President Trump said Friday that the process of repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act is moving along much more quickly now that Tom Price has been confirmed as his health and human services secretary.
“Despite the long delays by the Democrats in finally approving Dr. Tom Price, the repeal and replacement of ObamaCare is moving fast!” Trump tweeted.
Despite the long delays by the Democrats in finally approving Dr. Tom Price, the repeal and replacement of ObamaCare is moving fast!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 17, 2017
Speaker Paul Ryan said Thursday that the plan is to hold a vote repealing Obamacare after Congress comes back from the President’s Day break. At this point, no replacement bill has been unveiled, but a bill is expected when lawmakers return.
Trump has insisted that repealing and replacing Obamacare must happen simultaneously, and has told reporters in the past that he was working on his own version of a replacement. That plan has also not been made public.
Trump has been frustrated by Democrats slow-walking many of his Cabinet appointments, including Price. Senate Democrats have generally been opposed to most of his picks and have used some procedural delays to slow down Trump’s picks.
So far, only Trump’s pick for labor secretary, Andy Puzder, has been thwarted, and that’s because enough Republicans didn’t support that pick. Trump nominated Florida International University Law School Dean Alexander Acosta to that post on Thursday.
