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Health care was a key issue for candidate donald trump, and it is set to be at the top of the agenda for president trump. starting in january. correspondent rich edson examines what a health care fight on capitol hill could really mean. good evening, rich. >> reporter: good evening, doug. it has been republicans' congressional priority for years, vote to repeal obamacare. and the next time they pass a repeal bill, they'll have a president who says he will actually sign it into law. leading to the second overhaul of the american health care system in less than a decade. >> what's your name, ma'...

Once again, the question republicans is, where's the fire? we have a law that is working, providing insurance coverage for 20 million people. they want to take it away without a credible alternative. they have no alternative. they have no proposal that has been vetted by the congressional budget office and scored. >> senator? go ahead. >> well, yeah, it's not been scored but i've actually introduced two pieces of legislation that would address this and the studies looking at price transparency looked at $50,000 operations. if you look at that which is most apparent, plastic surgery and lasik s...

Ashlgt architects of obamacare. from baton rouge, louisiana, bill cassidy who serves on the health, education, labor and pensions committee. gentle he gentlemen, thanks for joining us tonight. happy new year to you both. >> good to be here. >> doug. >> professor gruber, let's start with you. i know you do not want to relitigate the past, all the controversies associated with obamacare. you leave the law is working precisely as it was intended to do, correct? >> i believe the law is working well. any law could be working better. i think the fundamental goals of covering the uninsured, covered...

People have in the market, before obamacare, you could, for example, have insurance policy which said we'll cover your first $10,000, after that you're on your own. that's not insurance. obamacare ended that. okay, even -- many republicans have said, well, they like ending that. they like moving to real insurance. the point is, how do we move to real insurance? how do we bring the sick into the system without having the healthy in the system? there's no evidence that purely market-based policies are going to work. look, i'm an economist. i'm for market-based solutions. the problems, when there...

Mandate penalty was stronger. i wish the federal government had done more to get states to expand their medicaid programs." what do you mean by you want the mandates stronger? what do you mean by that precisely? >> well, basically any insurance plan, the way insurance works is people pay in when they're healthy and benefit when they're sick. the only way to make that work is to make sure that everyone's in when they're healthy so the money is there when they get sick to pay out. if you have a system which does not insurance the health you're in, insurers will kick the sick out and not provid...