Republican congressman says GOP has no plan to replace Obama health care policy

Republican congressman Lee Terry of Nebraska said that his party has no plan to replace Obamacare if the party manages to repeal it.

Yesterday, ThinkProgress spoke to the congressman before the Supreme Court ruling and asked him what the Republican plan is to insure the 57 million Americans who have pre-existing conditions.

“We’re going to work on that,” Terry said. But he offered no specifics.

When the reporter asked Terry to offer more details, Terry flatly said there was no plan.

KEYES: Are there any ideas on how to do that?

TERRY: There’s going to be lots of ideas. We just have to accept all of them.

KEYES: Do we have any yet?

TERRY: We’re going to hold hearings, we’re going to invite experts. This is not going to be a closed process at all. It’s going to be completely open where we take as many ideas for reform as we can get and then we’ll see what it takes to deal with those that need more attention if they have significant pre-existing. So we’re going to deal with all of those issues.

KEYES: The mantra for a while has been “repeal and replace.” Is there an idea of what the replace would be yet?

TERRY: No. We want to take it in a very deliberate, open approach and take everybody’s ideas.

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart last Monday and insisted that the Republicans did have an alternative health care policy.

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But during the entire interview Rubio was unable to deliver any specifics.

RUBIO: “I don’t want the Republican party to be the opposition. I want it to be the alternative. And to be an alternative you have to offer ideas and I think I have and we have on insurance.”

STEWART: You think the Republicans have offered the alternative to –

RUBIO: Sure. I think we’ve offered alternatives and certainly the elements of an alternative to the Obamacare plan. Absolutely. I did on the campaign on specific terms.

STEWART: And is it so that it just hasn’t been picked up and written down yet?

RUBIO: No it’s been picked up and written down. There have been individual plans that have been talked about and I think I’ve discussed it in my campaign in great detail.