Trump punts ACA replacement, says Republicans will unveil plan after 2020 elections

WASHINGTON — President Trump signaled Monday night that he will not press for a vote on a bill to replace the Affordable Care Act until after next year’s elections, apparently heeding warnings from fellow Republicans about the perils of such a fight during campaign season.

In a series of late-night tweets, Trump continued to bash President Barack Obama’s signature health-care law but said a vote on a replacement would not occur until after the elections – suggesting that he believes he would still be in the White House and that Republicans would control both chambers of Congress at that point.

“Vote will be taken right after the Election when Republicans hold the Senate & win back the House,” Trump wrote. “It will be truly great HealthCare that will work for America.”

Congressional Republicans were caught off guard by Trump’s rapid shift to focus on health care last week, which was set off by his abrupt decision to direct the Justice Department to intervene in a federal court case seeking to eliminate the ACA in its entirety on constitutional grounds.

Trump later showed up a Senate Republican luncheon where he declared that they should be the “party of health care” and asked for assistance in writing a new bill.

It soon became clear, however, that other Republicans had little appetite to take on an issue that benefited Democrats during last year’s midterm elections.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., signaled that he would not play a major role in authoring new health-care legislation, saying he would instead wait to see what the White House produced in consultation with leaders of the Democratic-controlled House.

Everybody agrees that ObamaCare doesn’t work. Premiums & deductibles are far too high – Really bad HealthCare! Even the Dems want to replace it, but with Medicare for all, which would cause 180 million Americans to lose their beloved private health insurance. The Republicans…..

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 2, 2019

….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. Vote will be taken right after the Election when Republicans hold the Senate & win……

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 2, 2019

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, whose panel would be central to any such debate, also said last week that there was no plan to move forward.

When asked whether the two Senate committees overseeing health-care policy are planning to draft a replacement proposal for the Affordable Care Act, Grassley responded flatly: “No.”

“Obamacare is something that’s not going to be replaced unless the courts would declare it unconstitutional,” Grassley said. “You won’t know that for a long time.”

In his tweets, Trump claimed that a bill is in the works.

“The Republicans are developing a really great HealthCare Plan with far lower premiums (cost) & deductibles than ObamaCare,” he said. “In other words it will be far less expensive & much more usable than ObamaCare.”

Despite the delay in legislative action, the Trump administration is continuing to push for the dismantling of the ACA through the courts

On Tuesday morning, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., planned to hold an event in front of the Supreme Court to urge the Justice Department to reverse its position on the case.

Sens. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., held a news conference Tuesday morning to discuss legislation to reduce the cost of prescription drug prices and increase transparency for consumers. Both senators said they were focused on drug prices – something they said they viewed as achievable – not the broader ACA replacement plan the president now says will be put off until after the election.

“I think you’d have to ask the president. I know what I’m going to focus on. I’m going to focus on drug prices,” Scott said when asked about Trump’s declaration that the vote would take place after the election.

Trump previously named Scott as one of the Republican senators working on replacement legislation.

“I talk to the president a lot, I called him last week to talk about a couple other issues, and he brought up the fact he’d like me to focus on this, and I told him that what I was working on was prescription drug prices,” Scott said. “I’m a business guy. I didn’t try to do grand bargains.”

As Missouri attorney general, Hawley led his state to join others in bringing the lawsuit aimed at overturning the ACA that the Trump administration is now supporting. Asked if he had a “moral responsibility” to offer a replacement if the ACA is struck down in court, Hawley said it will remain in place as the case is adjudicated and that “I expect that will take quite some time.”

“Obamacare is in place; it’s going to be for the foreseeable future,” Hawley said. “But we need to act now to actually get relief for families who depend on these prescription drugs.”