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Trump Vows to Repeal the Affordable Care Act

— "We are going to get rid of Obamacare; I will never stop"

MedpageToday

PHOENIX -- The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is falling apart and will be repealed, President Trump said Tuesday night .

"Obamacare is a disaster; it's gone," he said. "Insurance companies are fleeing and it's gone." Trump made his remarks a day after media outlets reported that every ACA insurance marketplace now had at least one insurer offering policies, except for one county in Ohio.

During a rambling, 75-minute speech, the president spent about 10 minutes discussing healthcare. "The Senate, remember this, look -- we have to get rid of what's called the filibuster rule; we have to," he said, referring to a Senate rule requiring 60 votes for passage of legislation that is unrelated to the budget. "And if we don't, the Republicans will never get anything passed ... We have some great, great Republican senators and they fought like hell to get that thing approved, they really fought." The president was referring to the Senate Republicans' late-July defeat on a "skinny repeal" of the ACA, in which they lost by a vote of 49-51.

Under the current Senate system, "some of the best things in healthcare require 60 votes, like purchasing across state lines," he said. "It gives competition, insurance companies come in, and your prices go way down." He noted that the state of Arizona "is a disaster in terms of [premium] price increase -- in your case, a 116% increase."

Trump accused the Democrats of being obstructionists. "On healthcare, they have 48 senators; we got no votes," he said. "And think [of it] -- we were just one vote away from victory after 7 years of everybody proclaiming 'Repeal and replace.' One vote away, one vote away."

The president said he was asked not to mention by name the senator whose "no" vote was critical to the bill's defeat. "I will not mention any names; very presidential, isn't it?" However, it became obvious that he was talking about Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who is currently undergoing treatment for brain cancer, because he then said to the Arizona audience, "And nobody wants me to talk about your other senator, who's weak on borders, weak on crime, so I won't talk about him." That was a reference to Sen. Jeff Flake (R), the state's junior senator.

"We are going to get rid of Obamacare; I will never stop," Trump said. "We'll get it fixed -- one vote. Speak to your senator, please. Speak to your senator."

Trump also touched on the problems with the health system at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). "We're reforming the VA to ensure veterans have the care they so richly deserve, including choice, choice, choice," he said, referring to the . "In other words, if you've got to wait for 7 days and you're not feeling well, you go see a doctor and we pay for your doctor. Isn't that good?" And, he added, "we got legislation approved that everybody said was impossible; it's called VA accountability. If somebody treats our veterans badly, we can fire them. We say, 'You're fired; get out of here.' Everybody said we couldn't get that; [others have] been trying to get that passed for 40 years."