Obamacare Replacement: Trump Promises Insurance for All as Critics Protest Repeal Will Hurt Millions
President-elect Donald Trump said that a replacement policy for President Obama's Affordable Care Act (ACA) is ready and will be set in motion to provide "insurance for all".
He detailed the plans for the repeal and replacement of Obamacare, the colloquial term used for ACA, in a weekend interview with The Washington Post.
"We're going to have insurance for everybody," Trump said. "There was a philosophy in some circles that if you can't pay for it, you don't get it. That's not going to happen with us." People covered under the law "can expect to have great health care. It will be in a much simplified form. Much less expensive and much better."
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As always though, Trump did not disclose any specific details of the new healthcare plan and simply used reassuring phrases like "lower numbers", "lower deductibles", "much less expensive and much better" to describe it.
Trump said the plan will be made public after the Senate confirmed Representative Tom Price, Republican of Georgia, to be the secretary of health and human services.
In response to the Congress starting the repeal of Obamacare -- with the House of Representatives following the Senate in approving a new budget on Friday -- protests have erupted across the country as the fear of 20 million Americans losing insurance coverage grips the people.
It is not just the Democrats who are worried about the repeal. Many Republicans, who have lobbied against Obamacare and its high premiums and deductibles for seven years, too are hesitant about repealing the act without having a solid replacement plan in place.
The House of Representatives voted 227-198 to instruct committees to draft legislation by a target date of Jan. 27 that would repeal the ACA. The Senate approved the same measure early Thursday. No Democrats supported the initiative while nine Republicans voted against the measure.
However, Trump maintains that he wants Congress to repeal the ACA and replace it "very quickly or simultaneously, very shortly thereafter." He is confident that the plan will be passed once it is unveiled but he remained tight-lipped on how he would convert those against it.
"I think we will get approval. I won't tell you how, but we will get approval," Trump said.
Donald Trump also said that he would force pharmaceutical companies to lower drug prices in order to reduce national health-care costs. He said that big drug companies would no longer enjoy political protection and would have to deal directly with Medicare and Medicaid. When asked how he would go about this daunting task, Trump remarked about the effect public pressure -- exerted by his pointed tweets -- has had on large corporations.
Despite reassurances of Donald Trump and other Republican leaders that they will provide "insurance for all", even those who are currently covered by the ACA, the majority of the people remain vary about the new healthcare plan due to the uncertainty and hastiness behind the move to implement it.
