WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald J. Trump lashed out at Democrats on Thursday over their efforts to preserve President Obama’s health care coverage law, insulting their top legislative leader and denouncing the measure as a “lie” as he called for a less expensive and more effective system.

“The Democrats, lead by head clown Chuck Schumer, know how bad ObamaCare is and what a mess they are in,” Mr. Trump wrote in the first of three early-morning posts on Twitter.

The posts arrived the day after Mr. Obama huddled with Democrats on Capitol Hill to strategize over protecting the Affordable Care Act and Vice President-elect Mike Pence met with Republicans about how to gut it.

“Instead of working to fix it, they do the typical political thing and BLAME,” Mr. Trump continued on Twitter. “The fact is ObamaCare was a lie from the beginning. ‘Keep you doctor, keep your plan!’”