(Bloomberg) — Jeb Bush, like other Republican presidential candidates, is vowing to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), while making health care more innovative and affordable.
Bush's health care plan, outlined Monday in a two-page document and an op-ed in New Hampshire's Union Leader newspaper, is light on details of how he'd change a system that accounts for about 18 percent of the U.S. economy. The former Florida governor said he wants to increase innovation, reduce the cost of care, and give individual states more control over how they take care of their citizens.
"ObamaCare is a government takeover of more than one-sixth of the American economy, and it epitomizes why Americans are so fed up with Washington," Bush's document states. "To win on repeal, conservatives must unite around a vision of health care for the future—one that enables transformational innovation."
About 9.9 million people get health coverage through the PPACA exchange system, with 8.4 million getting subsidies to buy policies. The president's health reform law also expanded Medicaid coverage to more low-income individuals, though some states have opted out of that part of the law.
