White House won't modify argument before Supreme Court on invalidating ObamaCare

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Trump: We're going to terminate and replace Obamacare

'Obamacare was a disaster, we made it barely acceptable,' says President Trump as he plans to terminate the ACA and replace it with health care that will include preexisting conditions

The White House will not be altering its hardline approach when it comes to pushing for the complete invalidation of the Affordable Care Act, President Trump said Wednesday, amid reports that Attorney General Bill Barr had been urging him to back off and focus instead of specific parts of it.

The fate of the law commonly known as ObamaCare goes into the hands of the Supreme Court in the fall in a case brought by a group of Republican-led states, and the Trump administration had until Wednesday to change its position.

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“We’re not doing anything. In other words, we’re staying with the group,” Trump told reporters Wednesday. “ObamaCare is a disaster, but we’ve run it very well. And we’ve made it barely acceptable. It was a disaster under President [Barack] Obama and it’s very bad health care. What we want to do is terminate it and give great health care.”

The president said he intends “to replace Obamacare with great health care at a lesser price and preexisting conditions will be included, and you won’t have the individual mandate, which was expensive and terrible and very unfair to everybody.”

Addressing a question about Barr urging him to take a more lenient approach, Trump insisted that the two are on the same page.

“I don’t know about that suggestion,” the president said. “I think I’ve spoken a lot about this to Bill Barr and we’re totally in lockstep with all of the many states that want to see much better health care.”

Administration officials told Fox News Tuesday that Barr met with Vice President Pence, White House Counsel Pat Cipollone, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany and individuals from the Domestic Policy Council on Monday, two days before the deadline.

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While some in the administration wanted to move forward with arguing that the Supreme Court should strike down ObamaCare altogether, the Justice Department (DOJ) was concerned that this would be a tougher legal argument, Fox News was told.

Barr wants the White House to keep certain parts of the law intact but has met stiff resistance from the faction at the White House that wants to make good on Trump’s promise to get rid of ObamaCare.

The case was initially brought by a group of Republican-led states who claimed that after President Trump eliminated the penalty for not having insurance, ObamaCare’s individual mandate was no longer attached to Congress’ taxation power and thus became unconstitutional. They claim that because the mandate is an integral part of the Affordable Care Act, the rest of it cannot survive if the mandate is invalid.

If the Supreme Court invalidates ObamaCare in its entirety, it could leave millions of Americans looking for new health insurance options in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

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Also on Wednesday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in cases involving competing interests related to the Affordable Care Act: birth control and religious liberty. At issue before the court were challenges to Trump administration rules making it easier for some for-profit companies and religious-affiliated groups -- including universities, hospitals and charities -- to opt out of providing contraception coverage to employees if they have religious or moral objections.

A ruling in that case is expected sometime in June.