President Trump: 'Obamacare Is Dead'

WASHINGTON, DC — President Trump declared "Obamacare is dead" Monday afternoon at a Cabinet meeting, adding that any premium increases or disruption in the health insurance markets going forward will be the fault of the Democratic Party.

"There is no such thing as Obamacare anymore," he said.

However, despite this declaration, the basic foundation of the Affordable Care Act, President Obama's signature health care law, remains intact. In fact, Trump's own Department of Health and Human Services will hold open enrollment for the ACA, beginning in November. Millions of Americans continue to get their health insurance through Obamacare's programs. The administration, though, is working to undercut the policy through executive action.

Trump also said that lawmakers have not done enough, and he blasted members of his own party who didn't vote for Republican health care legislation.

"We're not getting the job done," he said. "And I'm not going to blame myself. I'll be honest. They are not getting the job done." (For more information on this and other political stories, subscribe to the White House Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

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Republicans have the votes to pass health care reform, the president said, echoing a statement he has made previously. However, it's not clear that this is true. After multiple attempts over the summer to pass some version of an Obamacare overhaul, the GOP was unable to garner the necessary votes.

Over the weekend, Steve Bannon, Trump's former adviser, said the president was going to "blow up" the Obamacare exchanges. Trump offered praise for Bannon at the Cabinet meeting, saying he was a friend and "very committed." Bannon recently declared his intention to bring primary challengers against nearly all GOP senators.

Trump also said that Democrats and Republicans are now talking about heath care because he announced last week that he was ending cost-sharing reduction payments to insurance companies, a key Obamacare subsidy. However, bipartisan efforts to address problems in the health insurance industry have taken place since early September.

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The cost-sharing reductions provide additional funds to insurers to cover the cost of patients who incur extensive medical bills.

Without the subsidies, health insurers may pull out of the individual market and leave more states with less and less competition, which would lead to the higher premiums. However, for many people insured on the individual market, Obamacare's premium tax credits would absorb the additional costs. Only those people making more than 400 percent of the federal poverty line, who receive no Obamacare tax credits, are expected to pay the increase.

In addition to the effect on premiums, ending the payments will likely add to the deficit.

"Federal deficits would increase by $6 billion in 2018, $21 billion in 2020, and $26 billion in 2026," the Congressional Budget Office found in its analysis of the change.

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Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images