Former President Donald Trump has baffled and disgruntled Republicans with a policy proposal they say they don't understand, know nothing about, or simply don't like, according to a new report.
Trump's call late last month to pass a government mandate that insurance companies cover in-vitro fertilization caught more than a dozen Republicans by surprise — even though Trump would need their support to pass it, NBC News reported Tuesday.
“I’m against health care for all, and I don’t support a plan right now to just pay for IVF,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) told NBC News. “I think that’s opening up a door that Republicans aren’t willing to open."
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) admitted he wasn't quite sure what Trump was suggesting when he said, "Under the Trump administration, we are going to be paying for that treatment."
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“It’s not clear to me,” Hawley said. “Maybe it was something that he thought of on his own and wanted to float out there."
A person close to the campaign told the outlet that Trump's advisers were also surprised by the "unexpected" proposal and that it remains unclear whether Trump has a plan to enact any mandate.
That didn't stop Trump from repeating his claim at a Wisconsin rally on Aug. 30.
"I said, maybe for IVF, and I’ve been looking at it, and what we’re going to do is for people that are using IVF, which is fertilization, we are, government is going to pay for it, or we’re going to get or mandate your insurance company to pay for it, which is going to be great," Trump said. "We’re going to do that."
Trump's work would be cut out for him considering the Republican Party has positioned itself against government mandated healthcare for more than a decade.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) told NBC News he would be hesitant to support such a policy and feared the economic impact it would have.
“Is there some other way that we could incent these sort of coverages through the private sector?" Tillis asked. “We got a lot of things we’ve got to pay for next year by extending the tax provisions."
Sen. Joni Ernst, (R-IA) said that while she could not support a government mandate in the private sector, she could align herself with the goal behind the proposed policy.
“We want to see more babies," Ernst told NBC News.
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) told the outlet that Trump hadn't reached out to his team, despite his position as the top Republican on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
“Is it the government? Is it the private sector? ... What will it do to the price of premiums?” Cassidy told the outlet. “You just got to figure that out.”
Guardian columnist Arwa Mahdawi posited last week that she knew the reason Trump floated a "half baked" policy plan to fund IVF.
"He is desperate to woo female voters," Mahdawi wrote.
