Conservatives unhappy with GOP Obamacare replacement plan

An analysis written for an influential bloc of U.S. House conservatives derides a key component of a new Republican plan to replace Obamacare, faulting a provision offering tax credits to individuals who wouldn’t otherwise have access to health insurance.

Prepared for the Republican Study Committee, a group of about 170 House conservatives, the staff report called the refundable tax credits “a Republican welfare entitlement.”

“Writing checks to individuals to purchase insurance is, in principle, Obamacare,” says the memo, which was obtained by Bloomberg News.

Republicans Monday unveiled their long-awaited legislation to replace former President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, proposing to phase out key parts of the health care law over several years as they try to break through a stalemate between moderates and conservatives in their party.

But conservative Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky also blasted GOP leaders’ new draft on Tuesday morning. He wrote on Twitter that it is “Obamacare Lite. It will not pass.” Conservatives, he added “are not going to take it.”

Read the full story at Bloomberg: Conservatives Pan GOP Obamacare Replacement Plan as ‘Welfare’ – Bloomberg