Former House Speaker Predicts ‘Obamacare’ Won’t Be Repealed

Former House Speaker John Boehner predicted on Thursday that a full repeal and replacement of “Obamacare” is “not going to happen.”

The Ohio Republican said he started laughing when he heard President Donald Trump and Republicans promise swift action on undoing and replacing the health law.

Congressional Republicans are “going to fix Obamacare — I shouldn’t call it repeal-and-replace, because it’s not going to happen,” he said. “Most of the framework of the Affordable Care Act, that’s going to be there.”

Mr. Boehner spoke at a health care conference in Orlando.

As speaker, he promised numerous times to repeal and replace “Obamacare” in full.

Boehner spokesman Dave Schnittger confirmed the accuracy of the remarks, reported by Politico, but said they omitted some context. He said Mr. Boehner is confident Republicans “will right the many wrongs of Obamacare, whether your preference is to call it a repair, a replacement, or something else.”

House Republicans aim to roll out legislation in coming weeks to replace major elements of the Affordable Care Act with a new system involving tax credits, health savings accounts and high risk pools.