The White House is promoting a new health care proposal that the president insists will lower premiums and guarantee people with pre-existing conditions will get insurance coverage, even though some medical groups say they aren’t so sure.
As The Associated Press reports, Gary Cohn, chairman of Trump’s economic council, said the overhaul appears to have enough votes to pass.
“This is going to be a great week,” Cohn told CBS This Morning. ”We’re going to get the health care bill to the floor of the House, I’m very confident.”
The president has spent much of his first 100 days in office reckoning with the realities of governing, even with a Republican-led Congress. While health care negotiations continue to prove a challenge, negotiators reached agreement Sunday on a $1 trillion-plus spending bill that would fund the day-to-day operations of virtually every federal agency to Oct. 1.
Still, the failure of the original health care bill was a heavy blow in the early days of the Trump administration. Under White House pressure, Republicans recently recast the bill.
During an interview with Face the Nation on CBS that aired Sunday, Trump said: “Pre-existing conditions are in the bill. And I mandate it. I said, ‘Has to be.'”
Trump added that the measure has a “clause that guarantees” that people with pre-existing conditions will be covered.
But while the bill says people with pre-existing conditions will have “access,” it does not address affordability. The legislation would let states opt out of the requirement for standard premiums, under certain conditions. If a state maintains protections such as a high-risk pool, it can allow insurers to use health status as a factor in setting premiums for people who have had a break in coverage and are trying to get a new individual policy.
