Free Republic

U.S. Senator Rand Paul said he spoke to President Donald Trump by phone about healthcare reform on Monday and told the president he thought Trump had the authority to create associations that would allow organizations to offer group health insurance plans. Paul, a Republican, told reporters that Trump was considering taking some form of executive action to address problems with the healthcare system after the Senate failed last week to pass a measure to reform the system.....

President Trump took to Twitter Monday to ask why insurance companies and Congress are not being hurt by the failings of Obamacare just as the American people are being hit. Trump started the day by noting that the unpopular healthcare law is “hurting people” and asked why it isn’t also hurting insurance companies, and also why Congress is exempt. Trump had previously threatened to end what he called “bailouts” for insurance companies and Congress after the failing of the GOP-led Senate to pass either a healthcare reform bill, a flat-out Obamacare repeal, or a so-called “skinny repeal” of Obamacare. The...

Politicians on Capitol Hill are learning what businessmen around this country already know: don’t cross Donald Trump. This is the kind of President the American people have hungered for. When a group of Republican senators joined Democrats in defeating Trump’s goal to repeal Obamacare, they messed up royally. Now they are dealing with the wrath of President Trump. You’re talking about a president who doesn’t care about political or mainstream media wars, as long as he gets the job done. Trump is not playing the typical game of politics, at least not by the same rules as the Republican and...

Republican Senator John McCain just singlehandedly killed the repeal of Obamacare. Now it’s time for President Trump to act. It’s time for President Trump to expose McCain and the rest of Congress for the frauds and hypocrites they are. It’s time for two Executive Orders that have the power to change everything.This is how President Trump makes "The House of Cards" collapse. This is how President Trump ends Obamacare once and for all.Executive Order #1: President Trump should issue an immediate Executive Order forcing every member of Congress to use the same healthcare plan as the rest of us. Let...

President Trump on Saturday threatened to end key payments to insurance companies made under Obamacare if a repeal and replace bill is not passed.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said he wants to make federal funding of Obamacare subsidies permanent before working with Republicans on other reforms to the troubled health care law the GOP has been unable to repeal. Schumer said "there is a thirst" among Republicans to work with Democrats on reforming Obamacare following early Friday's defeat of the Republican plan to repeal the law.

Unless the Republican Senators are total quitters, Repeal & Replace is not dead! Demand another vote before voting on any other bill!

President Trump on Saturday threatened to end key payments to insurance companies made under Obamacare if a repeal and replace bill is not passed. "After seven years of 'talking' Repeal & Replace, the people of our great country are still being forced to live with imploding ObamaCare!" the president wrote in a tweet. "If a new HealthCare Bill is not approved quickly, BAILOUTS for Insurance Companies and BAILOUTS for Members of Congress will end very soon!" he added. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) fired back Saturday, saying Trump should "stop playing politics with people's lives and health care, start leading, and finally begin...

President Trump on Saturday threatened to end health care “bailouts” for insurers and lawmakers in Washington as he continues to push Congress to pass legislation repealing ObamaCare. “If a new HealthCare Bill is not approved quickly, BAILOUTS for Insurance Companies and BAILOUTS for Members of Congress will end very soon!” Trump tweeted Saturday afternoon.

WASHINGTON — President Trump on Saturday indicated he will make good on a months-old threat to destabilize the health insurance market if Senate Republicans cannot repeal and replace major elements of the Affordable Care Act. The first part of the ultimatum likely refers to cost-sharing reduction payments made by the federal government to insurers, which in turn offer plans with discounted deductibles and copays for many low- or middle-income Americans buying plans through ACA marketplaces. The second portion, while far narrower in scope, is significant in that it highlights an additional tool at the president’s disposal for acting unilaterally on...

If a new HealthCare Bill is not approved quickly, BAILOUTS for Insurance Companies and BAILOUTS for Members of Congress will end very soon!

If President Trump wants to fulfill his repeated promise to end ObamaCare, his best course of action is a radical change in tactics that would hit members of Congress where it hurts – in their wallets.... With a mere stroke of his pen, President Trump could end the exemption that President Obama gave members of Congress and their staffs that makes them the only participants in the ObamaCare exchanges to receive generous subsidies from their employer (the American people) to pay for their health insurance. Nothing would better focus Congress’ attention on changing ObamaCare than being trapped in it just...

Trump painted Tuesday's vote as a chance at redemption for Democrats and moment of truth for Republicans who have long promised to get rid of Obamacare. "Any senator who votes against starting debate is telling America that you are fine with the Obamacare nightmare," the president said. The margin for success remains close for the GOP — a struggle that Senate Republicans have contended with for the past several weeks, and one that Trump indicated he well aware of. "Democrats aren't giving us one vote," the president said, "so we need virtually every single vote from Republicans," which, he added,...

RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, I want to expand on something here that I just saw President Trump say right before the end of the previous hour. He said that his plan now is to just let Obamacare fail. He’s not gonna own it. He’s just gonna let it fail. Which he’s been saying for months. He said, you know, the smart thing politically for him to do be let it fail and let the Democrats absorb all the blame. Let Obama and the Democrats take the blame. Just let it fail. But Trump said — as a show of good...

President Trump said Tuesday he's prepared “let ObamaCare fail” after the collapse of Senate Republicans' latest health care bill, indicating he's willing to move on to tax reform and other issues – and deal with an Affordable Care Act fix down the road. “I think we're probably in that position where we'll just let ObamaCare fail,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “We're not going to own it. I'm not going to own it. I can tell you the Republicans are not going to own it. We'll let ObamaCare fail, and then the Democrats are going to come to...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi slammed a leaked draft plan to repeal and replace Obamacare, saying it cuts coverage and amounts to a tax break for the wealthy. "While Republicans hide from their constituents, they are moving down an increasingly cruel path to raise taxes on middle-class families and dismantle Americans' right to affordable health care," she said Friday. Pelosi's statement comes a few hours after leaked draft legislation was released by Politico Friday. The draft, dated Feb. 10, would cut Obamacare's mandates and taxes and pay for a replacement by capping tax breaks on employer-sponsored health plans. "The latest...

Politico reports today that a leaked draft of the GOP’s Obamacare replacement plan shows the House is not fiddling around the edges but moving toward full repeal and replacement of the law. The legislation would take down the foundation of Obamacare, including the unpopular individual mandate, subsidies based on people’s income, and all of the law’s taxes. It would significantly roll back Medicaid spending and give states money to create high-risk pools for some people with pre-existing conditions. Some elements would be effective right away; others not until 2020. The replacement plan would have no individual mandate. Instead, there...

First of Four Parts… The Pharma Companies In the Crosshairs During last year’s presidential campaign, candidate Donald Trump said that if elected, he would save the federal government billions by forcing the pharmaceutical companies to negotiate—that is, lower—their prices. On January 11, 2017, President-elect Trump said that the pharma companies were “getting away with murder” in their pricing, and reiterated his demand for new competition policies aimed at bringing down costs. On January 31, President Trump met face-to-face with top executives and offered a more nuanced exposition of his thinking. First, he reiterated his oft-expressed point about the value of...

House Republicans during a closed-door meeting Tuesday discussed how to protect themselves and their staffs from protesters storming town halls and offices in opposition to repealing Obamacare, sources in the room told Politico.

The Post’s Mike DeBonis has obtained leaked audio of Republicans at a closed-door session airing serious anxieties about the GOP’s strategy to repeal and replace Obamacare. What’s remarkable is how decisively their specific comments in private undercut the party’s public, carefully-crafted talking points about the battle to come. Now, to be clear, these private comments [] Related: Trump’s secret plan to make Mexico pay for a border wall, revealed Steve Bannon just attacked the media. The correct response: Keep pointing out the lies. Happy Hour Roundup ...