Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Boehner: Repeal Won't Happen Because 'Republicans Never Ever Agree On Health Care'
Former House Speaker John Boehner predicted on Thursday that a full repeal and replacement of "Obamacare" is "not going to happen." The Ohio Republican, who was forced out by conservatives in 2015, said he started laughing when he heard President Donald Trump and Republicans promise swift action on undoing and replacing the health law. "Republicans never ever agree on health care," Boehner said. (2/23)
鈥淭hey鈥檒l fix Obamacare, and I shouldn鈥檛 have called it repeal and replace because that鈥檚 not what鈥檚 going to happen. They鈥檙e basically going to fix the flaws and put a more conservative box around it,鈥 Boehner said. The former speaker鈥檚 frank comments capture the conundrum that many Republicans find themselves in as they try to deliver on pledges to axe Obamacare but struggle to coalesce around an alternative. (Tahir, 2/23)
He said lawmakers were too confident in how easy they thought the process would go. "All this happy talk that went on in November and December and January about repeal, repeal, repeal -- yeah we'll do replace, replace -- I started laughing because if you pass repeal without replace, first, anything that happens is your fault. You broke it." Boehner said he warned GOP leaders about repealing Obamacare without a replacement ready because the members "will never ever agree what the bill should be." "Perfect always becomes the enemy of the good," he added. (Burlij, 2/24)