A Republican lawmaker said Friday he couldn’t support his party’s latest proposal to replace the Affordable Care Act because the new plan would have yanked coverage from too many Americans.
“Too many people are going to be losing coverage,” Rep. Charlie Dent told CNN’s Alisyn Camerota on “New Day.”
The Pennsylvania congressman said he is not backing the replacement bill because it lacked support for people on Medicaid and made insurance unaffordable for many Americans.
“Those are my underlying concerns,” he added. “The new revised version does not address those concerns and that’s why I’m opposed to the bill.”
House GOP leaders were unsuccessful in collecting the votes needed Thursday to move forward on their latest effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.
The move was the latest failed attempt in efforts to repeal President Barack Obama’s cornerstone domestic achievement and guarantees that President Donald Trump will reach his 100th day in office without a cornerstone legislative victory.
Dent, the chair of the House Ethics Committee, is not optimistic that the Republicans plan to replace the Affordable Care Act will be better for the American people.
“I’m not terribly optimistic right now,” he said. “I think we need to change the paradigm.”
In addition to focusing on improving the individual market, Dent said Republicans need to pursue bipartisanship.
“Let’s try to do this in a bipartisan manner so we could have sustainable reform,” he said. “Republicans should not make same mistakes as Democrats.”
“If we try to muscle a bill through, we will be fighting as well forever. We need a durable, sustainable solution,” Dent added.