President Donald Trump will lay out key details about his plan to repeal and replace Obamacare in Tuesday night’s speech to Congress.
With control of both Congress and the White House, Republicans are in a unique position to make good on their promise to “repeal and replace” former President Barack Obama’s landmark health care legislation.
Despite having the advantage of controlling nearly every branch of government, the task of repealing Obamacare is proving itself increasingly difficult, as Republicans are finding little to no consensus on the best way to go about a repeal effort.
Republican lawmakers are simultaneously experiencing a great deal of pressure from their constituents to both push forward with the Obamacare repeal, and to stop the repeal effort entirely — further compounding the problem.
Trump will address Congress for the first time since taking office on Jan. 20, in a nationally televised speech on Tuesday evening. The president is expected to talk details about the Obamacare repeal effort, which could provide both houses of Congress a clearer picture of what the Republican platform will look like.
The president doubled down on his commitment to “repeal and replace” Obamacare at a black-tie event for the National Governors Association Sunday evening.
“We’re going to be speaking very specifically about a very complicated subject,” Trump said. “I think we have something that is really going to be excellent.” The president will also meet with some of the governors who are in Washington, D.C., for the National Governors Association meeting on Monday to discuss health care.
Republican governors have shown some trepidation in moving forward with a repeal agenda. State governors came to Washington not only to dine and meet with the president, but to debate the pros and cons of repealing and replacing Obamacare amongst themselves.
There are signs of divisions between some of the GOP governors. For instance, Republican governors John Kasich and Chris Christie have both been vocal advocates of keeping the Medicaid expansion portion of Obamacare. “We cannot turn our backs on the most vulnerable,” Kasich said.
One spot of hope for the president’s repeal effort was Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s — a Democrat, chair of the governors association, and long-time supporter of the Clintons — comments after Trump handed the governor the microphone Sunday night. McAuliffe said the governors want to “work with” him on creating jobs and improving the health care system.
A leaked copy of the presentation given to governors Saturday shows hundreds of thousands of people, on average, will lose coverage under a standard version of the Republican repeal plan, Axios reports. States would also reportedly lose between 65 to 80 percent of federal health care funding, according to the presentation.
Republicans face no easy task in fully repealing Obamacare. Assuming the repeal plan presented by Republican lawmakers to Congress garners zero support from Democrats, Republicans cannot lose any more than two Republican votes in the Senate and 22 in the House.
Republican lawmakers are hedging a bet that the only course for Congress to repeal and replace Obamacare will be to put forth a bill and hope Republican members do not block it. GOP leadership is hoping that, with a few concessions here and there, any Republicans that might defect from the repeal agenda can be pacified, The Wall Street Journal reports.
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