Trump Claims Long-Promised Obamacare Replacement Is ‘All Ready’
Trump Says Long-Promised Obamacare Replacement Is ‘All Ready’
(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump said Tuesday that his plan to replace Obamacare -- which he has repeatedly promised would be introduced in a matter of weeks, only for the deadlines to come and go -- is now “all ready.”
Trump made the statement in a contentious town-hall style event hosted by ABC News on Tuesday in which several voters confronted Trump head-on about his policies and his behavior.
“I have it all ready, and it’s a much better plan for you,” Trump said to one such voter, a Black woman who voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and demanded to know what the president would do to protect people like her who have pre-existing medical conditions from losing their health insurance.
“We are not going to hurt anything having to do with pre-existing conditions,” Trump answered. “We’re not going to hurt pre-existing conditions.”
He claimed his long-delayed health plan was ready after the host of the event, George Stephanopoulos, pointed out that his administration has asked the Supreme Court to strike down the Affordable Care Act, including its protections for people with pre-existing conditions.
Trump said he’s fighting the court battle “so that we can do new health care.” In 2017, Congress, then with Republicans in control of both chambers, failed to repeal the law.
Stephanopoulos noted Trump had told him in an interview a year ago he would have a new health plan ready in three weeks. The plan was never revealed.
Trump didn’t directly answer when Stephanopoulos asked of his plan, “what is it?”
“Obamacare was a disaster. Obamacare is too expensive, the premiums are too high. It’s a total disaster,” Trump said. “You’re going to have new health care, and the pre-existing condition aspect of it will always be in my plan.”
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