PoliticsDonald TrumpU.S. NewsRepublican Politics

Now Trump Is Suggesting Maybe The Senate Should Repeal First, Replace Later

It's a presidential tweet, so take it seriously at your own risk.
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By 

Senior National Correspondent, HuffPost

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President Donald Trump said on Friday morning that if Senate Republicans can’t get behind their leadership’s health care bill, then they should just repeal the Affordable Care Act right away and work on its replacement later.

Trump made the suggestion in a tweet. As always, it’s difficult to know how seriously to take the comment ― or whether to take it seriously at all.

Senate Republicans are still debating what to do with the Better Care Reconciliation Act, their proposal to unwind reforms of the private insurance market and make deep cuts to Medicaid. GOP leaders, unable to rally 50 votes for the plan this week as they had originally hoped, are now modifying the proposal and have said they aim to take it up again ― and pass it ― once the Senate returns from its July 4 recess.

Trump’s tweet seemed to be endorsing an idea that Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) floated minutes earlier on Fox News and, according to the The Wall Street Journal, in a formal letter to the White House ― that if Senate leaders can’t assemble a majority by July 10, they should try a different strategy: Vote to repeal the bill outright, or at least strip its funding, and then spend a month in non-stop hearings and negotiations to hammer out a deal on a new coverage scheme.

The idea of taking one vote to repeal the law, with plans to come up with a replacement afterwards, is not new.

It’s actually the strategy GOP leaders originally planned to pursue following the November election. They ditched that plan in January, very much with Trump’s support, partly in response to objections from their own members who were nervous about voting to take insurance away from many millions of people with no guarantee of what coverage, if any, those people would get instead.

That objection would apply just as forcefully today and it’s unclear why Republican senators who felt that way in January would be more inclined to support it now, particularly since polls show the public is becoming more and more opposed to repeal and less and less interested in getting rid of Obamacare.

That doesn’t make Trump’s tweet inconsequential.

Uncertainty over the future of the Affordable Care Act ― and, in particular, the administration’s willingness to manage the program ― has spooked insurers, causing them to seek higher premium increases next year and in some cases withdraw from markets altogether.  

Tweets like Friday morning’s one won’t exactly dispel those feelings.

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Before You Go

Health Care Reform Efforts In U.S. History
1912(01 of17)
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Former President Theodore Roosevelt champions national health insurance as he unsuccessfully tries to ride his progressive Bull Moose Party back to the White House. (credit:Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)
1935(02 of17)
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President Franklin D. Roosevelt favors creating national health insurance amid the Great Depression but decides to push for Social Security first. (credit:Keystone/Getty Images)
1942(03 of17)
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Roosevelt establishes wage and price controls during World War II. Businesses can't attract workers with higher pay so they compete through added benefits, including health insurance, which grows into a workplace perk. (credit:Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
1945(04 of17)
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President Harry Truman calls on Congress to create a national insurance program for those who pay voluntary fees. The American Medical Association denounces the idea as "socialized medicine" and it goes nowhere. (credit:Keystone/Getty Images)
1960(05 of17)
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John F. Kennedy makes health care a major campaign issue but as president can't get a plan for the elderly through Congress. (credit:Keystone/Getty Images)
1965 (06 of17)
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President Lyndon B. Johnson's legendary arm-twisting and a Congress dominated by his fellow Democrats lead to creation of two landmark government health programs: Medicare for the elderly and Medicaid for the poor. (credit:AFP/Getty Images)
1974(07 of17)
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President Richard Nixon wants to require employers to cover their workers and create federal subsidies to help everyone else buy private insurance. The Watergate scandal intervenes. (credit:Keystone/Getty Images)
1976(08 of17)
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President Jimmy Carter pushes a mandatory national health plan, but economic recession helps push it aside. (credit:Central Press/Getty Images)
1986(09 of17)
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President Ronald Reagan signs COBRA, a requirement that employers let former workers stay on the company health plan for 18 months after leaving a job, with workers bearing the cost. (credit:MIKE SARGENT/AFP/Getty Images)
1988(10 of17)
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Congress expands Medicare by adding a prescription drug benefit and catastrophic care coverage. It doesn't last long. Barraged by protests from older Americans upset about paying a tax to finance the additional coverage, Congress repeals the law the next year. (credit:TIM SLOAN/AFP/Getty Images)
1993(11 of17)
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President Bill Clinton puts first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton in charge of developing what becomes a 1,300-page plan for universal coverage. It requires businesses to cover their workers and mandates that everyone have health insurance. The plan meets Republican opposition, divides Democrats and comes under a firestorm of lobbying from businesses and the health care industry. It dies in the Senate. (credit:PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images)
1997(12 of17)
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Clinton signs bipartisan legislation creating a state-federal program to provide coverage for millions of children in families of modest means whose incomes are too high to qualify for Medicaid. (credit:JAMAL A. WILSON/AFP/Getty Images)
2003(13 of17)
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President George W. Bush persuades Congress to add prescription drug coverage to Medicare in a major expansion of the program for older people. (credit:STEPHEN JAFFE/AFP/Getty Images)
2008(14 of17)
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Hillary Clinton promotes a sweeping health care plan in her bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. She loses to Barack Obama, who has a less comprehensive plan. (credit:PAUL RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images)
2009(15 of17)
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President Barack Obama and the Democratic-controlled Congress spend an intense year ironing out legislation to require most companies to cover their workers; mandate that everyone have coverage or pay a fine; require insurance companies to accept all comers, regardless of any pre-existing conditions; and assist people who can't afford insurance. (credit:Alex Wong/Getty Images)
2010(16 of17)
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With no Republican support, Congress passes the measure, designed to extend health care coverage to more than 30 million uninsured people. Republican opponents scorned the law as "Obamacare." (credit:Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
2012(17 of17)
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On a campaign tour in the Midwest, Obama himself embraces the term "Obamacare" and says the law shows "I do care." (credit:BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)
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