Pressure mounts on GOP for post-Obamacare plan following CBO report
A new analysis that at least 18 million people could lose health insurance in the first year if Congress repeals the Affordable Care Act without replacing it intensified the battle this week over the landmark health-care law as President-elect Donald Trump and Republicans try to figure out how to dismantle it.
Democrats seized on the report, issued Tuesday by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, to discredit Republican efforts to repeal Obamacare and rally Americans who are insured under the program. The report underscored the political peril that Trump faces in trying to meet one of his top campaign promises — and also the discord among Republicans about how to do it.
The political and public-relations battle over the ACA is now at full speed, with Democrats holding rallies across the country and inviting Americans to Capitol Hill to describe how their lives were improved or even saved by the law. Republicans, meanwhile, accused Democrats of distorting the truth about the much-debated program — but also revealed signs of disunity about how to meet their promise of repeal without political fallout among voters or economic calamity in the insurance market.
Trump waded into the fray over the weekend when he declared that his own replacement plan is nearly complete — touting the goal of “insurance for everybody” and promising “much lower deductibles” for consumers. That pronouncement appeared to come with little consultation with congressional Republicans, and it conflicted directly with plans laid out by Trump’s advisers, including Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), his nominee for secretary of health and human services.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/pressure-mounts-on-gop-for-post-obamacare-plan-following-cbo-report/2017/01/17/e389f8b2-dcdb-11e6-918c-99ede3c8cafa_story.html?utm_term=.21e267b317bb&wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1
