Ryan: We can still replace PPACA

By Derek Wallbank

April 07, 2014 at 09:26 AM

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(Bloomberg) — House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan said Congress and a new president could still repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) after 2016.

Ryan, R-Wis., rejected Democratic arguments that PPACA changes are irreversible.

"I don't think it can last," Ryan said of the law in an interview with Bloomberg Television that ran this past weekend.

Democrats say the PPACA public exchange "qualified health plans" (QHPs) are on track to have more than 7 million enrollees. They say the QHP program and other PPACA programs are already too big to go away.

Ryan said he thinks PPACA is still vulnerable.

"The architecture of this law is so fundamentally flawed that I think it's going to collapse under its own weight," Ryan said. "And the sooner those of us who want true, real reform can show a better way forward, the faster we can repeal."

Ryan and other House Republicans have voted to repeal, defund or delay part or all of PPACA 55 times since getting a majority of the chamber's seats in 2011.

They are now trying to draft a replacement.

Ryan said an alternative plan should remove the federal "command and lead" approach to the health care system.

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