Muted response from health lobby as ObamaCare faces repeal

Many of the lobbyists who might have slowed the process appear flummoxed, in part because they were expecting Hillary Clinton to win the election.

Some companies, anxious about changes in health policy, said they were afraid to speak out because they feared that Mr. Trump would attack them on Twitter, as he has badgered Boeing, Ford, General Motors, Lockheed Martin and Toyota.

Marilyn B. Tavenner, the chief executive of the leading lobby for insurers, America’s Health Insurance Plans, is in a particularly awkward position. As an Obama administration official from 2010 to 2015, she led work on the health law, issued rules to carry it out and often defended it on Capitol Hill. In December 2015, Speaker Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin pointed to her as an example of how federal officials passed through a revolving door to work for companies they once regulated.

“If the insurance industry does not understand how Obamacare works, why not hire the person who ran it?” Mr. Ryan said in a gibe at Ms. Tavenner that drew laughter from his audience at the Library of Congress.