TRUMP: 'Obamacare was a lie from the beginning'
"The Democrats, lead by head clown Chuck Schumer, know how bad ObamaCare is and what a mess they are in," tweeted Trump on Thursday. "Instead of working to fix it, they do the typical political thing and BLAME. The fact is ObamaCare was a lie from the beginning."
The tweets come one day after both Republicans and Democrats laid out their strategies for dismantling and defending the ACA, respectively.
On the one hand, Republicans argue that the law - primarily citing the state-level health insurance marketplaces - is collapsing on its own accord and that there needs to be a "stable" transition to replace it entirely.
The GOP is advocating a "market-based" approach that would give money up front to consumers to go out and find their own insurance.
Democrats, for their part, are arguing that the law is working in broad strokes - more people have insurance than ever before and popular provisions such as the inability for insurers to deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions are working for Americans - and small tweaks are needed to provide stability to the exchanges.
Additionally, Schumer and other Democrats argue that any change to the law made by Republicans may lead to the loss of coverage for the more than 22 million people that have gained insurance through the ACA, and the party has said that any lapses will be the fault of Republican tinkering.
Vice president-elect Mike Pence was on hand to meet with Republicans about an ACA repeal, while President Obama met at the same time with Democrats.
Obama, according to CNN's sources at the Democratic meeting, told lawmakers to call the new plan "Trumpcare" and to not to "rescue" Republicans by agreeing to an inadequate replacement plan.
Trump continued his tweetstorm by citing the claim made by President Obama and Democrats during the passage of the Affordable Care Act that "if you like your doctor you can keep them." While this refers mainly to the individual insurance market such as the ACA's marketplaces - which make up 7% of the American public - a declining number of insurers participating and narrower coverage networks have lead to more limited health provider options.
The president-elect concluded by calling for bipartisan support for a replacement.
"It is time for Republicans & Democrats to get together and come up with a healthcare plan that really works - much less expensive & FAR BETTER!" tweeted Trump.
Interestingly, the Department of Health and Human Services also released their most recent update for Obamacare's 2017 open enrollment on Thursday, showing that 8.8 million had signed up for or renewed a plan through the ACA as of the end of December. That is 200,000 more than the total from the same time last year.