President Donald Trump indicated Monday that he won’t push for a vote on a Republican plan to replace the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, until after the 2020 elections.
“Everybody agrees that ObamaCare doesn’t work,” Trump said Monday night in a series of Twitter posts. “The Republicans are developing a really great HealthCare Plan with far lower premiums (cost) & deductibles than ObamaCare. … (The) vote will be taken right after the Election when Republicans hold the Senate & win back the House. It will be truly great HealthCare that will work for America.”
The president signaled his intent last week to focus on repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act when his administration backed a lawsuit March 25 brought by Republican state attorneys general who are challenging the constitutionality of President Barack Obama’s signature health care law. Trump repeatedly told reporters last week that Republicans will “be the party of great health care” and that GOP lawmakers were working on a bill to replace the law.
Still, despite the president's determination, Republicans were reluctant to return to a debate that benefitted Democrats in the 2018 midterm elections, The Washington Post reported.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., a major voice in last year's debate over repealing and replacing the health care law, said last week that he was not leading the president's latest push against the Affordable Care Act, Politico reported. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fl., who was named by Trump as one of the Republicans leading the push to write a new health care law, told reporters Tuesday that he was not working on a health care replacement bill, Cox Media Group's Jamie Dupree reported.
“I told him what I was working on was prescription drug prices,” Scott said.
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