Donald Trump Threatens to Cancel Some Health Care Benefits for Lawmakers

President Donald Trump, in the wake of the Senate’s Republican-dominated failure to pass Obamacare repeal, threatened to cut some cushy healthy benefits for legislators and push them on to the same Obamacare-type plans the rest of America has to use.

Hallelujah. Why should legislators have a special class of health care?

The fact is: If you want to see Obamacare repealed in quick-time, the way to go about it is to make lawmakers suffer the same Obamacare disasters as the rest of Americans.

If a new HealthCare Bill is not approved quickly, BAILOUTS for Insurance Companies and BAILOUTS for Members of Congress will end very soon!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2017

After seven years of “talking” Repeal & Replace, the people of our great country are still being forced to live with imploding ObamaCare!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2017

From the Wall Street Journal:

President Donald Trump made one of his most explicit threats to cut off payments to insurance companies to force senators and lobbyists back to the bargaining table for a GOP health-care bill, and saying, for the first time, that he was also willing to cancel some of lawmakers’ health-care benefits.

This is bold.

And trust that lawmakers are trembling.

As the Hill notes:

“After seven years of ‘talking’ Repeal & Replace, the people of our great country are still being forced to live with imploding ObamaCare!” the president wrote in a tweet.

“If a new HealthCare Bill is not approved quickly, BAILOUTS for Insurance Companies and BAILOUTS for Members of Congress will end very soon!” he added.

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) fired back Saturday, saying Trump should “stop playing politics with people’s lives and health care, start leading, and finally begin acting presidential.”

“If the president refuses to make the cost sharing reduction payments, every expert agrees that premiums will go up and health care will be more expensive for millions of Americans,” Schumer said in a statement.

Trump has previously threatened to withhold the payments, known as Cost Sharing Reduction (CSR) payments, which lower the amount individuals have to pay for deductibles, copayments and insurance.

The White House announced earlier this month that key ObamaCare subsidies to insurers would be paid this month, however the administration did not make a commitment beyond July.

Trump’s comments come after Senate Republican efforts to repeal and replace ObamaCare failed in the early hours of Friday morning after three Republicans and all 48 Democrats rejected pared-down repeal legislation, known as a “skinny” bill.

The issue is of critical importance to Republicans in all three branches of government because the party campaigned for seven years to repeal former President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law.