Fact Check: Trump's Confusing Remarks To Senate Republicans On Health Care
President Trump did not do much to sell the Senate health care bill before its failure. But he gave the sale a shot Wednesday in the White House before cameras and a captive audience of nearly all the Republican senators. His comments were at times confusing, and in some cases, outright incorrect.
It shows the challenge for a president who doesn't dive deeply into policy to sell his agenda.
Here's a look at everything Trump said, with some fact checks and context:
TRUMP: We're in this room today to deliver on our promise to the American people to repeal Obamacare and to ensure that they have the healthcare that they need. We have no choice. We have to repeal and replace Obamacare. We can repeal it, but the best is repeal and replace, and let's get going. I intend to keep my promise, and I know you will too. Since 2013, Obamacare premiums have skyrocketed. In Alaska, they went up over 200 percent recently. We know that. In Arizona, they've been up 118 percent. And those states are good compared to some of the numbers that are coming out.
NPR: Trump is right that premiums have climbed sharply in Alaska and Arizona — according to a May report from the Department of Health and Human Services, premiums in Alaska were up 203 percent from 2013 to 2017, and in Arizona, they were in fact up by 190 percent. But these figures could be misleading, FactCheck.org noted in May, because the 2013 and 2017 numbers come from two different data sets.
More importantly, he is leaving out important information: For example, that the overwhelming majority of plans bought on the Obamacare exchanges — 85 percent — from those premium increases. As the s Michelle Ye Hee Lee pointed out in a of the administration's claims on premium hikes, a hypothetical 40-year-old patient from 2017 premium increases.
