Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Trump Insists On Quick Replace Vote: 'Long To Me Would Be Weeks'
The New York Times: Trump Tells Congress To Repeal And Replace Health Care Law ‘Very Quickly’
President-elect Donald J. Trump demanded on Tuesday that Congress immediately repeal the Affordable Care Act and pass another health law quickly. His remarks put Republicans in the nearly impossible position of having only weeks to replace a health law that took nearly two years to pass. “We have to get to business,” Mr. Trump told The New York Times in a telephone interview. “Obamacare has been a catastrophic event.” (Haberman and Pear, 1/10)
The Washington Post: Trump, Hill GOP Fret About Fallout From Repealing Obamacare So Quickly
After years of promising to repeal the Affordable Care Act, a growing number of Republicans are balking at the prospect of doing so quickly without a firm plan to replace it. As the Senate begins voting Wednesday on a path to eliminate the landmark health-care bill, some Republicans are worried about the political fallout and uncertainty of starting to roll back Obamacare without knowing how the process will end.President-elect Donald J. Trump was among the Republicans expressing concern Tuesday. (Snell, Sullivan and Goldstein, 1/10)
The Associated Press: Trump Pushes GOP Leaders For Fast Action On Health Care
The push for speed and coordination came as growing numbers of Republicans expressed concerns about GOP leadership's plans to repeal the Affordable Care Act without a replacement in hand, potentially leaving the 20 million people who gained coverage under the law in limbo. (1/10)
The Hill: Trump Says ObamaCare Replacement Should Come Quickly
“Long to me would be weeks,” Trump said of how long it should take to pass a replacement. “It won’t be repeal and then two years later go in with another plan.” (Shelbourne, 1/10)
Morning Consult: Trump Calls For Swift ACA Repeal, But Senate GOP Split On Timing
Congressional Republicans have set up a multi-step process to repeal the law, starting with a budget resolution which the Senate is set to vote on by Thursday morning. The House expects to follow suit and vote on the resolution by the end of the week. The budget resolution doesn’t actually repeal the health care law, but instructs four congressional committees to draft reconciliation legislation that would allow the Senate to repeal Obamacare with a simple majority of 51 votes. (McIntire, 1/10)
Bloomberg: Trump Seeks Swift Obamacare Repeal As GOP Splits Over Timing
Republicans in both chambers are showing growing uneasiness about the rush to deliver swiftly on one of Trump’s top campaign promises. (Dennis and Kapur, 1/10)
Politico: Trump’s Obamacare Remedy Spurs More Confusion
Republicans on Capitol Hill are in disarray about how to repeal Obamacare and President-elect Donald Trump’s call on Tuesday to enact a replacement “very quickly” did nothing to clear up the turmoil. Trump told The New York Times that he wants a repeal to happen within days and “the replace will be very quickly or simultaneously, very shortly thereafter.” The statement took lawmakers on Capitol Hill by surprise. (Haberkorn and Cancryn, 1/10)
In other news on the president elect's relationship with the Republicans in Congress —
The Hill: Trump Medicare Promise Causes Heartburn For GOP
Time and again on the campaign trail, Donald Trump pledged to his supporters that he wouldn’t gut Medicare as president. Trump’s incoming chief of staff, Reince Priebus, doubled down on that position over the weekend, insisting that his boss wouldn’t “meddle” with Medicare or Social Security. But a week before Trump’s inauguration, that campaign promise is already encountering fierce resistance from Republicans on Capitol Hill. For years, GOP lawmakers — led by Speaker Paul Ryan (Wis.) — have been sounding the alarm that a major overhaul to Medicare and other entitlements are needed to ensure they don’t go bankrupt. (Wong, 1/11)
