Part 2: Enzi discusses Obamacare, timeline for replacement (with video)

Feb. 22--CHEYENNE -- As he fielded questions from the Wyoming Tribune Eagle and its readers Monday, U.S. Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., dedicated a significant chunk of the conversation to the Affordable Care Act.

Also known as "Obamacare," the ACA is among the former president's signature legislative achievements. But since it first took effect nearly seven years ago, Americans have been divided on whether the law has fulfilled its promise to provide affordable health insurance to millions of uninsured Americans.

Republicans in Congress have been campaigning against the law since it was first passed.

And with fellow Republican Donald Trump now sitting in the Oval Office, the GOP majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate have their best opportunity to repeal the law.

Enzi is right in line with his party on the need to repeal the law, citing in Monday's interview his thoughts on whether it's even sustainable if left alone.

"One of the things the president emphasized was if we didn't do anything with Obamacare, it would collapse on its own within two years," Enzi said. "We've gotten some reports since then that say the president was giving it far too much time. It's about to collapse on its own, and he said we don't treat people that way, so we're going to fix it."

As to what that fix might look like, Enzi said the working idea is to repeal portions of it, replace others and "repair" the rest. To date, however, congressional Republicans don't appear to have unified behind any one plan for what the law's replacement may look like.

"I have a 10-step plan on my website people ought to take a look at. That's being melded in with ideas other people have," Enzi said. "In fact, my health person is the one that's kind of doing a matrix to show what (ideas) everybody agrees on, what ones few people agree on, and looking for the reasons for the agreement and disagreement."

Enzi said one of his key reasons for wanting to repeal the ACA is because he believes the law has negatively impacted as many people as it has helped. Specifically, he said, the law has caused insurance premiums to rise such that many people who used to have insurance can no longer afford it.

"When we started on Obamacare, there were 30 million people without insurance. Today there are 30 million people without insurance; it's a different 30 million," Enzi said. "If you make $20,000 a year and you have a $6,000 deductible, you know you're never going to be able to pay the deductible, so you're never going to be able to get to the insurance. That's not insurance."

Asked to elaborate on the "30 million for 30 million" remark, Enzi agreed to provide a source following Monday's interview. On Tuesday, Enzi spokesman Max D'Onofrio sent an email further explaining the quote.

"Last year, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office stated that 'On average, about 27 million people under age 65 -- 10 percent of that population -- will be uninsured in 2016, CBO and (the Joint Committee on Taxation) estimate,'" D'Onofrio wrote, adding that, "How you categorize the 'uninsured' can make the number of uninsured fluctuate by the tens of millions. These two numbers come from two different sources, and may not be the best way to compare pre- and post-Obamacare insurance coverage levels. But the senator was making a broad point that Obamacare has hurt a substantial number of people."

Further, D'Onofrio wrote that "thousands of Wyomingites" have complained to Enzi that their health-care options are worse now because of the ACA.

While there are still details to be worked out on exactly what a GOP replacement for the ACA will look like, Enzi said he nonetheless expects such a replacement to come within weeks.

"It has to get done before we can do the next budget, and the next budget should be done by April 15, so we're talking about some pretty fast time on doing these things," Enzi said.

As far as how soon a replacement would kick in once the ACA is repealed, Enzi pointed to statements from other top Republicans.

"(Speaker of the House) Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) says it's going to be simultaneous, and the president says contemporaneous," he said.

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