- The
White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, on Wednesday dismissed a CNN reporter's questions about which administration officials were working on a long-delayed healthcare plan. - "I'm not going to give you a readout of what our healthcare plan looks like and who's working on it," McEnany told the reporter. "If you want to know, come work here at the White House."
- President Donald
Trump claimed on Tuesday night that his healthcare plan was "all ready" to be revealed, but it's unclear when that will happen. The US election is 48 days away.
The White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, on Wednesday refused to say which administration officials were working on a healthcare plan that President Donald Trump has long promised to unveil and recently said was "all ready."
During the White House press briefing, CNN's Kaitlan Collins pointed out that three top healthcare officials in the Trump administration had said during testimony before a Senate committee that they were unaware of Trump's
"Today on Capitol Hill, the three top medical experts in this administration said they have no idea of any kind of plan that's being formulated," Collins said. "So who is it that is working on the healthcare plan that's going to be introduced before the election?"
McEnany responded that "a wide array" of White House officials and "multiple stakeholders," including the Domestic Policy Council, were working on the plan.
Dismissing Collins' follow-up questions, the press secretary told the reporter she should come work at the White House if she wanted to find out who specifically was involved in the effort to replace the Affordable Care Act.
"I'm not going to give you a readout of what our healthcare plan looks like and who's working on it," McEnany said. "If you want to know, come work here at the White House."
Describing the nonpublic plan as "the president's vision for the next five years," McEnany ticked off a vague list of its tenets.
"In aggregate, it's going to be a very comprehensive strategy, one where we're saving healthcare while Democrats are trying to take healthcare away, where we're making healthcare better and cheaper, guaranteeing protections for people with preexisting conditions, stopping surprise medical billing, increasing transparency, defending the right to keep your doctor and your plan, fighting lobbyists and special interests, and making healthier — and finding cures to diseases," she said.
The president has falsely claimed dozens of times that he has protected Americans with preexisting conditions. In reality, his administration is battling in court to overturn Obamacare, which protects those Americans; overturning the law would strip millions of people of healthcare.
The Republican Party failed to repeal and replace Obamacare — despite promising for years to do so — when it controlled both the Senate and the House in 2017 and 2018.
During a town hall on Tuesday night, the president falsely claimed that his administration wasn't attempting to repeal Obamacare and that Democrats planned to get rid of protections for people with preexisting conditions.
Trump told a voter that he had his healthcare plan "all ready," adding that "it's a much better plan for you."
"We are not going to hurt anything having to do with preexisting conditions," Trump said.
In mid-July, the president promised he would unveil and sign a "full and complete health-care plan" within two weeks. The White House has promised that the plan will be made public before the election on November 3.
—The Hill (@thehill) September 16, 2020