The repeal-and-replace branding is mere “happy talk,” he said Thursday at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society conference in Orlando, Fla. “[Congressional Republicans are] going to fix Obamacare — I shouldn’t call it repeal and replace, because it’s not going to happen,” he said, according to Politico.
Any change to the existing ACA would likely be limited, Boehner said, since “Republicans never ever agree on health care.”
Boehner resigned his post in 2015 to return to private life, after struggling to lead a fractious Republican caucus. And while he is no longer a member of Congress, his contradiction of establishment Republican promises is notable.
House Republicans released the outline of an ACA replacement last week. The proposal, however, lacks key details, and President Donald Trump has said he will issue his own replacement plan next month.
Today, the federal government matches state spending on Medicaid programs, so funding can change depending on what expenses there are. The Republican leadership has proposed instead switching to block grants, which is a fixed amount and would limit federal funding.
But Boehner reportedly said that he didn’t expect fewer patients to be covered, according to Shawn Martin, a conference attendee and senior vice president at the American Academy of Family Physicians, in a comment posted on Twitter.
Humana Inc. HUM, -0.32% said earlier this month that it will exit the ACA exchanges by the start of next year. The announcement follows exits by Aetna Inc. AET, +0.85% and UnitedHealth Group Inc. UNH, +1.03% .
Anthem Inc. ANTM, +0.45% , Centene Corp. CNC, +0.64% and Molina Healthcare MOH, +0.81% have not made any such announcements.
Source and credit: Marketwatch, Politico