Ryan confident Obama healthcare reform will die

{mosads}He said that even if the mandate is not declared unconstitutional, it will become clear that Obama’s reform law will start to enter a “death spiral,” and Congress will repeal it in 2013.

Ryan said companies will make it clear that they will dump employees into the state health insurance exchanges that start in 2014, overwhelming the exchanges. Also prompting repeal, he said, will be fears over the Independent Payment Advisory Board tasked with proposing Medicare payment cuts to providers if healthcare spending grows too fast.

“It is a house of cards,” he said.

Ryan said he believes universal healthcare can be achieved through portable tax credits for individuals and by making it automatic for individuals to enroll in the system. Other changes such as tort reform would control costs.

Ryan was asked whether he can support GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who as governor of Massachusetts enacted a statewide healthcare reform law with an individual mandate.

“We should not have a 15-point litmus test to be in our party,” Ryan said. He said the GOP needs to rally around “big tent” ideas like economic liberty and deficit reduction and realize there are differences on other issues.

Ryan did say, however, that Romney does not have the nomination locked up and that the race is very much alive for Texas Gov. Rick Perry.