Obama calling a last minute meeting to save Obamacare

Obama is fighting until the bitter end for his health care legislation.
 By 
Sasha Lekach
 on 
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Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Just because 2017 is the year Donald Trump takes over the White House doesn't mean President Barack Obama doesn't get to squeeze as much as possible out of his last few weeks in office.

Obama is, in fact, jumping into the new year with a meeting Wednesday with congressional Democrats. The purpose of this gathering? To figure out how to save Obamacare, also known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA), from getting annihilated by Trump and Republican lawmakers.

Obama will be back in Washington, D.C., Wednesday to meet with House and Senate Democrats, according to an invitation reportedly sent to members Friday. It's supposed to be a strategy session on how to stop Republicans from gutting the law without a solid replacement health care plan.

Republicans and Trump have been vocal about repealing the ACA. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has vowed to make it one of the first things to go once the new Congress meets next week.

Obamacare has signed up 20 million people and pushed the uninsured rate to less than 9 percent -- a historic low. Obama's hoping these stats will help save his landmark law, but with Trump it's anyone's guess what will happen.

On Trump's website he has a whole page devoted to removing Obamacare. He calls it "terrible legislation" and lays out a plan to repeal it while bringing down insurance costs. But after meeting with Obama after the election, Trump had sounded somewhat into parts of the health care law.

It's hard to keep track.

The Associated Press contributed reporting.

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Sasha Lekach

Sasha is a news writer at Mashable's San Francisco office. She's an SF native who went to UC Davis and later received her master's from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She's been reporting out of her hometown over the years at Bay City News (news wire), SFGate (the San Francisco Chronicle website), and even made it out of California to write for the Chicago Tribune. She's been described as a bookworm and a gym rat.

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