Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Tweets, Tough Talk And A Trump Fact Check By Bernie Sanders
President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday harshly accused Democrats of refusing to talk with Republicans about an Obamacare replacement plan, using a series of tweets to brand Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer as his party鈥檚 鈥渉ead clown.鈥 The latest Trump broadside on one of his foes came via the same platform many others have: Twitter. In a series of posts on the social media site around 7 a.m. ET, the president-elect again exhibited behavior that breaks with just about every one of his predecessors in recent memory. (Bennett, 1/5)
Taking a swipe at 鈥淥bamacare鈥 on Twitter, President-elect Donald Trump correctly identified two of its most pressing problems 鈥 a spike in premiums and high deductibles. But he failed to acknowledge the subsidies that soften the hit for many consumers, though not all. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 1/4)
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said it is Republicans鈥 obligation to have a replacement at the ready when they move to repeal the law. He called the Republican plan a 鈥渇ull-scale assault on the three pillars that support the American health care system.鈥 鈥淲e鈥檙e gonna say, let鈥檚 see the Republican plan,鈥 Schumer said. 鈥淲e want to cover these 20 million 鈥 we did already.鈥 鈥淭o repeal and delay is an act of cowardice 鈥 it means they don鈥檛 know what they鈥檙e doing,鈥 House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) added. (Reid, 1/4)
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) Wednesday called on President-elect Donald Trump to announce he would veto any legislation to cut Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security, or admit that he "lied" to the American people. "Let me quote somebody who I suspect I will not often be quoting," Sanders said while speaking on planned GOP changes to ObamaCare alongside other lawmakers. "On May 7, 2015, Donald Trump tweeted, 鈥業 was the first & only potential GOP candidate to state there will be no cuts to Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid.鈥 Now the point is Trump didn鈥檛 just say this in passing; this was a cornerstone of his campaign. He said it over and over and over again.鈥 (Seipel, 1/4)