As Congress and President-Elect Donald Trump position themselves to fulfill the campaign promise to repeal and replace Obamacare, Americans who benefited from the program are beginning to get nervous.
The GOP has tried to repeal the law over 60 times in the House of Representatives alone. Yet, each time, it's been met with vetoes or killed in the Senate.
"You know the old saying," Colbert began. "If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try, try, try, try, try try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try again. And this time, the Republicans mean it."
At the same time, Trump is trying to reassure people that love the program and need it that their coverage won't be interrupted nor will it go away. Trump explained, "It's not going to be their plan. It will be another plan. But they will be beautifully covered."
(READ MORE: Here are 5 reasons the GOP’s Obamacare repeal plan will be an unprecedented sh*tshow)
Colbert found that amusing.
"Don't worry, if you are losing your Obamacare you will be beautifully covered," he said. "Either by insurance or six feet of dirt. Either way, just beautiful. So nice. So beautiful. We're going to tramp the dirt down, we'll tramp it down all smooth. It's going to be beautiful."
Colbert began an analysis on the Obamacare repeal with the benefits and downsides of the law's replacement with his "Werd" segment. He began with
"Everyone in the GOP is on board with kill Obamacare," Colbert said as the words "Finally, death panels," flashed beside him on the screen.
Colbert explained that unfortunate problem the GOP is running into is that after six years of working to repeal the program, they haven't managed to come up with a plan to replace it. Colbert mocked Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), who has claimed that the reason for not coming up with something is due to things being "complicated."
"Yeah, it's just so darn complicated," Colbert said. "Republicans are like a dog that finally catches the car he's been chasing for six years. He crashes into it, then can't even go to the vet because they repealed Fido-care."
Colbert explained that repealing the law will likely cause a backlash because 20 million people have health insurance — including over 6 million of whom are actually Trump's own voters. Colbert flashed the words "Russian dictators?" on the screen. To make matters worse, repealing the law without replacing it will cost three million jobs.
"What are those people going to do for jobs?" Colbert asked. On the screen, the question "pee stuff?" appeared.
"It's estimated the repeal would cost $1.5 trillion," Colbert cited. "Now, $1.5 trillion might sound like a lot, but for that much money, you also don't get health insurance."
The problem with the repeal and replace plan is that the Congressional Budget office does reports by law that outline a law's impact if it costs over $5 billion.
"With one, this is kind of funny exception, thanks to new rules passed by the Republicans, this law shall not apply to repealing the Affordable Care Act," Colbert revealed. "That's right. The GOP is so confident the repeal will save money, that they don't want to know if that's true, and if congress can make it illegal for us to know how much it costs to repeal Obamacare, I think they might have stumbled on the replacement. Just make it illegal for your doctor to tell you your diagnosis. That way, that way you'll never need insurance as far as you know."
Check out Colbert's full segment below:
