Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI), one of the staunchest opponents of Republicans’ initial bill to repeal and replace Obamacare who nevertheless voted to pass it through the House, said Saturday that the current version is “not the bill” Republicans promised voters.
In a Facebook post, Amash called the American Health Care Act (AHCA) “an amendment to the ACA that deliberately maintains Obamacare’s framework.”
“Many of the AHCA’s provisions are poorly conceived or improperly implemented. At best, it will make Obamacare less bad,” he said.
Amash said a Democratic lawmaker joked that the first version of the bill “wasn’t a new health care proposal; it was plagiarism. He was right.”
“This is not the bill we promised the American people. For the past seven years, Republicans have run for Congress on a commitment to repeal Obamacare,” Amash said. “But it is increasingly clear that a bill to repeal Obamacare will not come to the floor in this Congress or in the foreseeable future.”