At least 20 million Americans are currently signed up for Obamacare, and it’s only natural that folks would prefer details after Congress set up a procedural mechanism to repeal it with a simple majority vote. Last week, Trump said that the Affordable Healthcare Act would be repealed and replaced “essentially simultaneously.” Soon, he hopes. In a new interview with the Washington Post, Trump now claims that his replacement will provide “healthcare for everybody.” He’s not providing much detail yet but hints that he’ll use an executive order to pass “Trumpcare” if Congress won’t do it:
Trump warned Republicans that if the party splinters or slows his agenda, he is ready to use the power of the presidency — and Twitter — to usher his legislation to passage. “The Congress can’t get cold feet because the people will not let that happen.”
Trump said his plan for replacing most aspects of Obama’s health-care law is all but finished. Although he was coy about its details — “lower numbers, much lower deductibles” — he said he is ready to unveil it alongside Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
“It’s very much formulated down to the final strokes. We haven’t put it in quite yet but we’re going to be doing it soon,” Trump said.
Part of the holdup with the plan, Trump told Washington Post, is that Rep. Tom Price hasn’t yet been confirmed as secretary of health and human services. That hearing hasn’t even been scheduled by Congress yet, which is odd since the GOP has shown its clear intent to erase as much of Obama’s legacy as possible, including his namesake healthcare plan. However, both the Senate and House approved the budget blueprint to do so, and Trump feels confident that his plan will be approved by Congress:
“I think we will get approval. I won’t tell you how, but we will get approval. You see what’s happened in the House in recent weeks. We’re going to have insurance for everybody. There was a philosophy in some circles that if you can’t pay for it, you don’t get it. That’s not going to happen with us … [You] can expect to have great health care. It will be in a much simplified form. Much less expensive and much better.”
So … much better, much cheaper, and people will rave about it? Again, there are few details here, but Senator Rand Paul offered up a few tidbits to Jake Tapper on Sunday’s State of the Union. “One of the key reforms that we will do is, we’re going to legalize the sale of inexpensive insurance,” Paul stated. “That means getting rid of the Obamacare mandates on what you can buy. We are going to help people save through health savings accounts, as well as a tax credit.”
However, whether Paul and Trump are talking about the same policy shall remain a mystery for now. For real, you never know these days…
(Via Washington Post & New York Times)