calls. but we obviously understand the concern to china. but this is a national security issue. thank you, sean. how concerned is the president with the situation between north korea and malaysia right now? as i said, i think we re very well aware of what s going on i the region. president obviously had a conversation with, in paicular, the acting president of south korea last night. and with respect to what s going on there. i ll refer that to the national security committee to give you further. cheryl? thanks, sean. i know, i for got you yesterday. i appreciate it. two questions. one on health care. if the cbo scores this bill and it does not provide the amount of coverage that the affordable care act did, will the president still support it? well, i m not gonna get like secretary price mentioned this. let s not get ahead of the cbo going through this. one of the things that s
right now. generally speaking the goal is to make sure people get a plan that they like, that meets what they need to have met. they shouldn t have to have a one size fits all government instilled health care system that doesn t offer any choice or isn t tailored to the needs that they have. that s an important thing. john? sean, right now you re two votes short of passing repeal and replace in the senate. you ve got four republican senators who are saying they can t support the bill because rolling back the medicade expansion. what do you say to those senators who are very concerned that people will lose coverage, that this does not provide enough stability to people who rely on medicade? there are two things. one, we re at day one. we re going through the house first. so we ve got a little bit of time. as we go through that process, these senators. not just the additional two, but there is a hope that we will get additional ones. recognize those people, as i have said, if we do n
that s a big difference. jim? just want to ask you, health and human services secretary was on here, talking about this is the republican bill, this is the democrat bill. is that the president s bill? that is a bill that we have worked on with congress. we are looking forward, like i mentioned earlier, the president is meeting with the whip team to encourage them to support it. i don t think, i mot trying to be cute here. it s not his bill or their bill. it is a bil we have worked on with them together. we re very proud of where it stands now. the big difference, jim, is that unlike before, as i mentioned, when the democrats jammed it down people s throats saying where did you get that 60th vote with senator kennedy still around. and then basically said, literally, you will have to wait and see what it looks like before we pass it. we not only posted it out there for everybody to look at. but by sending it through regular order, not just putting it up for a vote. it allows republic
health care question. one of the principles the individual mandate because it allows insurance companies to increase premiums up to 30%. i have one more. that s not a the difference is, under the current bill that s here, if you don t buy insurance you pay a fine. under the current bill, there s nothing that mandates you to buy insurance. that s up to an individual. by its very definition it can t be considered that. what s your second one? you don t think it s a defacto mandate, there s a penalty in place as there is now by the government. right. i think you answered your own question on that one. i have one more.
on the first piece, i think, look, one of the things that s important to understand about this process that s very different from the democrats, you recall then speaker pelosi said you re going to have to read the bill to know what s in it. that was the big difference. here is the bill. it s on the website. if you go to the house of representatives website, speaker paul ryan s website, it s listed. everybody can read it. it s going to go through what they call regular order. we re not jamming this down anybody s throat. it s going to go tough a committee process. all parties involved, all representatives will have input into it. that s the way to conduct this process. to do it to allow people to watch the process happen and the committee, allow members of conk to have their input in it, to make amendments, to see that we get the best bill that achieves the goal for the american people. when we ve done it the last time, it was jammed down people s throats. look what happened.