Jason Smith: GOP bill first step to replace 'Obamacare'

Republican legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives marks just the first step in efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, U.S. Rep. Jason Smith said Thursday.

Smith said this is just one part of a three-step process to improve the nation’s health-care system.

The 8th District Republican congressman said the GOP plan would repeal more than $1 trillion in “Obamacare taxes,” remove more than $700 million in health-care subsidies and eliminate the individual mandate to buy health insurance and the employer mandate to provide coverage.

Smith said the goal is to drive down health-care costs and improve health-care access through increased competition.

The American Medical Association, the American Hospital Association and AARP, the nation’s largest advocacy group for older people, oppose the GOP plan.

Hospitals have argued the GOP plan to cut Medicaid would leave more Americans without health insurance.

Smith dismissed the criticism.

The Southern Missouri congressman said, “Hospitals were the biggest advocates and supporters of Obamacare. They are much like the liberals, and they don’t want their legislation dismantled,” Smith said.

“I don’t care about padding the pockets of hospitals. I care about taking care of the people that I serve in the 8th District of Missouri, where they have access to affordable health care,” he said before the start of another House committee meeting.

“I don’t care about the bottom line of hospitals. I care about access of our constituents to health care,” Smith said.

Smith serves on both the Ways and Means Committee and the Budget Committee. The Ways and Means Committee approved the GOP plan at 4:30 a.m. Thursday after 18 hours of discussion, he said.

The Budget Committee will take up the plan next week, Smith said.

The congressman said the Affordable Care Act is in “a complete death spiral.”

In 26 of the 30 counties that comprise the 8th District of Southeast and Southern Missouri, there is a single insurance provider offered through the Affordable Care Act exchange, Smith said.

The congressman said 10.3 million people obtained health insurance through the Affordable Care Act exchanges, but nearly twice that number — 19.2 million — took the penalty instead.

“Most people saw they were better off by taking the penalty,” he added.

Democrats have charged the Republican plan would strip millions of Americans of health insurance.

In an emailed statement, Missouri Democratic Party chairman Stephen Webber said the bill would “gut Medicaid and provide a massive tax cut for the wealthiest Americans while hiking costs for working families, and especially older Americans, who would pay much more for their health care.”

But Smith said the Republican plan will benefit consumers.

Smith said House members have no choice but to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act in stages because of “reconciliation rules” in the Senate to secure the 51 votes needed for passage.

Some conservatives have complained the GOP plan doesn’t allow purchase of health insurance across state lines, something Smith favors.

But he said that provision was left out of this legislation because it ultimately could not be considered as part of Senate reconciliation.

Smith also continues to lobby for price transparency so consumers can compare health-care services. Such a move, he said, would help lower health-care costs.

“This is something I have been preaching to the choir in committee every day,” Smith said.

He said purchase of health insurance across state lines, price transparency and allowing small businesses to pool their insurance coverages are proposals he expects to be considered in the second and third phases of health-care reform.

The congressman said liberals in the House are angry because “they truly know that this is dismantling socialized medicine that Obamacare created and we are moving toward the free-market approach.”

mbliss@semissourian.com

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