The Senate's top Democrat accused President Donald Trump on Tuesday of childish behavior by threatening to halt federal payments that help millions afford health coverage, saying such a move would impose a "Trump premium tax" by forcing consumers' insurance costs upward.

President Trump on Saturday scolded Congress for looking “like fools” and urged Republican senators not to be “total quitters” as he insisted that his push to overhaul the nation’s health care law remained viable, the day after it was rejected by the Senate.

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price said on Sunday that it was his department's job to follow the law on the Affordable Care Act, former President Obama's signature domestic initiative known as Obamacare.

After the Senate fell short in its effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act, the Trump administration is poised to use its regulatory powers to accomplish what lawmakers could not: shrink Medicaid.

On July 24, 2017, the Internal Revenue Service finalized proposed and temporary regulations governing Affordable Care Act (ACA) premium tax credits that had been issued in July of 2014. Except for one minor technical change, the 2014 proposed and temporary rules are adopted unchanged.

A Republican, Heller had opposed the original draft legislation to repeal and replace Obamacare but he hadn’t declared how he’d vote on a straight repeal of the health care law.