Pence suggests new health care law won’t come until year- end

WASHINGTON — Vice President Mike Pence said he hopes Congress can pass legislation to replace the Affordable Care Act by the end of the year, far later than President Donald Trump has envisioned.

Pence, on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” did not say when Trump would be able to sign a new health care bill, but he hopes it would be “before the end of the year.”

“We’re hopeful there’ll be action in the House of Representatives soon,” Pence also said.

Trump said April 20 that he believed he could get action on health care “whether it’s next week or shortly thereafter.” Repealing and replacing President Barack Obama’s health care law was on Trump’s to-do list for his first 100 days in office, which ended Saturday.

Republican leaders, under pressure from the White House, had been considering whether to vote last week, after conservative holdouts endorsed a revised bill. But a number of moderate Republicans remained opposed to the measure, making it unclear whether it had enough votes to pass. Leaders were also distracted by the need to ensure passage of a stopgap measure to fund the government. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., left open the possibility to try again this week.

House Republicans have been examining a provision that would allow states to receive waivers on the current law’s requirement to provide insurance to people with pre-existing conditions. In exchange, states would have to provide high-risk pools that fund coverage for those people, and insurers would be able to charge them more.

In a series of Twitter messages Sunday, Trump said a “new healthcare plan is on its way” with “lower premiums & deductibles while at the same taking care of preexisting conditions!”

He and Pence continued to talk down the current law. “ObamaCare is dead,” Trump said on Twitter Sunday and again on CBS. Pence, on NBC, said the health care law “is collapsing all across the country.”