When the bill to replace Obamacare comes to his desk, Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, isn\u2019t sure how he will vote.<\/p>\n
In a conference call with reporters, Young called the atmosphere on Capitol Hill a \u201cbubbling cauldron of indecision,\u201d and he isn\u2019t sure what the final version of the bill in the U.S. House will look like.<\/p>\n
Young, who has been a passionate advocate for repeal of the Affordable Care Act (commonly known as Obamacare), said he still believes it should be repealed but doesn\u2019t think the bill backed by Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, is the best way to do that.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, I\u2019m not convinced that what we have is the best option,\u201d Young said.<\/p>\n
Representatives in the House were expected to be presented with a set of changes Monday night, and a vote on the proposal could come as soon as Thursday.<\/p>\n
Young said that before the changes, \u201cAlaska stands to lose the most\u201d in the way of tax credits subsidizing individual Alaskans\u2019 health care plans.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are working to see if we can\u2019t make the situation \u2026 more equitable,\u201d Young said.<\/p>\n
If that doesn\u2019t happen, he indicated that he will vote \u2018no\u2019 on the bill, which is being pushed by the leadership of the 435-member U.S. House.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m fighting hard to make sure Alaska\u2019s getting equitable treatment across the board,\u201d Young said.<\/p>\n
The margins are surprisingly tight for an idea that appeared to have widespread support among Republicans before the November elections. In the campaign before that election, Republicans promised to repeal Obamacare and replace it with a new system.<\/p>\n
After the election, Republican leaders modified their stance and instead proposed a bill that would change elements of the existing system but leave much of it intact.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not the repeal of Obamacare as we said we were going to do,\u201d Young said.<\/p>\n
If House Democrats remain united in opposition to the Republican plan, House leaders can afford to lose the votes of only 21 Republicans, or the bill will fail.<\/p>\n
A list kept Monday by the newspaper The Hill indicated 17 Republicans had already said they would vote against the measure. The leader of the House\u2019s conservative 40-person \u201cFreedom Caucus\u201d predicted it would fail if it came up for a vote Thursday.<\/p>\n
Speaking to reporters, Young said he favors repealing Obamacare, not modifying it. He would rather the House pass a \u201cone paragraph\u201d repeal effective in 2019 or 2020. Congress would then have two or three years to draft a replacement.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe could really write a good healthcare bill if we sat down and thought about it,\u201d Young said. \u201cI think we ought to step back, take a deep breath, and say, what do we really want to have?\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Contact reporter James Brooks at james.k.brooks@juneauempire.com or call 419-7732.<\/b><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When the bill to replace Obamacare comes to his desk, Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, isn\u2019t sure how he will vote. In a conference call with reporters, Young called the atmosphere on Capitol Hill a \u201cbubbling cauldron of indecision,\u201d and he isn\u2019t sure what the final version of the bill in the U.S. House will look […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":426,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[275,132,209,287],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-15282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-congress","tag-don-young","tag-health-care","tag-obamacare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/426"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15282\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15282"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=15282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}