New Hampshire state Rep. Marilinda Garcia, the Republican nominee for Congress against Rep. Annie Kuster (D-NH), said she’s never argued for repealing and replacing Obamacare.
“I’m not interested in repealing Obamcare to then replace it with another broad sweeping government mandate that’s a sixth of our economy. I don’t agree with that at all,” Garcia told The Concord Monitor during an interview published on Wednesday.
Garcia is something of a favorite of conservative Republicans. She’s also strongly expressed opposition to Obamcare in the past. The issues page on her campaign website calls for Obamacare repeal. But in the interview with the Monitor the candidate said she didn’t want to repeal Obamacare without doing something else but she also didn’t want to replace it with another type of “government takeover.”
“I’ve never said I want to repeal this and leave us with nothing. But I also have never said I want to replace it with some other form of a government takeover,” Garcia said.
Garcia added that “the jury’s still out” on claims by economists that parts of Obamacare that are popular (like preventing insurers to deny coverage because of pre-existing conditions) aren’t possible without the mandate requiring everyone to buy insurance.
“I don’t think you have to force everyone. I think you allow for the expansion of a market, and encourage everyone to find the option that best suits their need,” Garcia said.
As TPM has previously reported, Garcia has repeatedly dodged getting into specifics on Obamcare.
