President Trump made a sales pitch Wednesday for the Republican plan to repeal and replace Obamacare, telling a campaign-style rally in Tennessee that the current health car law was already gone.
He sad the plan being negotiated in Congress would save the country from “horrible, disastrous Obamacare.”
“If we leave Obamacare in place, million and millions of people will be forced off their plans,” said Mr. Trump told the crowd of thousands in Nashville, Tennessee. “The insurers are fleeing. It is a catastrophic situation.”
The GOP bill that Mr. Trump backs has come under fire from the party’s conservative in the House and moderate in the Senate, and faces solid opposition for Capitol Hill Democrats. But Mr. Trump and the Republican-run Congress have staked their reputations on fulfilling a promise to end Obamacare.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, Wisconsin Republican, said early that the leadership was open to making changes to the bill to overcome the opposition within his party.
In the speech, Mr. Trump stressed that the GOP bill would repeal billions of dollars in Obamacare taxes and let people pick their own doctors.
He reminded Americans of the broken promises made by President Obama when the law was passed, including that people could keep their current doctors and keep their current insurance plans.
“The bill I will eventually sign,” he said, “will get rid of obamacear and make health care better for you and your family.”
Promising that the bill would not be the end of the health care effort, Mr. Trump said that future action would include lowering prescription drug prices by bargaining with pharmaceutical companies.
Mr. Trump also argued that the Obamacare law was already collapsing and that the Republican plan, once it has been negotiated in public, would provide better health care and give Americans more control over their health care choices.
“Remember folks, Obama care is gone. It’s not working,” said the president. “What we can’t do is be intimidated by attacks form Democrats in Congress who broke the system in the first place and didn’t trust you to make your own decisions.”
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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