WATCH: GOP Sen says ObamaCare ‘screwing 93 percent’ of Americans

Republican Sen. John Kennedy (La.) said Tuesday that ObamaCare is “collapsing” and helps only “7 percent of the population.”

Asked if he agrees with President Trump’s statement that “ObamaCare is dead,” the Louisiana freshman senator said: “I think [The Affordable Care Act] is dying. I think this time next year, the program will have collapsed under its own weight.”

Kennedy also told The Hill that we’re helping only “7 percent of our population … we’re screwing the other 93 percent.”


Fellow Republican Sen. Thom Tills (N.C.) wouldn’t say if Obamacare is “dead, not dead or on life support,” simply that the president was right to make Congress act on cost-sharing reduction payments. 


“It’s our responsibility, [Trump] basically said it’s not his job to do our job, and I agree with that so now Congress needs to come up with a solution,” Tillis said. 


Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) — who pressed for a vote on his Graham-Cassidy ObamaCare replacement plan last month — contradicted Trump saying “well, clearly [ObamaCare] exists.”

Cassidy added that premiums are skyrocketing making it very difficult for Americans to pay for ObamaCare.

The No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) countered Trump’s claim, saying “unless the president has a replacement which we haven’t seen, eliminating the Affordable Care Act, a source of health insurance for millions of Americans, is a disastrous outcome and so I hope the president’s wrong.”

The comments follow Sen. Lamar Alexander’s (R-Tenn.) Tuesday announcement that he and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) have reached a bipartisan deal that would extend payments to insurers under ObamaCare that Trump said he was ending last week.

Alexander and Murray are the chairman and ranking member, respectively, of the Senate Health Committee.

The deal would extend the payments to insurers for two years and give states more flexibility to change ObamaCare rules. The negotiations had been aimed at stabilizing insurance markets.

Watch the video above to hear the senators in their own words.