Obamacare: Barack Obama and Mike Pence begin showdown on fate of Affordable Care Act
The outgoing president and incoming vice president held meetings with their respective parties to strategise for the future
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Your support makes all the difference.In the final days of Barack Obama’s presidency, the fate of the Affordable Care Act hangs in uncertainty as Democrats and Republicans launch their battles to either preserve or obliterate the law.
Both Mr Obama and Vice President-elect Mike Pence held meetings with their respective parties to strategise for the future of the ACA – commonly referred to as Obamacare.
The outgoing President urged Democrats in Congress to not “rescue” the GOP by voting for “something worse” than the healthcare reform law that is currently in place.
Republicans could deal a major blow to the Mr Obama’s legacy with the dismantling of the ACA. A full repealment without replacement could result in the loss of health insurance for some 30 million people – a large percentage of whom live in counties that favoured President-elect Donald Trump in the general election.
“Keep up the fight,” Mr Obama said, according to Ohio Rep Tim Ryan. “Tell the stories about the people who have benefited from it. The more you can get that message through, the better off we’re going to be.”
He also suggested Democrats turn the tables and refer to the GOP’s potential new plan as “Trumpcare” to highlight the differences.
After the closed-door meeting, Mr Obama said that he told fellow Democrats to “Look out for the American people.”
The Vice President-elect assured GOP lawmakers that repealing the ACA would be one of Mr Trump’s “first order of business”, as promised on the campaign trail.
GOP leaders want to get Mr Trump legislation to sign by 20 February.
“Make no mistake about it,” Mr Pence told reporter, “We’re going to keep our promise to the American people. We’re going to repeal Obamacare and replace it with solutions that lower the cost of health insurance without growing the size of government.”
He added that Americans “voted decisively for a better future for health care in this country, and we are determined to give them that.”
The outlook for Obamacare became rather grim following Mr Trump’s narrow Electoral College win against Hillary Clinton – who won the popular vote by almost three million ballots.
While Mr Trump will have virtually no obstacle in getting rid of the ACA in his first 100 days in office, he still faces the challenge of having no viable plan for a replacement from Republicans.
Mr Pence said that the Trump transition team was already working with GOP legislators to take action after inauguration, but did not specify what such actions would look like.
Shortly before Mr Pence’s meeting with Republicans, Mr Trump tweeted his own forecast for Mr Obama’s monumental health care law.
“Massive increases of ObamaCare will take place this year and Dems are to blame for the mess,” he wrote, without specific citations. “It will fall of its own weight – be careful!"