'Too cute by half': Experts warn of sneaky 'backdoor repeal' of Obamacare

Republicans in the Senate are attempting to quietly replace Obamacare, according to a report from the Washington Post.

“It is very much like a backdoor repeal and replace,” Matt Salo, former executive director of the National Association of Medicaid Directors, told the Post. “They’ve been too cute by half by doing it but not calling it that.”

The post alleges some Republicans still have “animosity” toward the Affordable Care Act — and they're showing it with sections quietly incorporated in the party's massive budget bill.

“They’re not calling this ACA repeal and replace, but the coverage losses would be among many of the same people who would have lost their insurance under ACA repeal,” said Larry Levitt, executive vice president for health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation.

The GOP's healthcare plan hidden inside what President Donald Trump has called the "Big Beautiful Bill" would give new mandates and restrictions to states.

“They would need to verify Medicaid expansion eligibility every six months instead of once a year,” The post reported. “They could no longer sign up the lowest-income marketplace enrollees throughout the year. They would have to collect more paperwork from certain marketplace applicants.”

Open enrollment would also be shortened.

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The bill also delays two Biden-era regulations that were meant to “help people transition between Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program and private marketplace plans.” The post wrote, “These changes would amount to the biggest slash in enrollment since repeal failed eight years ago.”

According to the outlet, those who support the changes “insist the purpose of the GOP bill is to shore it up for the most vulnerable Americans — the pregnant women, poor children, and disabled people it was originally intended to cover.”

“Medicaid has become too big, costly, and wasteful,” said Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-KY).

“Undoubtedly, Democrats will use this as an opportunity to engage in fear-mongering and misrepresent our bill as an attack on Medicaid,” Guthrie wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. “In reality, it preserves and strengthens Medicaid for children, mothers, people with disabilities, and the elderly, for whom the program was designed.”