White House tries to rebrand 'skinny' Obamacare repeal as 'freedom bill'

The White House wants to rebrand an Obamacare effort on Capitol Hill, endorsing the term “freedom bill” on Thursday over "skinny repeal," as people following the Senate Republican push have been calling the plan.

“Look, the administration’s been working hand in hand on pushing repeal and replace of Obamacare,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters. “We actually like the term ‘freedom bill’ a lot better because we think it addresses what this bill actually is.”


Senate Republicans believe the skinny repeal — legislation that, rather than totally repealing the 2010 law, would gut Obamacare’s individual and employer coverage mandates — may be their only hope to pass a bill and move to talks with the House about health care legislation.

Despite its nickname, health policy experts say the skinny repeal could destabilize Obamacare’s insurance markets, spiking premiums and raising the number of uninsured Americans by millions.

But the nickname also could make the skinny repeal a tough sell to constituents because it suggests it’s a minimized form of the full repeal of Obamacare that Republicans have campaigned on for seven years,

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell emailed his caucus Thursday outlining the bill’s provisions. The employer mandate would be repealed for at least six years or eight years, according to sources who viewed the email.

The chamber will hold a series of votes later Thursday in a "vote-a-rama" to test what senators will support in an Obamacare replacement bill.

“It removes a lot of those mandates that allow people to have the type of freedom, have states have the freedom that they want,” Sanders said of the skinny bill, “and that was one of the big priorities for this administration. We’re, you know, happy about that progress, and we’re gonna wait and see where this bill ends up later this evening.”