Trump launches a fight for health care whose outcome is uncertain

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How exactly will this happen – and whether it will be a blessing or a curse for Republicans in 2020 – is still uncertain.

Health care – and Trump's attempts to roll back Obamacare – has become a galvanizing issue for Democrats at the mid-term in 2018. According to a poll released at the exit of CNN, four voters in 2018 said that Health care was the most important problem for the country, as it entailed a wave of Democratic legislators to give Democrats a majority in the House of Representatives.

And now that they have lost the majority, Republicans have virtually no chance of passing a law that would repeal and replace President Barack Obama's health care law.

But Trump has been stubborn in the face of these political alarm signals, fearing instead that the repeal and replacement of Obamacare will not remain the promise of the 2016 signing campaign that "we are in the dark. he has not yet filled.

It is in this spirit that Trump supported the arguments of his White House Chief of Staff, Mick Mulvaney, that the government should support the decision of a federal judge in Texas invalidating Obamacare in his integrality, told CNN a senior White House and Republican close to the campaign.

"At the moment, the Texas court is probably ending in the Supreme Court," Trump told reporters on Friday. "But we are currently doing something that will cost a lot less than Obamacare for the people."

But what exactly is a work in progress.

Uncertainty did not prevent Trump from attaching himself and his party to the issue.

A week of health care moves

After the administration had started the week with its surprise change in favor of the Texas Affordable Care Act's invalidation, Trump steadily beat the drum, placing the thorny issue at the center of the political scene, even as federal judges cases have ruled against him. On Wednesday, one rejected the government's approval of Medicaid-imposed working conditions in two states and another Thursday blocked a rule that would allow small businesses to group together more easily to buy health insurance. , which could harm Obamacare.
States commit to respect the requirements of Medicaid's work

Trump's efforts provoked complaints – private and public – from Republican lawmakers aware of Trump's hard battle.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Thursday attempted to outrun his caucus from Trump's latest initiative, saying he was "eagerly waiting to see what the President is proposing and what he could do. find with the Speaker of the House ".

The President, they said, would like to remind his political base that he is firmly committed to his promise to repeal the law as a whole, even though it has not prevented the Republicans to do so during a long-running legislative battle in 2017, when the party held both houses of Congress. And he now hopes that the courts will accomplish what he and a Republican majority in the House and Senate can not.

"We have a chance to kill Obamacare.We've almost done it, but someone we have unfortunately surprised with the thumbs down, but we will do it in a different way.You know what "We will do it in a different way," Trump told his supporters. at a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan on Thursday night. "So we will get rid of Obamacare and I said it the other day: the Republican Party will become the party of high quality health care. Its good. It is important.

Trump's decision to support a decision that would completely dismantle Obamacare, even though his administration did not have a viable alternative, was a risky gamble. If the decision is upheld by higher courts, about 20 million Americans could lose health coverage under Trump's supervision.

Concerns raised by Health and Social Services Secretary Alex Azar, Attorney General William Barr and White House lawyer Pat Cipollone as the White House discusses its position on the Texas lawsuit , which was brought in by a coalition of states led by Republicans. The Texas government appealed the Texas decision because the Trump government had refused to defend the law.

Presidential Working Group

The president said Thursday that he has entrusted a small number of Republican senators with the replacement of an obamacare. Such a working group, however, does not seem to exist.

"I think the president just gave the list of people he talked to over the phone about health care," CNN's aide to the Republican Senate told CNN.

Spokesmen for Senators Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Rick Scott of Florida, two of the Republican senators listed by Trump as part of the group, said Senators had continued to have conversations with the President and their colleagues about health problems, but made no mention. from a working group.

Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, the third senator verified by name, spoke to Trump about health care Wednesday morning, but his aides said they had nothing to share for the moment about the working group in question.

The President's comments on the Senators constituted the White House's latest attempt to reassure the public that it would have a replacement plan before the courts make a final judgment.

Just a day earlier, Marc Short, Chief of Staff to Vice President Mike Pence and former Director of Legislative Affairs at the White House, told CNN that "the President will present plans this year" to replace Obamacare with Congress.

White House officials soon told CNN that Short had taken some advance on the White House's deliberations.

The White House has not yet decided whether it would take the lead in building a replacement for Obamacare, or whether the president would bump up in front of Republican lawmakers.

Tami Luhby, Sarah Westwood and Jeff Zeleny from CNN contributed to this report.

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