Jake Tapper grills Paul Ryan over whether his Obamacare replacement will still provide free birth control

(Photo: Getty Images)


CNN anchor Jake Tapper grilled House Speaker Paul Ryan on Sunday over whether his Obamacare replacement plan would still provide free birth control to insured women.

In an interview on "State of the Union," Tapper asked the speaker and self-styled policy wonk whether his future Obamacare replacement plan would still allow insured women to receive birth control with no additional cost.

"Look I'm not going to get into all the nitty-gritty detail of these things," Ryan replied.

Tapper continued to drill down on the question.

"With all due respect, I don’t know that the average woman of childbearing years out there who relies upon contraception provided by health insurance mandated by the Affordable Care Act I don’t know that she would think that that’s just a nitty-gritty detail," Tapper said.

Ryan argued that Tapper was asking him "details about legislation that hasn’t been written yet."

"Right but is it important to you. Would that be a principle of whatever replaces it?" Tapper replied.

Ryan interjected: "I’m not going to get into hypotheticals about legislation that hasn’t even been drafted yet."

President-elect Donald Trump's upset victory in Tuesday's election has inspired a flurry of questions over the future of the Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama's signature legislative achievement.

While Trump promised last week that he would consider keeping popular parts of the law, Ryan's 37-page healthcare overhaul outline essentially dismantles the law by eliminating federal rules for who qualifies for Medicaid, delegating the decision to states, and creating vouchers for Americans who don't have health insurance and don't qualify for Medicare or Medicaid.

NOW WATCH: 'HOLD UP!': Watch Obama defend a Trump protester and scold the crowd at a Clinton rally



More From Business Insider

Advertisement