GOP senator: Republican ObamaCare plan ‘a missed opportunity’

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) says his party’s new legislation for repealing and replacing ObamaCare does not fix the controversial healthcare law.

“This is not the ObamaCare repeal bill we’ve been waiting for,” Lee said in a statement. “It is a missed opportunity and a step in the wrong direction.”

Lee criticized the Republican plan for including tax credits to help with insurance purchases, a concept that has provoked opposition from other conservative lawmakers.

“We don’t know how many people would use this new tax credit, we don’t know how much it will cost, and we don’t know if this bill will make healthcare more affordable for Americans,” Lee added.

{mosads}“This is exactly the type of back-room dealing and rushed process that we criticized Democrats for, and it is not what we promised the American people.”

Lee added lawmakers should instantly repeal ObamaCare and then craft the best solution for its ills.

“Let’s fulfill our ObamaCare promise immediately and then take our time and do reform right,” he said. “Let’s pass the 2015 reform bill that Republicans in both houses of Congress voted for and sent to the White House just 15 months ago.”

“Once ObamaCare has been properly sent to the dustbin of history then we can have a deliberative, open and honest process to reform our nation’s healthcare system.”

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) also criticized the repeal and replace legislation Tuesday, calling it “ObamaCare Lite” from House leadership.

“We should be stopping mandates, taxes and entitlements not keeping them,” he tweeted.

House Republicans on Monday unveiled their long-awaited legislation for repealing and replacing ObamaCare.

The GOP plan dismantles many of ObamaCare’s core structures, including subsidies to help people buy coverage, Medicaid expansion, taxes and mandates that people have insurance.

The bills also dramatically restructure the Medicaid program overall by capping federal payments. Republicans would put in place the new tax credit system to help buy insurance instead.

The legislation is scheduled for two committee votes this Wednesday, and a vote in the full House is expected within weeks afterwards.

The Trump administration on Tuesday formally backed the strategy amid some conservative opposition to the bill’s current form.

Paul and members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus have taken issue with the plan’s tax credits, characterizing them as a “new entitlement” program.