Despite President-elect Donald Trump's pledge to quickly repeal Obamacare, Republican leaders say it could take years to completely do away with the health-care law, The Washington Post reports.
GOP congressional leaders stressed they will need considerable time to get people out of the Affordable Care Act programs and into other options — even as they move ahead to quickly repeal the law, the Post says.
"There will be a multiyear transition into the replacement," said Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, according to the Post. "This is a failed piece of legislation and it is coming apart at the seams, but it is going to take us awhile to make that transition from the repeal to actually replacing it."
The GOP has yet to unveil a detailed proposal on how it intends to replace Obamacare, the newspaper notes.
"We know that to correct it is going to take time, it's just that simple," said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin G. Hatch, R-Utah.
And House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., urged that the law be repealed first even if there is no replacement in sight, the Miami Herald reports.
"I think once it's repealed you will have, hopefully, fewer people playing politics and coming to the table to find the best policy," he said.
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