Trump seeking Democrats’ help on health reform
WASHINGTON — Trying to revive health care talks, President Trump tweeted Saturday that he had spoken to the Senate’s Democratic leader to gauge whether the minority party was interested in helping pass “great” health legislation.
The answer back: Democrats are willing to hear his ideas, but scrapping the Obama health law is a nonstarter.
Trump’s latest overture to Democrats follows GOP failures so far to fulfill their promise to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act despite controlling the White House and Congress since January.
The president tweeted that he called New York Sen. Chuck Schumer on Friday to discuss the 2010 law, which Trump said “is badly broken.” Trump said he wanted “to see if the Dems want to do a great HealthCare Bill.”
Schumer said through a spokesman Saturday that Trump “wanted to make another run at repeal and replace and I told the president that’s off the table.” Schumer said if Trump “wants to work together to improve the existing health care system, we Democrats are open to his suggestions.”
Trump has suggested before that he would be open to negotiating with Democrats on health care, but there have been no clear signs of a compromise between Republicans who have sought to scrap former President Barack Obama’s law and Democrats who want to protect it.
Schumer said a starting point could be negotiations led by Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., who have been discussing a limited bipartisan deal to stabilize statelevel markets for individual health insurance policies.
Trump irritated GOP leaders in Congress when he reached a deal with Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, on a spending bill and the debt ceiling.
The Trump administration announced Friday that it would allow more employers to opt out of no-cost birth control for women by claiming religious or moral objections. The move was one more attempt to roll back Obama’s health overhaul, prompting Democrats to question whether Trump is committed to avoiding sabotaging the law.