One of the biggest campaign promises Donald Trump made while running for president was his plan to immediately repeal and replace Obamacare, which he has repeatedly called a “disaster.” Well, Trump has been in office for over a month now, and while he claims that a replacement is in the works, his administration has shown no real evidence of that actually being the case.
This was the subject of John Oliver’s latest dissection on Sunday’s new Last Week Tonight, as he points out that even Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price couldn’t confirm that a plan was nearing completion and would soon be revealed at his own confirmation hearing, telling Senator Sherrod Brown (D) only that it was “true that [Trump] said that, yes.” Likewise, one of the draft bills being circulated by Republicans offers only the verbiage [PLACEHOLDER] in lieu of any actual details regarding a proposed replacement.
But what could a possibly replacement plan actually entail? Oliver explains the various talking points proposed by Paul Ryan, which are comprised of the innocuous sounding yet inherently problematic “refundable tax credits,” “health savings accounts,” “block grants,” and “high risk pools.”
But ultimately, the greatest hurdle to repealing Obamacare may be the President himself, as Trump doesn’t actually seem to mind the aspects of the Affordable Care Act that Republicans hate most, and also made some pretty lofty promises that a replacement would give Americans “everything” they want. As John Oliver succinctly summarizes: “So anything short of that is a disaster and insurers are gonna need an answer soon, Republicans, so tick tock motherfuckers, because you don’t get to placeholder your way out of this one again.”
