Trump Is Coming For Your Health Care (Again)
Donald Trump stunned the political world last week when he called for the repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA.) The four time indicted former president posted the following on his social media site:
“The cost of Obamacare is out of control, plus, it’s not good Healthcare. I’m seriously looking at alternatives. We had a couple of Republican Senators who campaigned for 6 years against it, and then raised their hands not to terminate it. It was a low point for the Republican Party, but we should never give up!”
The conventional wisdom had been that the GOP had given up on the repeal of the ACA since prior repeal efforts were unpopular and cost them control of the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2018 election cycle. Apparently, Trump has other plans for the GOP even though Republicans would rather talk about Hunter Biden, impeachment, inflation and crime.
When Trump first ran for president in 2016, he promised to replace the ACA with “something terrific.” He promised “great health care at a tiny fraction of the cost” and claimed it would be “easy.” After he took office, Trump lamented that he never knew the health care issue could be so “complicated.”
The Republican replacement plan in 2017 was anything but terrific — it was awful. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office found that the Republican replacement plan would have taken away insurance from 32 million people, and that the premiums paid by individuals buying their own insurance (as opposed to getting it through their employers) would have doubled. Trump Care gutted pre-existing condition protections and even included a tax cut for the rich. We waited eight years for this?
The bill was so bad that the House Republicans voted to exempt themselves from it. (They reversed that when they got caught.) The effects of Trump Care were so ghastly that a tiny, decisive number of moderate Republican members of Congress voted to reject it. A dying John McCain was the Republican legislator who effectively killed Trump Care.
The Republicans never talked about Trump Care after it was rejected by a GOP controlled Congress. If Trump Care was so great, one would think Republicans would’ve campaigned on it in 2018 and subsequent election cycles. Instead, it went down the GOP memory hole along with George W. Bush and the Iraq War.
There is no reason to believe that any future Republican ACA replacement plan would be any better than Trump Care. The GOP simply doesn’t believe that it is a legitimate function of the government to raise taxes on the wealthy to fund health care for working families, the poor, the sick and the elderly. They just don’t believe in it. Instead, the GOP believes that the government exists to comfort the already comfortable.
The Biden Administration’s Department of Health and Human Services has found that more than 40 million people are insured through coverage related to provisions of the ACA. If Trump wins, those 40 million people could lose insurance. In addition, insurance companies could once again be allowed to discriminate against the sick and women.
One of the greatest stories never told is that the ACA has been a success. Currently, the U.S. has it lowest uninsured rate ever. Obama and Biden reduced the rate of uninsured Americans from 18% down to a record low 7.2%. In addition, insurance companies can no longer deny coverage to the sick and the injured.
Due to that success, the ACA is now popular. It was less popular before it was implemented due to GOP lies. (Do you know anybody who has been killed by a death panel?) The most recent poll from the Kaiser Foundation in May indicated that the ACA has a 59% approval rating.
The Biden campaign was quick to blast Trump’s plan to kick 40 million people off insurance. “My predecessor once again called for cuts that could rip away health insurance for tens of millions of Americans,” President Biden said. “They just don’t give up.” Speaker Emeritus Nancy Pelosi added: “The American people will need to know that if Donald Trump wins next year, he’s coming for your health care.”
A spokesman for the Biden campaign, said in a statement. “He was one vote away from getting it done when he was president — and we should take him at his word that he’ll try to do it again. Donald Trump’s America is one where millions of people lose their health insurance and seniors and families across the country face exorbitant costs just to stay healthy. Those are the stakes next November.”
Don’t believe that because the GOP failed to repeal the ACA in 2017 they can’t repeal it in 2025. Most of the moderates who opposed Trump Care were driven out of the party and are now gone. The Congressional Republicans now largely consist of MAGA Republicans. Currently, the so-called “moderates” in the GOP Congressional delegation always cave to the extremists.
“So while Republican elites are deeply divided over Donald Trump’s personal behavior, they are largely united in their antipathy to the Affordable Care Act. Obamacare is popular, and cutting it would risk another white-hot political backlash. But politicians run for office so they can do things. And cutting or eliminating Obamacare is a thing nearly every Republican would desperately like to do.” Jonathan Chait.
The Democrats should welcome a debate on the potential repeal of the ACA. Lest we forget, the Republicans’ 2017 effort to gut the ACA was a political disaster for the party, which Democrats took advantage of to take back the House majority in the 2018 midterm elections.
The Republicans aren’t only talking about repealing the ACA, they are openly talking about cutting Social Security and Medicare. In addition, most Republicans favor a six week abortion ban and a national abortion ban. I look forward to a good domestic debate about the future. And the GOP is on the wrong side of it.
There are so many reasons why the stakes couldn’t be any higher in 2024. Trump is making it clear that he is not running for president — he is running for dictator. Trump has promised to prosecute anybody who opposes him and to deploy the military to arrest people who protest against him. Don’t say you weren’t warned. Like many aspiring dictators, Trump makes no secret of his authoritarian agenda.
“Staying home in the 2024 presidential election, casting a protest vote for a fringe candidate or voting for Trump all amount to the same thing: a willingness to consign American democracy to the dustbin of history and turn over the presidency to a profoundly unfit, dangerous character. Voters who chose one of these options cannot complain if a Trump second term systematically shreds their cherished values and dismantles constitutional government.” Jennifer Rubin.
If Trump wins, it’s over for the republic. You may not be happy with a choice between Biden and Trump. However, if Trump wins, you will never get a choice of any kind in future elections.
It’s America or Trump in 2024. Choose wisely.