Above, at a rally in Florida in October 2016, Donald Trump promises "great healthcare at a fraction of the cost and it's going to be so easy."
Donald Trump's political instincts look for a win for himself and no one else. And he really, really wants to "win" on healthcare, even if it takes his whole political party down. And his Republican sycophants are over-the-top nervous about it. The New York Times reports that Trump is:
...anxiously searching for a way to counter Democrats on health care, one of their central issues, even though many of his wary Republican allies would prefer he let it go for now.
Since he announced his previous run four years ago, Mr. Trump has promised to replace President Barack Obama’s health care law with “something terrific” that costs less and covers more without ever actually producing such a plan.
Now he is vowing to issue the plan within a month or two, reviving a campaign promise with broad consequences for next year’s contest. If he follows through, it could help shape a presidential race that Democrats would like to focus largely on health care.
While the president has acknowledged that no plan would be voted on in Congress until 2021, when he hopes to be in a second term with Republicans back in charge of the House, he is gambling that putting out a plan to be debated on the campaign trail will negate some of the advantage Democrats have on the issue.
The week before his 2017 inauguration, Trump promised "insurance for everybody."
In March 2017 he said the bill was "coming together beautifully."
In September he promised to fix healthcare with executive orders:
The issue carried into the 2018 midterms with Republican Congressmen swearing on their children and mothers that they would protect pre-existing condition coverage.
They lost 40 seats in the House.
Trump now says he'll have a healthcare bill ready in "two months."
Mitch McConnell is NOT in a hurry, people!
"He says he's got a plan, that we will deal with, once we have the Congress, and can vote on a plan that meets with our approach."
