Trump warns Republicans on Twitter to 'be careful' over Obamacare

Trump warns Republicans on Twitter to 'be careful' over Obamacare·CNBC
Dan Mangan
0

So does he want it repealed, or not?

A day after the Senate launched efforts to repeal Obamacare, as President-elect Donald Trump has repeatedly promised, Trump tweeted several warnings to his fellow Republicans that highlighted the potential political perils of actually getting rid of the massive health-care law.

Trump on Wednesday warned the GOP to "be careful!" in their repeal effort, suggesting that ripping up Obamacare might let Democrats off the hook politically for problems associated with the law, particularly higher premium prices for individual health plans. And if that happens, the Republicans might end replacing them on that hook, as new problems arise.

"Republicans must be careful in that the Dems own the failed ObamaCare disaster, with its poor coverage and massive premium increases," Trump tweeted.

Another Trump tweet said, "massive increases of ObamaCare will take place this year and Dems are to blame for the mess. It will fall of its own weight - be careful!"

And a third tweet from the real estate mogul noted that prices of unsubsidized Obamacare plans increased by as much as 116 percent in Arizona for this year, and claimed "deductibles are so high that it is practically useless."

"Don't let the Schumer clowns out of this web ..." Trump tweeted, referring to the Senate's minority leader, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-NY.

Trump's tweets underscore the warnings that many health-insurance experts voiced after his election in November. The Urban Institute has said that about 30 million people could become uninsured if Obamacare is repealed without any replacement plan put into place.

Trump and GOP leaders in Congress have said they intend to craft a replacement plan, but have not yet formally proposed one. Experts have said that if such a plan followed the outlines of existing Republican proposals to change the health-care law, the number of uninsured would increase by millions of people, although not has high as would be seen under the Urban Institute's no-replacement scenario.

On Tuesday, senior Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway, appearing on MSNBC's program "Morning Joe," said that under Trump's plan to repeal-and-replace Obamacare, "We don't want anyone who currently has insurance to not have insurance."

President Barack Obama suffered political blowback in late 2013 and early 2014, after Obamacare exchanges began selling health plans, when it became clear to the public that millions of people would not be able to keep their existing plans, but would have to replace them with new plans. That resulted in part because the Affordable Care Act require health plans to have minimal levels of coverage

Despite the furor over that disclosure, which led to some older health-plans being grandfathered for a year or more, most people whose plans expired ended up getting coverage elsewhere. And the nation's uninsured rate has dropped sharply since then, as up to 20 million new people have gained coverage as a result of Obamacare.

— Reuters contributed to this story.

Also From CNBC:

Watch The Profit on Yahoo View, available now on iOS and Android.

More From CNBC

  • Top News and Analysis

  • Latest News Video

  • Personal Finance

Advertisement

Recommended Stories