In his first address to a joint session of Congress — a high-wattage moment to articulate his central goals — President Trump defied expectations he had repeatedly set that he was about to unveil a concrete plan to abolish the Affordable Care Act and steer federal health policy onto a more conservative path.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday urged Democrats to work with Republicans in Congress to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, which he claimed, yet again, is a "disaster."

President Donald Trump said on Sunday he will offer details on how he would like to overhaul President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law in a speech to the U.S. Congress on Tuesday.

"2017 is going to be a catastrophic year for Obamacare for patients," said Trump, saying the public health care exchanges are "going to absolutely implode." He cited rising premiums as a factor. Premiums were steadily rising for all insurance policies for years and experts said the hikes for Obamacare were partly due to them initially being priced artificially low.

With President Trump now vowing to put forward a replacement for the Affordable Care Act in March, some California politicians and healthcare advocates are once again promoting the idea of a state-run “single-payer” system that operates like Medicare.

On February 24, 2017, a draft House reconciliation bill was leaked to the media. Although I have not seen any claims that it is not authentic, it is dated February 10 and may not be the most recent draft. I have also not seen any assertion that the Congressional Budget Office has concluded an analysis of the bill and found its budgetary consequences to be acceptable to the bill’s sponsors. The draft is, however, consistent with statements that Republican leadership have recently made about their legislative program. Because the draft is the best information we have about the House Republican leadership’s proposals, I offer a summary of its major provisions.