President Trump said Friday that he has no choice but to allow Obamacare to run its own course in the foreseeable future now that the reform bill he supported failed to attract enough support in the House.
“We have to let Obamacare go its own way for awhile,” Trump said in a White House press conference after the bill was pulled.
Trump predicted that the law would continue to “explode,” and that Democrats may eventually come around and see the need for real reforms as the law falls apart.
“It’s imploding and soon it will explode,” Trump said of Obamacare. “We were very, very close and again, I think what will happen is Obamacare, unfortunately, will explode. It’s going to have a very bad year.”
Flanked by Vice President Mike Pence and Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, Trump placed some of the blame for the failure of the American Health Care Act on House Democrats.
Trump repeated his continued support for House Speaker Paul Ryan, who called the AHCA’s failure “disappointing” in a press conference held shortly before Trump’s Oval Office statement.
Despite the fact that members of his own party ultimately thwarted his attempts to pass an Obamacare replacement bill, Trump thanked his fellow Republicans and GOP leaders for their efforts to reach a consensus.
“It certainly was an interesting period of time,” Trump said. “We learned a lot about some very arcane rules.”
“We all learned a lot. We learned a lot about loyalty,” Trump said. “Overall this was a very, very good bill.”
“In the end, I think it’s going to be an experience that leads to an even better healthcare plan,” he added.
