Health care: Obama warns against changes that harm Americans

Former president Barack Obama warned Thursday against approving a Republican bill that would repeal his signature health care reform law unless the measure improves coverage for Americans.

“We should start from the baseline that any changes will make our health care system better, not worse for hardworking Americans. That should always be our priority,” Obama said in a statement on the seventh anniversary of his signing “Obamacare” into law.

Obama weighed in on the big debate of the day in Washington as the House of Republicans prepared for a high-stakes, too-close-to-call vote on a new health care plan backed by President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly dismissed Obamacare as disastrous.

But in doing away with the Obama law, the Trump plan would cause an estimated 14 million people to lose their health care insurance by next year, according to an assessment by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.