Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee Chairman Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) has promised a step-by-step process to replace Obamacare, but says it can’t be very fast.

“If your local bridge were ‘very near collapse,’ the first thing you would do is send in a rescue crew to repair it temporarily so no one else is hurt,” Alexander said, adding:

Then you would build a better bridge, or more accurately, many bridges, to replace the old bridge. Finally, when the new bridges are finished you would close the old bridge. We will first send in a rescue crew to repair temporarily a collapsing health care market so no one else is hurt.  Then, step by step, we will build better systems that give Americans access to truly affordable health care. We will do this by moving health care decisions out of Washington, D.C., and back to states and patients.

The Committee hearing will be on Wednesday, Feb. 1 at 10:00 am eastern.