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 In a Twitter message on Saturday, Trump said "if a new HealthCare
Bill is not approved quickly, BAILOUTS for Insurance Companies and
BAILOUTS for Members of Congress will end very soon!"
The tweet came a day after Senate Republicans failed to muster
enough votes to repeal parts of the Affordable Care Act, President
Barack Obama's signature healthcare bill commonly known as Obamacare.
The first part of Trump's tweet appeared to be referring to the
approximately $8 billion in cost-sharing reduction subsidies the
federal government pays to insurers to lower the price of health
coverage for low-income Americans.
The second part appeared to be a threat to end the employer
contribution for Congress members and their staffs, who were moved
from the normal federal employee healthcare benefits program onto
the Obamacare insurance exchanges as part of the 2010 healthcare
law.
Trump has previously threatened to suspend the payments to insurers,
which are determined by the Department of Health and Human Services.
In April, he threatened to end the payments if Democrats refused to
negotiate over the healthcare bill.
Responding to Saturday's tweet, Senate Democratic leader Chuck
Schumer said that if the president carried out that threat, "every
expert agrees that (insurance) premiums will go up and health care
will be more expensive for millions of Americans."
"The president ought to stop playing politics with people's lives
and health care, start leading and finally begin acting
presidential,” Schumer said in a statement.
Trump later urged Senate Republicans to try again on a healthcare
vote. The Senate is in session for another week before it is
scheduled to begin an August recess.
"Unless the Republican Senators are total quitters, Repeal & Replace
is not dead! Demand another vote before voting on any other bill!"
Trump said in a subsequent tweet.
Many insurers have been waiting for an answer from Trump or
lawmakers on whether they will continue to fund the annual
government subsidies. Without assurances, many plan to raise rates
an additional 20 percent by an Aug. 16 deadline for premium prices.
With Republican efforts to dismantle Obamacare in disarray, hundreds
of U.S. counties are at risk of losing access to private health
coverage in 2018 as insurers consider pulling out of those markets.
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In response, Trump on Friday again suggested his administration
would let the Obamacare program "implode." He has weakened
enforcement of the law’s requirement for individuals to buy
insurance, threatened to cut off funding and sought to change plan
benefits through regulations.
Meanwhile, some congressional Republicans were still trying to find
a way forward on healthcare.
Senator Lindsey Graham said in a statement issued late on Friday
that he and two other Republican senators, Dean Heller and Bill
Cassidy, had met with Trump after the defeat to discuss Graham's
proposal to take tax money raised by Obamacare and send it back to
the states in the form of healthcare block grants.
Graham said the move would end Democrats' drive for a national
single-payer healthcare system by putting states in charge.
"President Trump was optimistic about the Graham-Cassidy-Heller
proposal," Graham added. "I will continue to work with President
Trump and his team to move the idea forward."
However, a majority of Americans are ready to move on from
healthcare at this point. According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released
on Saturday, 64 percent of 1,136 people surveyed on Friday and
Saturday said they wanted to keep Obamacare, either "entirely as is"
or after fixing "problem areas.
When asked what they think Congress should do next, most picked
other priorities such as tax reform, foreign relations and
infrastructure. Only 29 percent said they wanted Republicans in
Congress to "continue working on a new healthcare bill."
Asked what they think Congress should do next, most respondents
picked other priorities such as tax reform, foreign relations and
infrastructure. Only 29 percent said they wanted Republicans in
Congress to "continue working on a new healthcare bill."
(Additional reporting by David Lawder in Washington; Editing by
Jonathan Oatis and James Dalgleish)
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