President Trump delivered a rousing healthcare message to his followers at a Thursday night rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, capping off a week of other presidential actions on healthcare.
"We're going to get rid of Obamacare," the president told the cheering crowd. "And I said it the other day, the Republican Party will become the party of great healthcare. It's good; it's important."
Trump was referring to shortly before a meeting with Senate Republicans. A reporter asked him what his message was to Americans concerned about their healthcare. "Let me tell you exactly what my message is: The Republican Party will soon be known as the 'Party of Healthcare,'" he said. "You watch."
Justice Dept. Files Letter in ACA Case
The reporter asked the question in the wake of a by the Justice Department relating to a lawsuit by a group of Republican attorneys seeking to overturn the entire Affordable Care Act (ACA). A federal district court judge in Texas sided with the attorneys, declaring that because Congress had reduced the fine to zero, people were required to pay if they didn't have health insurance -- a provision known as the "individual mandate" -- and the rest of the law was now invalid.
That decision was appealed to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, which is now considering the case. In its letter, the Justice Department said it "has determined that the district court's judgment should be affirmed." This was a change from the department's earlier position, which was that only certain provisions of the law -- including the individual mandate, the provision requiring insurers to cover preexisting conditions, and the provision requiring insurers to issue policies to anyone who applies for them -- should be struck down. Whatever the appeals court decides, the case is widely expected to make its way to the Supreme Court.
"We won the case; now it has to be appealed, and then we'll go to the United States Supreme Court. We have a chance of killing Obamacare," Trump said at the rally. "We almost did it [in Congress], but somebody unfortunately surprised us with a thumbs down, but we'll do it a different way." Trump was presumably referring to the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who cast the deciding vote against a Republican effort to repeal and replace the ACA. (Two other GOP senators also voted against it.)
President Slams "Medicare for All"
The president also reminded the crowd that "we created new options to help Americans purchase affordable health plans all across state lines. You now have options you would have never had." The two types of health insurance plans that Trump referenced -- also known as association health plans and short-term, limited-duration health plans -- have been because they don't have to comply with all of the provisions of the ACA, allowing insurers to sell policies that exclude coverage for pre-existing conditions or that don't cover certain categories of benefits. (Earlier in the day Thursday, a , saying it violated the underlying statute.)
In contrast, "the Democrats are pushing socialist, government-run healthcare that bans private health insurance for 180 million Americans," he said, referring to some House Democrats' efforts to pass "Medicare for All" legislation.
"Now think of it," he continued. "A lot of you have private plans, and they're great. They're great. You want that. They want to take them away. That's not going to work. I don't think that's going to work too well. Republicans want you to have an affordable plan that's just right for you." On Thursday, that he had asked senators John Barrasso, MD (R-Wyo.), Bill Cassidy, MD (R-La.), and Rick Scott (R-Fla.) to develop a Republican healthcare plan that would replace the ACA if it were struck down.
Trump also criticized President Obama for saying that under the ACA, consumers could keep their doctor and health plan if they liked them, which is not always the case under the law. "Remember that? That was a lie -- 28 times he said that [and it] was a lie," Trump said. And, he added, despite Obama's assurances that consumers' out-of-pocket costs would be cheaper under the ACA, "the deductibles in Obamacare are so high -- on average $7,000. You don't get to use it unless a real great tragedy hits and then you don't really want it because you don't give a damn about your deductible, right? You'll be in a position to say, 'Who cares about the deductible? Let's see if I can live.'"
"We believe no one in America should be bankrupted by healthcare costs [like] what's happening with Obamacare," he continued. "The Republican Party -- we will always protect patients with preexisting conditions, always, always."
VA, Abortion Also Mentioned
Trump also touched on several other areas of healthcare at the rally, including his administration's initiative to lower prescription drug prices and the congressional passage of the VA CHOICE Act, which allows veterans to receive care from private-practice physicians. "They've been trying to get VA CHOICE for over 40 years; they couldn't do it," he said. "I got it. We signed it 6 months ago. Now instead of waiting on line for 1 day, 1 week, 2 months -- Now they go outside [the VA], they see a private doctor, we pay the bill, and they get better quickly."
He also criticized Democrats for "aggressively pushing extreme late-term abortion, allowing children to be ripped from their mother's womb right up until the moment of birth." Trump said that Virginia governor Ralph Northam, MD (D), "stated that he would even allow a newborn baby, wrap the baby up, make the baby comfortable, to be executed after birth. And that is why, in my State of the Union address, I called on Congress to immediately pass legislation prohibiting the extreme late term abortion of babies."
Trump was referring to during a radio interview in January in which he discussed a late-term abortion bill that was being considered by the Virginia legislature; the bill did not make it out of committee. "[Third trimester abortions are] done in cases where there may be severe deformities," Northam said. "There may be a fetus that's nonviable ... The infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that's what the mother and the family desired. And then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother."