Stand up for the facts!

Our only agenda is to publish the truth so you can be an informed participant in democracy.
We need your help.

More Info

I would like to contribute

Do Republicans have ideas on health care?

Steve Contorno
By Steve Contorno November 27, 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If Obamacare was repealed tomorrow, would Republicans have a plan to replace it?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, and we tackled it by fact-checking two claims on this topic. We looked at a claim from U.S. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., while our partners at PunditFact looked at one from CNN political commentator Donna Brazile, a Democrat.

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.

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.

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.

Sign Up For Our Weekly Newsletter

Our Sources

See individual fact-checks for complete sources.

Browse the Truth-O-Meter

More by Steve Contorno

Do Republicans have ideas on health care?