John Yarmuth: “As I said in my closing to the debate on the resolution itself, it would be wonderful if the Republicans had a plan that…”

“As I said in my closing to the debate on the resolution itself, it would be wonderful if the Republicans had a plan that they could describe to the American people so that American families would know what would be in their healthcare future. It would also be nice if they would wait to repeal the Affordable Care Act until they could do that. I think the American people expect it. The poll I mentioned from Kaiser, 82 percent of the people preferred to go in that direction. Let's find out if there is a better way. I have said many times in public the reason there has been no Republican alternative to the Affordable Care Act is because there really are only two alternatives: one is to go back to the era in which insurance companies decided who lived and died, and the other one is to go to single payer, something like Medicare for everyone. I would love to discuss that option. I think it would be immensely popular in this country. But, instead, Republicans come up with ideas that are drifting in the other direction, again, back to not patient-centered care but back to insurance company-centered care. The important thing today is that we have an alternative here through which we can actually do something constructive for the American people, something that will help the economy, something that will make vital investments in our Nation and the future economy instead of putting the country's healthcare system at risk. That is what this amendment does.…”