Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
TRUMP: Australia’s care for all ‘better’.
NEW YORK — Hours after celebrating House Republicans’ passage of a bill that would repeal and replace the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, President Donald Trump praised Australia’s government-funded universal heath care system.
“We have a failing health care — I shouldn’t say this to our great gentleman and my friend from Australia, because you have better health care than we do,” Trump said Thursday at a meeting with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in Manhattan.
Australia has a government-funded health care system, called Medicare, that exists alongside private insurance. The system is funded in part by taxes, including on the wealthy.
The version of the American Health Care Act that the U.S. House approved Thursday has not been evaluated by the Congressional Budget Office, but it is estimated that an earlier version of the bill would raise premiums for older enrollees and would have 24 million fewer people insured.
Trump hosted lawmakers in the Rose Garden at the White House to celebrate the vote on the bill. Later, speaking to reporters after meeting with Turnbull in New York, Trump praised the bill.
“It’s a very good bill right now. Premiums are going to come down substantially. Deductibles are going to come down. It’s going to be fantastic health care. Right now Obamacare is failing,” Trump said, making a reference to President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act. Most U.S. conservatives oppose universal, government-funded health care. But Trump has a history of supporting universal health care coverage.
In his 2000 book, The America We Deserve, Trump wrote: “We must have universal health care.”
Scheduled to be in Manhattan only a few hours, Trump was not expected to visit his home at Trump Tower and pushed back his first-time meeting with Turnbull by several hours after the House voted on the health care bill.
“We have a fantastic relationship, but I love Australia,” Trump said soon after meeting Turnbull. He then downplayed the contentious call he had with Turnbull in January, dismissing the reports of tension as “fake news.”
Trump and Turnbull were to speak later Thursday aboard the USS Intrepid, a decommissioned aircraft carrier, to commemorate the 75th anniversary of a World War II battle that reinforced the ties between the U.S. and Australia. Both countries’ warships and fighter planes engaged the Japanese from May 4-8, 1942, forcing the Japanese navy to retreat for the first time in the war.
Trump and Turnbull were expected to discuss North Korea’s missile testing, and security and economic issues, as well as Turnbull’s deal with Obama for the United States to resettle up to 1,250 mostly Muslim refugees from Africa, the Mideast and Asia who are housed in immigration camps on the Pacific island nations of Nauru and Papua New Guinea.
The agreement was a source of friction when Trump and Turnbull spoke by telephone shortly after Trump took office Jan. 20. The conversation made headlines, and Trump later tweeted about the “dumb deal.” But Vice President Mike Pence assured Turnbull during a visit to Australia last month that the Trump administration would honor the deal, but said “that doesn’t mean we admire the agreement.”
Some protesters lined up along the West Side Highway, confined to pens near the Intrepid while holding up signs saying “Dump Trump” and chanting “Not my president.” Some passing cars honked in support. “We want him to know the resistance remains, even in his hometown,” said Ruthie Adler, 30, a Manhattan waitress.
Trump’s wife, Melania, and son Barron live at Trump Tower most of the time while the 11-year-old finishes the school year. The president was not expected to spend the night there and instead was to sleep at his golf club an hour away in Bedminister, N.J.