And Obama also said he'd be willing to support killing his own landmark health-care law — which has expanded insurance coverage to 20 million Americans — if the GOP offers an improvement.

President Barack Obama on Friday told Republicans they should be willing to present a replacement plan for Obamacare before they vote to repeal it.

"I am saying to every Republican right now, if you can in fact put a plan together that is demonstrably better than what is Obamacare, I will publicly support repealing Obamacare" and replacing it with the GOP's plan, Obama told Vox during a live-streamed interview from Blair House in Washington.

"But I want to see it first."

The president defended his effort to provide health coverage to millions of uninsured people.

"If we had a better way to do this, we would have done it," he said, "because I knew I would be judged on how well it worked."

Obama noted that Republicans "have adamantly said they can do it better."



But he said if that's the case, then they should put their cards on the table and reveal the plan before they repeal the Affordable Care Act.

Congress earlier this week began taking steps toward repealing Obamacare, but neither Republican leaders in Congress nor President-elect Donald Trump has put forward a replacement proposal.

"If they're so convinced that they're going to be able to do it better, why is it they're trying to repeal this so quick?" Obama asked. "What is it they're afraid of?"

"Why wouldn't they be eager to say, 'Here is our plan?'"



Also Friday, Obama had an article entitled "Repealing the ACA without a Replacement — The Risks to American Health Care," published in the New England Journal of Medicine.