In another healthcare twist, the President now plans to repeal and replace Obamacare after the 2020 election:
The Trump administration just last week agreed with a federal judge’s ruling that said the entire Obamacare law should be struck down. I posted to the blog that it was politically unwise to move forward with striking down the entire law in the context of a divided Congress and no plan to replace the law that extended coverage to millions of Americans.
The reality is that Obamacare is a flawed law that needs to be repealed and replaced with a plan that works better for all Americans. However, after Republicans tried and failed to come up with a replacement plan following the election of President Trump, a more thorough approach is needed to win over Americans support for a Republican healthcare plan. As I have written about before, to win this debate, Republicans need to talk about how plans that promote competition in healthcare and deregulation of the healthcare industry will benefit Americans. This is a much more viable strategy than sitting back and fending off calls for Medicare-for-All or bashing Obamacare.
It remains unknown what the new proposal from the Trump administration and Congress will entail. It also remains unknown what will happen after the 2020 election. But, given that the push for Medicare-for-All is not going to slow down, Republicans should use the time between now and 2020 to highlight proposals that can lower healthcare costs and provide more affordable coverage choices for Americans.