"It is lousy healthcare," President-elect Donald Trump tweeted. | Getty Trump: 'Obamacare just doesn't work'

President-elect Donald Trump campaigned hard on his promise to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, and Tuesday morning he turned to social media to remind his followers of why he thinks the controversial health care legislation must be done away with.

“People must remember that ObamaCare just doesn't work, and it is not affordable - 116% increases (Arizona). Bill Clinton called it ‘CRAZY,’” Trump wrote on Twitter Tuesday morning. He quickly followed that post with another, writing that “the Democrat Governor of Minnesota said ‘The Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) is no longer affordable!’ - And, it is lousy healthcare.”


Almost since its inception, Republicans have worked to repeal President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare legislation but have always been blocked, first by a Democratic majority in the Senate and then by Obama himself. Now, with control of both houses of Congress and the White House, the GOP is finally aiming to undo Obamacare once and for all.

But actually repealing and replacing such complicated legislation is likely to be tricky for Republicans, who have pledged to keep some of the law’s more popular aspects, like a ban on insurers denying coverage for people with preexisting conditions and allowing young people to stay on their parents’ healthcare plans until they turn 26. The GOP has also said it does not plan to halt coverage immediately for Americans who bought Obamacare insurance this year.

Kellyanne Conway, who will serve as counselor to the president in the incoming Trump administration, said Tuesday on NBC's "Today" that the president-elect "is committed to retaining those pieces [of the Affordable Care Act] his advisers say are working."

The debate over the future of Obamacare is freshly heating up this week. Obama is scheduled to make a rare trip to the Hill on Wednesday to meet with House and Senate Democrats as he tries to preserve his signature legislative achievement. Vice President-elect Mike Pence is due to make a dueling trip to huddle with House Republicans the same morning.

Some Democrats have expressed openness to cooperating with Republicans on crafting a replacement, even if they won’t support the GOP effort to repeal the law.

Obama has also been put in an awkward position by some Democrats who have spoken frankly about the rockiness of the law’s maturity, including spikes in premiums and the reluctance of certain insurers to stay in the marketplaces.

Bill Clinton was heavily criticized for saying in October that some of Obamacare’s problems were “the craziest thing in the world.” And Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton in the same month expressed "regret" that Democrats were being attacked over his comment that Obamacare is “no longer affordable.”

