House Ways and Means Chairman Paul Ryan says Republican lawmakers will have an immediate "backup plan" ready should a Supreme Court ruling in the King v. Burwell case erase subsidies for Obamacare customers in 37 states.
But it won't be an Affordable Care Act replacement.
"Once we deal with [King v. Burwell], I fully intend on articulating what we ought to replace the whole thing with," the Wisconsin Republican says,
The Hill reports.
The nation's high court
is expected to decide in late June whether the ACA prohibits people on the federal healthcare exchange from getting insurance subsidies. An estimated 7 million people could be affected.
"We have to be prepared, by the time the ruling comes, to have something. Not months later," Ryan says, adding he plans to have a bill ready and priced by the Congressional Budget Office when the ruling is made.
"The president is saying he doesn't have a backup plan. I just don't think that's responsible. We need to have a backup plan."
Ryan has been meeting with House Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton, a Michigan Republican, and Minnesota Republican Rep. John Kline to draft the House GOP plan.
"There are going to be 37 states immediately impacted, or presumably impacted, and that’s something that deserves an immediate response," Ryan says, The Hill reports.
Ryan didn't divulge any details of the plan, other than to say it'll offer "freedom"and "more choices" to anyone who loses his subsidy, The Hill reports.
The Hill reports that if the ruling decides the subsidies are prohibited on the federal exchange, Republicans will use a budget tool known as reconciliation to move the legislation.
Bills written under the reconciliation process cannot be filibustered in the Senate, allowing legislation to get to the president's desk faster.
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