I will support Obamacare repeal if you have a better plan, Obama dares Republicans

'We can't get health care for free,' says Mr Obama, 'you're going to have to pay for it one way or another: either the government [or individuals] pay more'

(AFP/Getty Images)

Barack Obama has suggested he would support repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) if the Republican Party can propose a better alternative.

"To every Republican: if you can put a plan together that is demonstrably better than what Obamacare is doing, I will publicly support [it]” he said, in a debate streamed live on Facebook.

Getting rid of the scheme, which has helped the poorest people in America to access medical treatment since 2010, without offering something else instead "would be a huge disservice to the American people" he added.

"Unlike other advanced countries, we didn’t start with a [health care] system in which everyone was covered," Mr Obama told Vox interviewers Ezra Klein and Sarah Kliff.

He added: “I get letters from people every single day who say that [the Affordable Care Act] has 'saved my life'."

The outgoing President also reiterated his condemnation of repeal first, replace later policy, which he called "simply irresponsible" in an article published earlier on Friday.

Mr Obama has spent his last days in office battling Republicans, led by vice President-elect Mike Pence, over healthcare.

Republicans would be dealing a major blow to Mr Obama’s legacy if they dismantled the ACA, and the move could result in the loss of health insurance for some 30 million Americans.

“From the start … I made clear to Republicans that if they had ideas that they could show would work better than [ours], that I’d be happy to incorporate them into the law," said Mr Obama, who reportedly held a closed door meeting with his team on Wednesday to discuss how to save Obamacare.

"Keep up the fight,” Mr Obama told fellow Democrats, according to Ohio Rep Tim Ryan. “Tell the stories about the people who have benefited from it. The more you can get that message through, the better off we’re going to be.”

He also suggested Democrats turn the tables and refer to the GOP’s potential new plan as “Trumpcare” to highlight the differences.

After the private meeting, Mr Obama is said to have told his party to “Look out for the American people.”

Donald Trump previously claimed during the campaign period that he would not repeal Obamacare, but Mr Pence assured GOP lawmakers this week that dismantling ACA would be Mr Trump’s “first order of business”.

“Make no mistake about it,” Mr Pence told reporters, “We’re going to keep our promise to the American people. We’re going to repeal Obamacare and replace it with solutions that lower the cost of health insurance without growing the size of government.”

Mr Obama suggested this statement was naive or deceptive, pointing out that healthcare will always cost someone money.

“We can't get health care for free," he told Mr Klein, Ms Kliff and several thousand viewers. "You're going to have to pay for it one way or another: either the government [or individuals] pay more.”

He added: “If we want to control prices for consumers more, the marketplace itself will not do that. Health care is not exactly like other products.”

It remains unclear whether or not Mr Trump will allow the ACA to be repealed completely, although he has called the act a “mess”. He has remained largely on the sidelines of the debate, leaning in occasionally to call Democrats “head clowns”.

On Thursday, he wrote on social media that there should be a bipartisan move to create a new form of healthcare, instead of doing “the typical political thing” and blaming other people.

“It is time for Republicans & Democrats to get together and come up with a healthcare plan that really works – much less expensive & FAR BETTER!” he said on Twitter, but so far he has proposed no actual new policy.