If the Supreme Court strikes down subsidies to states using the federal health insurance exchanges, Rep. Paul Ryan was asked, should they set up their own exchanges to prevent people from losing their insurance?
"Oh God, no…The last thing anybody in my opinion would want to do, even if you are not a conservative, is consign your state to this law," the Wisconsin Republican told state legislators Thursday during a conference call organized by the Foundation for Government Accountability, a conservative think-tank. The foundation provided a recording of the call. […]
Mr. Ryan, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and the GOP vice presidential nominee in 2012, asked the state legislators to hold firm and promised them congressional Republicans would have alternative health-care legislation—with an official cost estimate—introduced by June 20. The bill, he said, would revive lower-cost, limited coverage insurance plans in states that didn't want their own exchanges. Currently, 37 states use HealthCare.gov.
"If people blink and if people say this political pressure is too great, I'm just going to sign up for a state-based exchange and put my constituents in Obamacare, then this opportunity will slip through your fingers," he said.
And if you really believe congressional Republicans are going to have a bill by June 20—and that they could actually pass that bill? Well, he's got a bridge he'd like to sell you, too. Ryan told the legislators that he had talked to the plaintiffs' lawyer in the case—Michael Carvin—who told him he was convinced that the court would strike down the subsidies and that "Justice Samuel Alito, in particular, was likely to ensure any decision voiding the credits would have a delayed effect," giving Republicans time to produce a unicorn replacement plan.
By the way, what Republicans in Congress are most enthusiastic about, Ryan told the group, is "allowing states to strip some of the health law’s requirements that insurance plans must provide certain minimum benefits and a requirement that insurers sell to all customers equally regardless of their medical history." In other words, returning to the pre-Obamacare status quo. Helluva plan you got there, Mr. Ryan.
