The White House is urging people to sign up for coverage through ObamaCare, hours after the Republican electoral sweep that likely dooms the healthcare law’s future.
Spokesman Josh Earnest said Wednesday the Obama administration remains committed to its enrollment drive, which opened Nov. 1.
{mosads}“There is no specific thing in mind that we’re going to do differently now,” Earnest said as he addressed reporters for the first time since President-elect Donald Trump declared victory.
The fate of those healthcare plans is now in doubt after Trump’s stunning upset on Election Day. Senate Republicans also pulled off an unlikely victory, helping the GOP hold onto control of both chambers of Congress.
Republicans now have their first opening in six years to repeal ObamaCare — a move that would disrupt healthcare coverage from about 22 million people. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told reporters Wednesday that spiking the Affordable Care Act “is pretty high on our agenda.”
Earnest said GOP leaders would have to come up with their own plan for the ObamaCare customers who stand to lose their health insurance.
“These are the kinds of decisions that the incoming administration and the incoming Congress will be challenged to make,” Earnest said.
“Right now, it is critically important to reassure consumers that nothing has changed,” the group’s president, Anne Filipic, wrote in a statement.
Filipic said she is already hearing concerns from the millions of newly insured people under both ObamaCare and Medicaid. She said both groups are “deeply worried about what the election results mean for their health, their families, and their financial security.”
Jordan Fabian contributed.