POLITICS

Paul Ryan says health premiums will decrease under his replacement plan

Tom Kertscher

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

House Speaker Paul Ryan (center) (R-Wis.), with Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (right) (R-Ore.), and House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), speaks during a news conference on the American Health Care Act on Capitol Hill in Washington.

House Speaker Paul Ryan said on CBS's "Face the Nation" that he expects health insurance premiums to eventually decrease after a Republican replacement for Obamacare is put in place.

Here was the exchange between the Wisconsin Republican and host John Dickerson on Sunday's show:

DICKERSON: Will premiums now go up now? Because there are lots of people who are saying that premiums will go up in — under this plan.

RYAN: Premiums — if we do nothing, premiums will go far, far, far higher than they would otherwise go up.

DICKERSON: But they’re going to go up?

RYAN: I think they’ll go down once this system comes into place. So that point would —

DICKERSON: And when’s that going to happen?

RYAN: Look at the bill. In two years — that’s the point, there’s a transition — it takes a little while to get the states back in the game to regulate health insurance. It takes a little while for risk pools to be set up in the states to cover people with preexisting conditions. It takes a little while for tax credits to be deployed so the guy waiting tables getting $12 an hour can get health insurance. It takes some time to do that. And in the meantime, there will be a stable transition so people don’t — don’t have the rug pulled out from under them. That’s what we’re talking about when we say a stable transition from the system that is creaky and collapsing to one that is better and more endurable.

FULL INTERVIEW