US Republicans would wait until after next year’s elections to hold a vote on a replacement for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, US President Donald Trump said late on Monday night, abruptly halting a push he began just last week and guaranteeing that the issue will take center stage in his re-election campaign.
He made the shift in a series of Twitter posts, saying that the “Vote will be taken right after the Election when Republicans hold the Senate & win back the House.”
The posting ended a week-long scramble by Republican lawmakers to come up with an Obamacare alternative after the administration unexpectedly changed its position in a lawsuit by arguing that Obamacare should be entirely struck down.
The US Department of Justice had previously said that it should be only partly overturned.
A final ruling in that case is expected before June next year.
If Trump wins in court, there could be swift and widespread chaos and uncertainty in US healthcare — at least until an alternative system is put in place — as the array of changes to industry regulations, subsidies for low-income individuals and delivery system reforms would be undone.
“Everybody agrees that ObamaCare doesn’t work,” Trump said on Twitter. “The Republicans are developing a really great HealthCare Plan with far lower premiums (cost) & deductibles than ObamaCare. In other words it will be far less expensive & much more usable than ObamaCare.”
“It will be truly great HealthCare that will work for America. Also, Republicans will always support Pre-Existing Conditions,” he said.
Trump rekindled the long-running conflict over healthcare last week, when he ordered the department to shift its position on a Texas lawsuit seeking to invalidate parts of the legislation, agreeing with US District Judge Reed O’Connor’s ruling that the law itself is unconstitutional and should be scrapped entirely.
The president then urged US Senate Republicans to come up with a “spectacular” healthcare proposal to replace the legislation, which was enacted under the administration of former US president Barack Obama.
“We are going to be the Republicans, the party of great health-care,” Trump told reporters last week. “The Democrats, they let you down. They came up with Obamacare and it is terrible.”
However, most congressional Republicans are in no mood to return to the battlefield.
Although they had fiercely opposed the law since 2010, it gradually became more popular with voters and was considered a chief factor in Democratic victories in November last year that cost the Republican Party control of the US House of Representatives.
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