Republican Sen. Rand Paul on Tuesday sent a letter detailing four "policy priorities" he believes would improve the Senate's lumbering healthcare legislation, the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA).
Paul was one of the original five Republican holdouts — which subsequently ballooned to nine — who forced Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to postpone a vote on the BCRA until after the July 4 recess.
In his two-page letter to McConnell, Paul proffered four changes to the BCRA that he feels "would improve the healthcare system and insurance markets":
- Expansion of small business health plans to include self-employed individuals, and to allow small businesses to self-insure "like other large employer groups."
- Get rid of "Obamacare's cost-sharing reductions" — the insurance company bailouts.
- Eliminate the "Obamacare premium tax credits."
- Eliminate the continuous coverage requirement, the Republicans' version of the individual mandate; "allow insurance companies to impose a waiting period."
"I hope this outline aids your understanding of my current position on the Senate health reform bill, and changes that might be made to the language to make good on Republicans' promise to stop Obamacare and provide true health reform," Paul wrote.