As Republicans celebrate the passage of a House bill to overhaul the Affordable Care Act, some observers have noted that, just hours later, President Trump went on to praise Australia’s health care system.
As Republicans celebrate the passage of a House bill to overhaul the Affordable Care Act, some observers have noted that, just hours later, President Trump went on to praise Australia’s health care system.
On Thursday night, he reportedly told the country’s Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, “Right now Obamacare is failing. We have a failing health care. I shouldn’t say this to our great gentleman and my friend from Australia, because you have better health care than we do.”
The irony of Trump’s comment, according to the Washington Post, is that “Australia's health-care system is run by the government. It's essentially a single-payer, Medicare-for-all system that is available to everyone, with private insurance also available.”
The Post goes on to report that the remark is “merely the latest evidence that Trump, in his heart of hearts, wants single-payer health care.”
According to NPR, "A single payer refers to a system in which one entity (usually the government) pays all the medical bills for a specific population."
This is not the first time Trump has been called out for preferring alternative solutions; in his book 'The America We Deserve,' published in 2000, he wrote, “We must have universal health care. Just imagine the improved quality of life for our society as a whole.”
And during the presidential campaign, Wisconsin Congressman Reid Ribble, a Republican, questioned then-candidate Trump’s conservative values by saying, “I want to repeal Obamacare and replace it with (a) free-market system. He wants to replace it with a single-payer system. That's hardly a conservative posture.”
Nevertheless, the president celebrated the House victory in passing the bill by tweeting, “It was a GREAT day for the United States of America! This is a great plan that is a repeal & replace of ObamaCare. Make no mistake about it.”
