Dr. Zeke Emanuel, one of the architects of the Affordable Care Act, said Friday that Republican plans to replace it quickly are a "nonstarter," because they have had seven years to do so and have not followed through.
Emanuel made the comments during an appearance on CNN's "New Day."
Republicans are not in sync on a bill that's ready to replace the act, nicknamed Obamacare, Emanuel said. "They do not agree among themselves. And so the notion that this will be quick — even if you didn't have Democrats who had their own ideas — just within the Republican Party, that is a nonstarter. They do not have a bill that they can now put forward immediately.
"It's the 'quick' that I think is a little bit off, because Republicans have had seven years to come up with the replacement bill and they have never introduced a replacement bill and gone through the process of actually trying to enact it," he said.
Creating a plan takes work. "There's no magic bullet … That is a complex process that requires paying doctors differently and paying hospitals differently and making them change how they deliver care," he added.
Emanuel, the brother of Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel, expressed doubt that Republicans can put together the "complex puzzle" of a workable plan.
About putting together Obamacare: "We spent a long time trying to put the puzzle together and the Republicans, once they get down to the nuts and bolts of designing a plan, are going to find it a lot harder, with less freedom of movement than they say they are going to have," Emanuel said.
On Wednesday, he said, "What we need is not repeal, but repair," the Washington Examiner reported. Emanuel expressed hope that a bipartisan replacement could be created, saying, "If you talk to conservative and liberal healthcare policy experts, there's extensive overlap."
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