HHS Secretary Warns of Consequences If ACA is Repealed

Dive Brief:

• Repealing the ACA without a replacement plan in place could spell disaster for health insurance markets and consumers, HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell said in an interview with the Huffington Post.

• Republicans have aggressively pushed for repeal of the ACA, but have not agreed to a replacement plan.

• President-elect Donald Trump spoke frequently of repealing and replacing the ACA on the campaign trail, but has released few details about his agenda. 

Dive Insight:

Republicans have failed to develop consensus around a replacement plan and many are warning that repeal without a replacement could be disastrous.

“For six years, we have not seen a replacement plan that has numbers and is scorable and can be measured,” Burwell told the Huffington Post. It isn’t just allies in the Obama administration sounding the alarm. Iowa Insurance Commissioner Nick Gerhart, a Republican appointee, wrote on LinkedIn last week that repealing the ACA without a replacement would have "devastating consequences in the disruption to people's care."