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Do Republicans have ideas on health care?

By Steve Contorno
November 26, 2013

If Obamacare was repealed tomorrow, would Republicans have a plan to replace it?

Republicans contend they have always contributed solutions to the debate. Democrats roll their eyes at the very thought.

We wanted to get to the heart of the question, so we tackled by fact-checking a claim from CNN political commentator Donna Brazile, a Democrat. Our partners at PolitiFact looked at a claim on the other side from U.S. Ron Johnson, R-Wis.

Both checks took us through recent history and a myriad of GOP proposals, some more substantial than others. Each fact-check provides a breakdown of the most common threads of Republican health care reform.

Donna Brazile: Republican plans don’t give people “an option to even enroll in something that they can afford.”

While the Republican option is full of uncertainty and results might be limited, they are more than nothing. Still, it would have a modest impact on the uninsured at best. We rated it Mostly True.

Sen. Ron Johnson: Republicans have “dozens of solutions designed to help control costs and improve quality.”

It’s dozens if you count all the bills and proposals but they boil down to six basic tenets. Some of them would affect the cost of health care but there’s very little that would address quality. We rated it Half True.

Our Sources

See individual fact-checks for complete sources.

Browse the Truth-O-Meter

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