Republicans have released their long-awaited plan to repeal Obamacare

House Republicans on Monday evening unveiled long-awaited legislation to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, the healthcare law better known as Obamacare.

The basic structure of the plan appears similar to previous Republican efforts to dismantle the law including the draft of the bill that was leaked late last month.

The bill, called the American Health Care Act, would do away with Obamacare's individual mandate that compels all American to buy insurance or face a fine. Instead, it features penalties such as increased premiums for failing to maintain continuous coverage.

The AHCA also would shift funding for people accessing healthcare without help from an employer or the Medicare or Medicaid programs and adjust funding for the expansion of Medicaid.

Key parts of the bill include:

President Donald Trump was quick to dive in with a tweet from the @POTUS account.

"House just introduced the bill to #RepealAndReplace #Obamacare. Time to end this nightmare," the tweet said.

House Speaker Paul Ryan said in a statement that the plan would help reform the American healthcare system.

"The American Health Care Act is a plan to drive down costs, encourage competition, and give every American access to quality, affordable health insurance," Ryan said. "It protects young adults, patients with preexisting conditions, and provides a stable transition so that no one has the rug pulled out from under them."

On the other end, Democrats were quick to criticize the proposal. Reps. Frank Pallone and Richard Neal, the top Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the Ways and Means Committee, respectively, said in a joint statement that the bill would be detrimental to average Americans.

"The Republican repeal bill would rip healthcare away from millions of Americans, ration care for working families and seniors, and put insurance companies back in charge of healthcare decisions — contrary to everything President Trump has said he would do with his healthcare plan," the statement from Pallone and Neal said.

The bill faces a long path toward becoming law: It would have to be marked up by the Energy and Commerce Committee, passed by the House, debated by the Senate, and passed by the Senate, at least, before it could go to Trump's desk.

This path is also complicated by the fact that conservative members of the House and the Senate have come out against the tax-credits aspects of the House bill and criticized the leaked draft. Moderate Republicans have also criticized the lack of clarity over the future of Medicaid expansion, which is popular in states that have undertaken expansion.

Thus, the bill released the House GOP may face significant opposition from the Republican Party itself, to say nothing of the Democrats.

Here's the full bill:

Republicans have released their long-awaited plan to repeal Obamacare

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