House Speaker Paul Ryan warned the collapsing Affordable Care Act will remain U.S. law “for the foreseeable future” now that Republicans have abandoned plans to take up a repeal and replace measure.
“I don’t know what else to say other than Obamacare is the law of the land and will remain the law of the land until it is replaced,” Ryan told reporters after announcing the vote on the bill has been canceled. “We’re going to be living with Obamacare for the foreseeable future.”
Paul Ryan: “We’re going to be living with Obamacare for the foreseeable future” https://t.co/LmDlpM4mfm #AHCA pic.twitter.com/glWQZfJ6hd
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) March 24, 2017
“I don’t know know how long it’s going to take us to replace this law,” he added. Ryan said he also worries that Obamacare would be “getting even worse” in the months and years ahead.
Regardless, Ryan said now that the bill has been taken off the agenda, Republicans would be moving on to other measures.
“Now we are going to move forward with the rest of our agenda,” Ryan said.
Ryan said he is disappointed the bill could not garner enough support to pass and said it was close to winning the 216 Republican votes needed for passage.
“We came really close today but we came up short,” he said.
Ryan said he advised President Trump at a White House meeting earlier today that “the best thing for us to do,” would be to pull the bill from the floor.
