On Friday, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) tweeted that President-elect Donald Trump agreed with his opposition to a scheme by Republican leaders in Congress to repeal Obamacare with no replacement plan.
I just spoke to @realDonaldTrump and he fully supports my plan to replace Obamacare the same day we repeal it. The time to act is now.
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) January 7, 2017
A little-noticed 60 Minutes interview in November confirms that Donald Trump has made it clear that repeal and replacement must come simultaneously.
Asked by Leslie Stahl about his strategy to get rid of Obamacare, Trump said there should be absolutely no time between the two steps.
“[W]e’re going to do it simultaneously. It’ll be just fine,” Trump said. “We’re not going to have, like, a two-day period and we’re not going to have a two-year period where there’s nothing. It will be repealed and replaced. And we’ll know. And it’ll be great health care for much less money. So it’ll be better health care, much better, for less money. Not a bad combination.”
Trump said that his replacement plan would still cover people with pre-existing conditions and adult children will still be able to stay on their parents’ plans, but did not provide any specifics. He has previously vowed that he will replace the law with “something terrific,” though he has offered virtually no specifics about what that will entail.
Republicans in Congress are rushing to scrap Obamacare as quickly as possible, attempting to use a budget process that allows them to bypass a Democratic filibuster. But it’s unclear whether they will actually have enough support in the Senate to move forward with this “repeal and delay” plan.