After years of criticizing the Patient Protection and AffordableCare Act, the GOP has unveiled an alternative plan to thecontroversial law that would scrap PPACA's mandates but still offertax credits for those buying private insurance.

The plan debuted the same week the House cast its first vote torepeal PPACA this year.

An outline of the plan—called the Patient Choice, Affordability,Responsibility, and Empowerment (CARE) Act—was made public Feb. 4by Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, House Energy andCommerce Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., and Sen. Richard Burr,R-N.C.

The legislative plan repeals PPACA and replaces it with“common-sense, patient-focused reforms that reduce health carecosts and increase access to affordable, high-quality care,” thesenators said in a statement.

“The American people have found out what is in Obamacare—brokenpromises in the form of increased health care costs, costlymandates, and government bureaucracy. They don't like it and don'twant to keep it,” Burr said. “Our nation's health care system wasbroken before Obamacare, and the president's health care debaclehas only made things worse. The Patient CARE Act repeals Obamacareand addresses the fundamental cost drivers that Obamacare failed toaddress.”

One big difference in the GOP plan is that the individual andemployer mandates would be scrapped—individuals would no longer berequired to buy health care coverage and employers would no longerbe required to offer it. Most minimum health plan requirements inPPACA—for example, what benefits they must offer—would be scrapped,as well.

Additionally, Medicaid would be restructured. People who alreadyhave government insurance through Medicaid would be given taxcredits to buy private plans, and upper-income families would nolonger qualify for financial help.

“We can lower costs and expand access to quality coverage andcare by empowering individuals and their families to make their ownhealth care decisions, rather than having the federal governmentmake those decisions for them,” Burr said.

The CARE Act also allows carriers to sell plans across statelines and caps the amount of monetary damages that can be awardedin medical malpractice litigation.

The GOP plan is similar to one senators offered last year,though it didn't get far.

The proposal keeps two of the most popular PPACA provisions: theprotections for consumers with preexisting conditions and the ruleallowing young adults to stay on their parent's plans until age26.

But the preexisting condition provision is less generous thanthe one outlined by PPACA as it protects only consumers whomaintain continuous health coverage.

To help fund the law, the senators propose taxing the value ofhealth insurance plans above $30,000 a year as regular income.

The plan's authors say it is still a blueprint and they wouldwork with other lawmakers to develop it further.

Critics said the new proposed plan is nothing new and won't havethe same benefits of PPACA.

But the new outlined plan still alleviates some pressure theparty had been receiving about proposing an alternative to PPACAthey have long promised.

Alternatives are especially necessary conversation as theSupreme Court case challenging PPACA's subsidies nears in earlyMarch. In the case, the justices will consider an appeal filed byfour Virginia residents seeking to block the subsidies in 36states. Researchers have said that the challenge to subsidies couldcut off subsidies for millions of Americans and might ultimatelyunravel PPACA.