*Administration of Donald J. Trump, 2017 *

**Remarks on Health Care Reform Legislation **

*July 24, 2017 *

Well, thank you very much, Vice President Pence, Secretary Price, and thank you everyone for being here today. For the past 17 [7; White House correction.] years, Obamacare has wreaked havoc on the lives of innocent, hard-working Americans. Behind me today, we have real American families—great families, just spent a lot of time with them—who are suffering because 7 years ago a small group of politicians and special interests in Washington engineered a Government takeover of health care.

Every pledge that Washington Democrats made to pass that bill turned out to be a lie. It was a big, fat, ugly lie. Democrats promised Americans like Steve Finn, a former police officer in West Virginia, that they would save $2,500 a year under Obamacare. Instead, his premiums have more than tripled. That's pretty bad. As a result of Obamacare's skyrocketing costs, Steve and his family and many of his employees had no other option than going on Medicaid and giving up their existing coverage. That's pretty bad. Pretty bad. No choice, right? No choice. For them, Obamacare's promise was a nightmare.

Marjorie and Kevin Weer from South Carolina have a son Monty, who suffers from spina bifida. Washington Democrats promised families like the Weers that if they liked their doctor they could keep their doctor, but now there is only one insurer left in the State exchange, and Marjorie says that every year she waits anxiously to learn if the doctors and hospitals which her son needs the most will remain in their network. More Obamacare lies. And you've seen that up front, unfortunately, up front and personal.

The Democrats promised Melissa Ackison that her son's preexisting conditions would be covered. The Ackisons quickly learned that Obamacare's promise of covering for preexisting conditions was meaningless, though, if the doctors you need to care for you aren't on your Obamacare plan. So you just have a meaningless promise, and everybody knows it. And most people on Obamacare know it. After an excruciating series of events and complications, Melissa and her husband found themselves just before Christmas, emotionally and financially devastated, crying in a doctor's office faced with yet another seemingly unpayable bill. When insurance wouldn't cover the Ackison's care, they emptied out Melissa's 401(k) to pay their bills. They're not going to be and they haven't been the first. There are many, many cases such as that, the 401(k)s. The first rule of medicine is do no harm, but Obamacare's lies have caused this—and throughout the whole country families like this—nothing but pain.

Erin and Andy Witzig are small-business owners from Illinois. They have six children. Their youngest daughter Poppy has a rare genetic condition. Children born with it are sometimes called Butterfly Children because their skin is as fragile as the wings of a butterfly. Poppy has to wear special bandages all of the time. Unfortunately, under Obamacare, Poppy's insurance has been repeatedly discontinued and replaced with what Washington deems equivalent policies, but for Poppy, these plans are not equivalent, and Poppy's family has to spend precious time and tremendous resources fighting for exceptions for Poppy.

The Washington politicians who made those promises to Steve, Marjorie, Melissa, Erin, and their beautiful children want to ignore all the pain, all the suffering, and all of the money—the tremendous amounts of money—that these lies have caused. They want to forget about the countless Americans they've hurt and the many that they are continuing to hurt every day by refusing to help us replace Obamacare.

For the last 7 years, Republicans have been united in standing up for Obamacare's victims. Remember, repeal and replace, repeal and replace. They kept saying it over and over again. Every Republican running for office promised immediate relief from this disastrous law. We, as a party, must fulfill that solemn promise to the voters of this country to repeal and replace, what they've been saying for the last 7 years. But so far, Senate Republicans have not done their job in ending the Obamacare nightmare. They now have a chance, however, to—hopefully, hopefully—fix what has been so badly broken for such a long time, and that is through replacement of a horrible disaster known as Obamacare.

The Senate is very close to the votes it needs to pass a replacement. The problem is, we have zero help from the Democrats. They're obstructionists. That's all they are. That's all they're good at is obstruction, making things not work. They say all the right things, and then they do exactly what they're not supposed to be doing. The Democrats aren't giving us one vote, so we need virtually every single vote from the Republicans, not easy to do. The Senate bill that is being considered outside of the outright repeal of Obamacare will also provide emergency relief for the law's victims, and it will deliver truly great health care and health care reforms that our citizens want, need, and really should be demanding. Some are demanding. You'll see that at the voter booth, believe me.

Here are just some of these terrific reforms that we will be doing if everything works out the way it should: The Senate bill eliminates the painful individual mandate. It eliminates the job-killing employer mandate, repeals other burdensome taxes, and will significantly lower Americans' premiums. It will stabilize collapsing health insurance markets and give Americans far more choice and far more flexibility. The Senate bill protects coverage for preexisting conditions—and you don't hear this from the Democrats. They like to tell you just the opposite, and they didn't even know the bill. They run out, they say, "Death, death, death." Well, Obamacare is death. That's the one that's death, and besides that it's failing, so you won't have it anyway.

It dramatically expands popular health savings accounts. It provides tax credits so Americans can purchase a private plan that is right for them and their families. It devotes substantial resources to fight the opioid—and this is a tremendous problem—the opioid epidemic; $45 billion is being put in so that the people of many States like New Hampshire, Ohio, and so many others that have such a big problem can be helped and helped greatly. We're going to be fighting the drug problems very, very seriously in my administration. And it provides, among many other things, higher quality care, and more flexibility for States to administer Medicaid to better serve their poorest citizens.

Tomorrow the Senate will vote on whether to allow this urgently needed bill to come to the Senate floor for debate. The question for every Senator, Democrat or Republican, is whether they will side with Obamacare's architects, which have been so destructive to our country or with its forgotten victims. Any Senator who votes against starting debate is telling America that you are fine with the Obamacare nightmare, which is what it is.

For Democrats, this vote is a chance to make up for the terrible harm they have inflicted on Americans like those who are with us today. Obamacare has been for them a nightmare. There is still time to do the right thing. And for Senate Republicans, this is their chance to keep their promise. Over and over again, they said repeal and replace, repeal and replace, but they can now keep their promise to the American people to provide emergency relief to those in desperate need of help and to improve healthcare for all Americans.

To every member of the Senate, I say this: The American people have waited long enough. There's been enough talk and no action. Now is the time for action. We are here to solve problems for the people. Obamacare has broken our health care system—it's broken, it's collapsing, it's gone. And now it is up to us to get great health care for the American people. We must repeal and replace Obamacare now.

Thank you, God bless you, God Bless the United States of America. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.

NOTE: The President spoke at 3:39 p.m. in the Blue Room at the White House. In his remarks, he referred to Secretary of Health and Human Services Thomas E. Price; Steve Finn, executive director, Chestnut Mountain Ranch; Mount Pleasant, SC, residents Marjorie and Kevin Weer and their son Montgomery; Marysville, OH, residents Melissa Winston-Ackison and David "Rich" Ackison and their son Royce; and Washington, IL, residents Erin and Andy Witzig and their daughter Poppy. The transcript, prepared for immediate release by the Office of the Press Secretary, was received by the Office of the Federal Register on September 22.

*Categories:* Addresses and Remarks : Health care reform legislation*.*

*Locations: *Washington, DC.

*Names:* Ackison, David "Rich"; Ackison, Royce; Finn, Steve; Pence, Michael R.; Price, Thomas E.; Weer, Kevin; Weer, Marjorie; Weer, Montgomery; Winston-Ackison, Melissa; Witzig, Andy; Witzig, Erin; Witzig, Poppy*.*

*Subjects:* Congress : Bipartisanship; Drug abuse and trafficking : Addiction treatment and reduction efforts; Health and Human Services, Department of : Secretary; Health and medical care : Affordability and costs; Health and medical care : Health insurance reforms; Health and medical care : Health savings accounts; Health and medical care : Individual insurance mandate, tax penalty; Health and medical care : Medicare and Medicaid; White House Office : Vice President.

*DCPD Number:* DCPD201700681.