Conservative House Republicans are Pushing for a Vote on an Alternative to Obamacare

After years of bashing the Affordable Care Act, conservative House Republicans are pushing for a vote on a GOP health-care plan to show they have a policy position beyond repealing the current law. 

Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R., Va.) said in January the House would vote this year on a health-care alternative. Four months later, Republican leaders are working with committee chairmen, as well as with GOP lawmakers who are also physicians, to reach a consensus on what that plan should include. 

Now, some lawmakers are asking to speed up the process. Members of the Republican Study Committee, a group of the most conservative House Republicans, plan to urge GOP leaders during a closed-door meeting Thursday to move forward with the group's own health-care bill, which would change the tax treatment of health plans.

"Democrats continue to mislead the American people when they say that Republicans have no alternatives to Obamacare. That is not true," the group's chairman, Rep. Steve Scalise (R., La.), said in a letter to fellow House Republicans ahead of the meeting. GOP Reps. Vicky Hartzler (R., Mo.) and Phil Roe (R., Tenn.) also signed the letter. 

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...Introducing their own health plan would open Republicans to scrutiny over their policies, but it also could help the party draw a contrast with the Democratic-backed Affordable Care Act. 

"When I talk about it at home, they're excited about the fact that Republicans have an alternative," said Mr. Roe, a physician who introduced the Republican Study Committee bill in September. "It's easily understandable and explainable."

Mr. Scalise and others in his group said they aren't insisting GOP leaders bring their bill to the floor. Rather, they want to remind leaders that it is one option among many proposed GOP health bills—and that, with 130 co-sponsors, it already has the support of a majority of House Republicans. "We want to show there is a critical mass behind a bill that's already drafted," Mr. Scalise said...

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