Rand Paul: I Will Vote No Against the GOP Health Care Bill
On Tuesday, President Trump warned House Republicans that if they didn't vote for the GOP health care plan they could potentially face ‘political problems.’ The warning was given a day after Republican leaders released amendments to try and sway critics and naysayers of the proposal.
Regardless of the warning, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said that he will vote no against the American Health Care Act because it does not fully repeal Obamacare.
“I have a lot in common with the president in that we both ran on repealing Obamacare…We [conservatives] ran on repealing it not replacing it with Obamacare Lite and I think Paul Ryan’s plan won’t fix the problems. I think it will continue to allow the insurance premiums to skyrocket,” he told FOX Businesses’ Lou Dobbs.
Paul is anticipating that the GOP health care bill will fail because lawmakers are already building bail outs for the insurance companies.
“My replacement strategy is let everybody in America join a buy-in group,” he said. “I’m not for subsidizing and keeping the prices up for insurance companies, I’m for giving everybody the ability and freedom to join a group to bring prices down.”
Paul thinks that he can get Democrats on board with his proposal to have Americans buy into pools or co-ops, which he believes will bring down premiums.
“There’s 100 billion in there to bail out the insurance companies, so insurance companies have actually doubled their profits under Obamacare. I am not feeling sorry for the insurance companies…And the Ryan plan will continue that, what I really want to do is empower the consumer so we bring down the insurance rates and bring down the ability of the insurance company to make money off the tax payer,” he said.