A replacement for the ACA may not be ready as soon as previously thought.
That is what President Donald Trump indicated during an interview on Sunday, reports The New York Times. In the interview with Bill O'Reilly of Fox News, President Trump said an ACA replacement was not likely to be ready until either the end of 2017 or in 2018, according to the article.
"Maybe it'll take till sometime into next year, but we're certainly going to be in the process," President Trump said during an interview with Bill O'Reilly of Fox News, after Mr. O'Reilly asked the president whether Americans could "expect a new healthcare plan rolled out by the Trump administration this year."
"It statutorily takes awhile to get," President Trump said. "We're going to be putting it in fairly soon, I think that, yes, I would like to say by the end of the year at least the rudiments but we should have something within the year and the following year."
President Trump has previously called for a more swift repeal and replacement of the ACA. In the recent interview, Mr. Trump acknowledged an ACA repeal is complicated, but said he is confident his administration could come up with a plan that is better than the existing law, reports The New York Times.
The timeline for a repeal and replacement in Congress remains undetermined. House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) estimated an ACA replacement will be done this spring. However, some Republican lawmakers have expressed concerns about a political backlash if the ACA is repealed without an adequate replacement and have called for a more orderly approach, according to the report.