Sen. Mike Lee said that repealing the Affordable Care Act needs to happen now, without a replacement plan in place, because it would be "harder" to both repeal and replace the act, nicknamed Obamacare, at the same time.
"There is a lot less agreement about what comes next. If we load down the repeal bill with what comes next, it's harder to get both of them passed," Lee said, according to Kaiser Health News.
Lee, a Utah Republican, said that, at least, Congress should pass a 2015 bill that eliminates a Medicaid expansion for the poor and cancels insurance subsidies that helped people pay for the program.
"If we can get something more aggressive, that's great. But we cannot make progress until we first repeal Obamacare," Lee said in the KHN interview.
While the Congressional Budget Office said that repealing without a replacement would delete 32 million people from insurance, Lee rejected that as a reason to keep the act.
"The chaos the American people are facing right now is related to a set of circumstances put in place by Obamacare. I wish there was a non-chaotic path" to repair the act, he said in KHN's report.
Republicans recognize that Americans are on edge over the potential changes to Obamacare. "The quicker we can give them answers, the better off we are," North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows said.
He added that insurance companies face difficulties as well. "Every month that goes by we create a heavier burden for insurance companies to figure out."
Almost half a dozen GOP plans to replace the act are in the works, but none have broad support, according to Politico.
"More choices and better care at lower costs" are promised in a pro-Republican ad on YouTube.
The ad directs viewers to a website that says a plan exists, but offers few details.
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