It’s full-steam ahead on health-care reform for President Trump, even if the U.S. Senate can’t seem to get its act together.
While Trump says he’s disappointed in the Senate’s failure to pass a health-care bill, the president added that he doesn’t “think it’s dead.”
Paul Teller, Trump’s liaison to congressional conservatives, announced in a Wednesday email: “We are pressing strongly ahead on repealing as much of Obamacare as possible and relieving millions of Americans from the burdens of that onerous law. As soon as this coming Monday the 24th, Congress could move to proceed to the House-passed healthcare bill and replace it with the text of the 2015/2016 Obamacare repeal reconciliation bill, which Congress passed but President Obama vetoed.”
Teller provided the following summary of that 2015 bill to repeal Obamacare, H.R. 3762, or the Restoring Americans’ Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act. It passed the Senate with a vote of 52-47 and the House with a vote of 240-181. In the House, one Democrat voted for the bill and three Republicans voted against it. Teller said H.R. 3762 would have:
- Repealed the individual and employer mandate tax penalties.
- Repealed all Obamacare taxes.
- Provided a two-year transition from Medicaid expansion and exchange tax subsidies.
- Repealed the expansion of eligibility for Medicaid, two years after enactment of the bill.
- Repealed the health exchange subsidies, including the premium tax credit and cost-sharing subsidies to help people buy insurance, two years after enactment of the bill.
- Retained Obamacare insurance regulations, including guaranteed issuance of coverage for people with pre-existing conditions and Essential Health Benefits (EHBs).
- Blocked funding for Planned Parenthood for one year while providing additional funds to community health centers for women’s health care.
- Repealed the prevention and public health fund.
- Repealed the small business tax credit for employers with fewer than 25 employees and annual wages under $50,000 for the purchase of health insurance.
- Including the macroeconomic impact of the bill, CBO estimated the legislation would have reduced spending at the time by $1.349 trillion and reduced taxes $833 billion.
- In total, the bill would have reduced the deficit by $516 billion, according to CBO’s estimate at the time.
- The bill would have reduced health care coverage by 32 million people, according to CBO’s January 2017 estimate. However, that estimate is based on the same faulty baseline and assumptions that have brought into question the validity of CBO’s latest health care projections.
On Wednesday, Trump told Republican senators they “shouldn’t leave town” for their August recess until they “hammer” out an Obamacare replacement for him to sign.
Senate leaders had expected to vote on repealing Obamacare and then take up to two years to develop a replacement plan. But President Trump isn’t satisfied with that time frame.
“We can repeal, but we should repeal and replace,” the president told Senate Republicans who came to the White House Wednesday for lunch with Trump.
“We shouldn’t leave town until this is complete, until this bill is on my desk and until we all go over to the Oval Office,” he said. “I’ll sign it, and we can celebrate for the American people.”
Watch President Trump’s comments:
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Trump continued: “I’ve been here just six months. I’m ready to act. I have a pen in hand. Believe me, I’m sitting in that office. … You never had that before. You know for seven years, you had an easy route. ‘We’ll repeal, we’ll replace, and he (Obama) is never going to sign it. But I’m signing it, so it’s a little bit different. But I’m ready to act.
“For seven years, you promised the American people that you would repeal Obamacare. People are hurting. Inaction is not an option. And frankly, I don’t think we should leave town unless we have a health insurance plan, unless we can give our people great health care, because we’re close. We’re very close. ”
The Senate’s August recess has been postponed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. But on Monday evening, McConnell claimed efforts to repeal and immediately replace Obamacare “would be unsuccessful.”
In a tweet Tuesday, Trump blamed Democrats and “a few Republicans,” including GOP Sens. Susan Collins, Rand Paul, Jerry Moran and Mike Lee, for failure to pass a new health reform bill.
With a smile across his face, Trump referenced the defecting Republicans and joked: “My friends, they really were and are. They might not be very much longer, but that’s OK.”
He asserted that any “senator who votes against starting debate is really telling America that you’re fine with Obamacare.”
