Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Trump Muddies Already-Delicate Situation With Suggestion To Repeal Now, Replace Later
President Donald Trump is making a weekend push to get a Republican Senate bill to repeal and replace former President Barack Obama's health care law "across the finish line," Trump's top legislative aide said Sunday, maintaining that a repeal-only option also remained in play if Republicans can't reach agreement. Marc Short, the White House's legislative director, said Trump was making calls to wavering senators and insisted they were "getting close" on passing a bill. (Yen, 7/2)
U.S. President Donald Trump urged Republican senators in a tweet on Friday to repeal Obamacare immediately if they cannot agree on a new plan to replace it, muddying the waters as congressional leaders struggle for consensus on healthcare legislation. ... The White House said later that Trump was still "fully committed" to pushing the Republican draft healthcare bill through the Senate, although it was looking at every option for repealing and replacing Obamacare. (Chiacu and Cornwell, 7/1)
Conservative Republicans on Friday revived a proposal to speedily repeal the Affordable Care Act and come up with a replacement later, a surprise move reflecting the fractured state of the Senate GOP and the frustration felt by some conservatives about the pace of the Republican health-care push. (Radnofsky, 7/1)
President Donald Trump鈥檚 campaign to undermine, starve and dismantle Obamacare has hit a critical phase. Public support for replacing the Affordable Care Act is slipping and both the Republican House and Senate health bills are deeply unpopular. (Pugh, 7/5)
Repealing the health law without a replacement would kick about 18 million Americans off of health coverage in the first year 鈥 and reach 26 million a few years later, according to a CBO analysis of a 2015 bill to repeal the health law without a replacement... Repealing the entire law would remove subsidies, cut coverage, take away protections for pre-existing conditions and send premiums skyrocketing. (Haberkorn, 6/30)
As the Senate gears up to vote on the GOP bill to overhaul the Affordable Care Act, the White House is聽publishing statistics to criticize the current health law.聽The White House published a 鈥淩epeal and Replace Obamacare鈥 website, rife with numbers and graphics, and is posting various聽statistics through its Twitter account. (Lee, 7/5)
Top Trump administration officials insisted Sunday that the odds of passing health-care legislation when the Senate returns to Washington next week remain high, but others in the GOP charged that the bill鈥檚 problems require more than a quick fix. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price and White House legislative affairs director Marc Short are fighting off a tide of discontent that has been exacerbated in recent days by President Trump鈥檚 tweet that the Senate could simply repeal the Affordable Care Act and replace it later if it cannot pass the pending measure. (Demirjian, 7/2)
