Up Close: What's next for health care reform?

Bill Ritter Image
Sunday, July 23, 2017
Up Close: Health care reform
Bill Ritter talks with U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.

NEW YORK (WABC) -- Republicans have been promising to repeal and replace Obamacare for seven years, before Donald Trump became president.

Now that they have control of the U.S. Senate, the House and the White House, they still can't help deliver on what was arguably President Trump's biggest campaign promise.

The president lunched at the White House this week with Republican senators, asking them to cancel their August recess and vacations.

Instead, he's telling them to stay in Washington to hash out a health care deal. This, from a man who has spent more than 20 percent of his days in office at one or another of his golf courses.

The Republican health care plan is dead for now. But the Congressional Budget Office put out its estimate anyway.

The bill to repeal but not replace Obamacare would mean an additional 32 million uninsured Americans by 2026.

And it predicts average premiums for people buying their own health insurance would double during that time.

So what happens now? U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York joins us from Washington.

Also with us to discuss politics are political analyst Hank Sheinkopf and from our Washington bureau, ABC News political director Rick Klein.

Bill Ritter talks with political analyst Hank Sheinkopf and ABC News political director Rick Klein.

A series of people were wrongly convicted, spending years, sometimes decades in prison for crimes they didn't commit.

Now Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, home to at least 23 convictions recently overturned, is trying to change things.

He is calling for an independent commission to investigate how so many people have been wrongly convicted.

Eyewitness News reporter Tim Fleischer has the story.

Tim Fleischer reports on the call for an investigation into wrongful convictions.