it?"
"We simply cannot allow the disaster of Obamacare to continue," Pence added. "It is hurting families."
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