Trump: Health-care rates to go ‘ down, down, down’
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump sought to highlight complaints about the Obama health care law Monday, including a gripe of his own, that the law is “a disaster” but that the media makes it look “wonderful.”
“The press is making it look so wonderful, so that if we end it, everyone’s going to say, ‘Remember how great Obamacare used to be?’” Trump said as he welcomed people affected negatively by the law to the White House for a listening session.
“It’s a little bit like President Obama,” the president added. “When he left, people liked him. When he was here, people didn’t like him so much. That’s the way life goes. It’s human nature.
“The fact is, Obamacare is a disaster.”
Trump praised the “repeal and replace” plan devised by House Republicans, though it has encountered significant resistance from critics within the GOP and elsewhere.
“We’re not going to have one-size-fits-all,” Trump said. “Instead, we’re going to be working to unleash the power of the private marketplace to let insurers come in and compete for your business. And you’ll see rates go down, down, down and plans go up, up, up.”
The president solicited comments about the Affordable Care Act at the meeting, which also was attended by Vice President Mike Pence, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price and Gary Cohn, Trump’s chief economic adviser. Participants, a group that included small business owners and doctors, roundly criticized Obamacare, saying their costs had increased and that getting care was a challenge.
“Our rates are three times what they were before Obamacare started. We have one provider in our county,” said Carrie Couey of Colorado. “We’re a small business owner. We are cattle ranchers. We can’t afford our equipment if we’re paying these rates year after year after year.”
Other attendees echoed those sentiments. Kim Sertich of Arizona said she currently has no health insurance because costs went up so much. “It didn’t seem like a good use of my money,” she said, adding that she is now in a “faithbased share program.”
Meanwhile, the Senate on Monday confirmed Seema Verma, a health policy expert from Indiana, to lead efforts by the Trump administration to transform Medicaid, expand Medicare and upend the Affordable Care Act.
By a vote of 55-43, the Senate approved the nomination of Verma to be administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which spends more than $1 trillion a year on programs providing health care to more than one-third of all Americans.
Unlike most people who have held the job, Verma has extensive experience in Medicaid, a program that was expanded by former President Barack Obama’s health care law and now provides coverage to more than 70 million low-income people.
Verma was an architect of Indiana’s Medicaid program, widely seen as a model by conservatives, and worked closely with Mike Pence when he was the state’s governor. Indiana expanded Medicaid eligibility but emphasized ‘‘personal responsibility.’’ That means that beneficiaries pay premiums, contribute to health savings accounts and receive incentives for healthy behavior.