President Trump believes a case making its way through the courts to throw out Obamacare is likely to succeed, which will give his administration another shot at replacing the law.
“I believe it’s going to be terminated, whether it be through the Texas case, which is going through the court system as a victory right now, because of, you know, the various elements of that case, you would think it would have to be terminated,” he said in an interview with the New York Times published Friday.
The Trump administration joined 20 Republican state officials in asking the courts to undo Obamacare after Congress zeroed out the fine against uninsured people as part of the GOP tax law. State officials said the entire law should be struck down because the Obama administration once argued the fine was central to making the healthcare law work.
The Trump administration sided with GOP officials in the case, known as Texas v. U.S., but asked the courts only to strike down parts of the law prohibiting health insurers from turning away sick people or charging them more.
A federal judge sided with the officials in a December ruling, but the law is still in place while it is being appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in New Orleans by Democratic state attorneys general.
Trump has previously pledged that a Republican replacement plan to Obamacare would protect people with pre-existing illnesses, and Republicans in Congress have said they expect lawmakers would come together to pass a bill to reinstate the protections.
Democrats have not committed to taking action should that occur, and have said GOP replacement plans carry weaker protections for the sick. Democrats have focused their healthcare efforts on defending the law and hammering Republicans over their efforts to undo the law.
Deliberations over Texas are expected to continue in the coming months or years, putting healthcare in the spotlight leading up to the 2020 elections, as it was during the midterm elections. The White House has said it expects the case to make its way to the Supreme Court.
But experts of both political persuasions have predicted the lawsuit won’t succeed.
In his New York Times interview, Trump blamed the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., for being the deciding vote against a plan that would have narrowly repealed Obamacare, noting that he had not followed through on his years-long promises to undo the law. He alluded to the possibility of reviving a replacement plan if the law is struck down in court.
“But a deal will be made for good healthcare in this country,” Trump said. “That’s one of the things I’ll be doing.”
