It's a game of political hot potato, with President Trump urging Senate Republicans to come up with a replacement for the Affordable Care Act — and Senate Republicans arguing that's something the White House should do, The Washington Post reports.
Many Republican lawmakers think it's a terrible idea to try to replace the ACA, also known as ObamaCare, ahead of the 2020 elections, noting it won't even be possible with a divided Congress. Yet Trump called several GOP senators on Tuesday and Wednesday, trying to pressure them into writing new laws, the Post reports. Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) told Fox News on Wednesday the White House should write the GOP plan, not Congress. "We don't need 12 of them," he said. "We need one solution."
In a filing Monday to the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, the Justice Department argued that the ACA should be invalidated. Should the law be struck down, more than 20 million people would lose their health insurance. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) asked Trump to avoid going through the courts to get rid of ObamaCare, a senior GOP official told the Post, but Trump ignored him.
Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wy.) said he spoke with Trump on Wednesday morning, and told the Post the president is "100 percent committed to ensuring that people with pre-existing conditions get covered." White House aides said administration officials do not have a plan, but are looking at something Barrasso has put together involving short-term insurance "free from ObamaCare's burdensome mandates."