We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: a second Trump presidency would rip away coverage from millions and dramatically raise the cost of health care. Yesterday, House Speaker Mike Johnson confirmed the MAGA agenda for health care includes “no Obamacare.” This should come as no surprise – Trump’s plan all along was to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which would be devastating for millions of Americans. After months of lies from the campaign about Trump’s health care record, MAGA Republicans are finally admitting they want to repeal the ACA and rip away health care from millions of Americans, destroy protections for people with pre-existing conditions, and raise costs for working families. The threat that the ACA faces is the same, if not greater, than in 2016, and this election will make all the difference for the health and well-being of the American people.
Additional Resources
- MEMO: Don’t Be Fooled By Trump’s Lies On The Debate Stage – He Is An Existential Threat to Our Health Care
- STATEMENT: Trump Lies About His Goal to Repeal the ACA and Throw the Health Care System Into Chaos
- FACT SHEET: 14 Years Later, The Affordable Care Act Is Woven Into the Fabric of America
- FACT SHEET: Donald Trump Escalates Threats to Repeal the ACA and Rip Health Care Away From Millions
- REPORT: The MAGA Republican War on American Health Care
Coverage
Sahil Kapur, MSNBC, ‘Morning Joe’: “What’s at stake? This law has extended coverage to more than 45 million people in the U.S.”
Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Kimmel Live: “If someone who works for you, let’s say it’s your barber, promises to present you with a plan for trimming your hair. Over and over again for nine years and never does. You’d probably fire that person… because your hair would be down to your ass.”
NBC News: House Speaker Mike Johnson Criticizes Obamacare And Promises ‘Massive Reform’ If Trump Wins.
- “House Speaker Mike Johnson took a dig at Obamacare at an event in Pennsylvania on Monday, telling a crowd there would be ‘massive’ health care changes in America if Donald Trump wins the election. ‘Health care reform’s going to be a big part of the agenda. When I say we’re going to have a very aggressive first 100 days agenda, we got a lot of things still on the table,’ Johnson, R-La., said in Bethlehem as he campaigned for GOP House candidate Ryan Mackenzie, according to video obtained by NBC News.”
- “‘No Obamacare?’ an attendee asked Johnson, referring to the law Democrats passed in 2010, also known as the Affordable Care Act. ‘No Obamacare,’ Johnson responded, rolling his eyes. ‘The ACA is so deeply ingrained, we need massive reform to make this work, and we got a lot of ideas on how to do that.’ Johnson held a back-and-forth about health care with the audience at Monday’s campaign event in Pennsylvania, saying that physician members in the House Republican caucus had ‘a menu of options’ for how to revise the system and ‘take government bureaucrats out of the health care equation.’ He didn’t detail what changes he would seek, but he made it clear that deregulation would be part of it.”
The Washington Post: Mike Johnson Vows Major Changes To Affordable Care Act If Trump Wins Election.
- “House Speaker Mike Johnson pledged ‘massive reform’ of the Affordable Care Act if Donald Trump is elected president, reopening a politically sensitive policy issue for Republicans a week before Election Day.
- “The Affordable Care Act, which Democrats enacted in 2010, has become one of the party’s more popular achievements after initially being perceived as a political liability. Sixty-two percent of adults had favorable views of the law in April, up from 38 percent a decade earlier, according to polling by KFF, a nonprofit health policy research, polling and news organization. The law also has transformed the nation’s health-care landscape. The White House last month touted data showing that nearly 50 million Americans have obtained health coverage through the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance exchanges since they were established more than a decade ago, helping to lower the national uninsured rate to record lows in recent years.”
- “Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, has promised to expand enrollment through the law if elected president. Republicans, meanwhile, mounted dozens of efforts in Congress to overturn the law, and Trump won the presidency in 2016 by pledging to ‘repeal Obamacare.’ But several Trump-led repeal efforts fell short — with the Senate in July 2017 coming one vote away from overturning the Affordable Care Act — and the law’s near-death catalyzed new support for it.”
- “Johnson ‘finally told the truth about Donald Trump and his MAGA Republican allies’ agenda for health care in their first 100 days. They want to repeal the ACA,’ Leslie Dach, the chairman of Protect Our Care, a Democratic-aligned health-care advocacy group, wrote in a statement.”
New York Magazine: Helping Kamala Harris, Mike Johnson Vows to Kill Obamacare.
- “Worse yet, Johnson’s remarks very strongly suggest two things that are potentially dangerous to Trump in the eyes of swing voters: (1) He plans to make repealing Obamacare an immediate priority if Trump wins and Republicans control Congress, which likely means it would be rolled into a gigantic budget-reconciliation bill and steamrolled through to passage if possible, and (2) his party’s designs on health-care policy are radical, meant to replace the regulations central to Obamacare’s coverage guarantees with ‘free market’ provisions almost certain to return the health-care system to the days when insurers aggressively discriminated against anyone old, sick, or poor. Johnson’s rhetoric will also give Democrats an opportunity to remind voters that the last ‘repeal Obamacare’ package aimed to decimate Medicaid, the federal-state health-care program for poor people and a key part of the country’s social safety net. Beyond that, Johnson seemed to to be telling Pennsylvanians a reelected Trump wouldn’t care if his health-care plans made Americans unhappy…”
- “Taking a ‘blowtorch’ to health-care regulations that ensure coverage for preexisting conditions and limit price discrimination probably isn’t what swing voters hope for in a Trump administration billing itself as offering a return to American greatness. And the Harris campaign is surely grateful that Trump’s loyal congressional ally is making it known. Could that be the ‘little secret’ Trump cryptically said he and Johnson would reveal after the election? If so, the Speaker spilled the beans at the wrong place and the wrong time.”
The New Republic: Mike Johnson Reveals One of GOP’s First Targets if They Win Congress.
- “Only one week from Election Day, Republicans’ closing message is that they plan to take away people’s health care, specifically the Affordable Care Act, if the party retains control of the House.”
- “‘The ACA is so deeply ingrained, we need massive reform to make this work and we got a lot of ideas on how to do that.’ ‘If you take government bureaucrats out of the health care equation and you have doctor-patient relationships, it’s better for everybody. More efficient, more effective,’ Johnson added. ‘That’s the free market. Trump’s going to be for the free market.’ Johnson later promised to take a ‘blowtorch to the regulatory state.’”
- “Johnson’s promise to ax Obamacare isn’t an offhand remark. Earlier this month, Senator Tom Cotton also promised that if Donald Trump wins the election and the GOP takes control of the Senate, Republicans could ‘make health care more affordable, more tailored and more personalized than the one-size-fits-all option.’ During his four years as president, Trump tried and failed to repeal the ACA, even though the GOP controlled the House and the Senate for two years. During his presidential debate with Kamala Harris last month, Trump reiterated his desire to get rid of the health care law, but when pressed, said he only had ‘concepts of a plan.’ Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, has elaborated on the Trump administration’s current plan, which is to undo much of the ACA’s framework, including its prohibition on health insurance companies’ ability to charge more for preexisting conditions. Johnson’s and Cotton’s comments reveal that he has allies among the Republican leadership on Capitol Hill. The question is whether voters want to elect Trump and allow the GOP to reverse the health care reforms of the previous decade.”
The Guardian: Mike Johnson Promises ‘Massive’ Healthcare Changes If Trump Wins.
- “Vice-President Kamala Harris may have received another last-minute helping hand from Republicans after the House speaker, Mike Johnson, said there would be ‘massive’ healthcare changes if Donald Trump wins next Tuesday, including abolishing Obamacare.”
- “During the presidential TV debate in September, Trump said he had formed ‘the concepts of a plan’ for replacing Obamacare. The former president proposed a reform plan in the 2020 budget that said it supported ‘several initiatives to empower States and consumers to regain control over healthcare and increase affordability and consumer choice.’ The plan incorporated a repeal of the ACA’s premium subsidies and Medicaid expansion, replacing them with a block grant to states, and would have capped federal spending on Medicaid. The plan could have reduced federal healthcare spending by more than $1tn over a decade.”
Raw Story: Mike Johnson Promises ‘Massive’ Changes To Obamacare If Trump Wins: Report.
- “House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) reportedly told a crowd this week that ‘massive’ changes will be coming to health care in the country if Donald Trump defeats Vice President Kamala Harris next week.”
- “Johnson in 2017 supported former President Donald Trump’s repeal and replace plan, casting a decisive vote in passing the GOP’s attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which would’ve stripped health coverage and protections for pre-existing conditions for millions of Americans. Johnson has also repeatedly attacked, declaring: ‘Obamacare failed.’ A record number of Americans enrolled this year in the ACA Marketplace, with 21.3 million. This was about double the number of enrollees in 2020. As of May, just under 50 million people had enrolled for health care coverage using the marketplace at some point since its inception in 2014.”
The New York Times: Mike Johnson’s Vow to Overhaul ACA Draws Attention to Unpopular Stance.
- “Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday that Republicans would embark on a ‘massive reform’ of the Affordable Care Act if former President Donald J. Trump is elected again, putting an unpopular policy position back in the spotlight just days before the election.”
- “…should he win the presidency and Republicans take both houses of Congress, there would be major pressure from some corners of the party to make major changes to former President Barack Obama’s signature domestic policy achievement. Nearly 50 million Americans have been covered by health insurance plans through the Affordable Care Act’s marketplaces since they opened a decade ago, and Vice President Kamala Harris has promised to expand enrollment in the popular program if she is elected. She has repeatedly warned voters that Mr. Trump would try to repeal the law if he was elected. Mr. Trump and an all-Republican Congress already tried unsuccessfully to repeal the law, and the fierce backlash to those efforts helped Democrats win control of the House in 2018. In 2020, the Justice Department under Mr. Trump asked the Supreme Court to overturn the law. After threatening a renewed repeal push late last year, Mr. Trump has kept his position vague, a sign of what a political liability the issue has become for his campaign.”
Rolling Stone: Republicans Once Again Have Their Sights Set on the Affordable Care Act.
- “With less than a week to go before the election, Donald Trump still hasn’t produced a concrete healthcare plan after teasing that he had ‘concepts’ of one last month. Instead, one of his most prominent allies is wading into radioactive territory for Republicans: vowing to eliminate the Affordable Care Act. On Monday, while speaking to attendees at a House campaign event in Pennsylvania, House Speaker Mike Johnson vowed that under his purview, Republicans would dismantle the healthcare regulatory state.”
- “The Republican vendetta against former President Barack Obama’s signature legislation is nothing new. In the 14 years since it was passed, the GOP has repeatedly attempted to repeal or cripple the legislation — with generally poor outcomes. While the moniker ‘Obamacare’ once drew virtually universal disdain from Republican voters, the provisions passed under Obama have since become broadly popular amongst the American public. More than 50 million Americans have obtained health care through the ACA, and in 2024 enrollments saw a notable surge in red states. Efforts to repeal the law are effectively an electoral hot potato, and likely contributed to the GOP’s loss of the House in 2018. With Trump and congressional Republicans battling razor-thin margins in their bid to retake control of Congress and the White House, one would expect them to tread carefully.”
Politico: A Trump Win Could Reshape ACA Coverage.
- “Obamacare is stronger than ever ahead of this year’s open enrollment period, which kicks off Friday. But the presidential election could upend that.”
- “Former President Donald Trump has said he has the ‘concepts of a plan’ to replace or improve the Affordable Care Act. His campaign said in a statement that he doesn’t want to ‘terminate’ the ACA, and he hopes to bring down costs by ‘increasing transparency, promoting choice and competition, and expanding access to new health care and prescription drug options.’ Trump’s term in office offers clues to how he might approach the popular health insurance program, which has seen record enrollment during President Joe Biden’s term. In 2017, Trump cut marketing funding for open enrollment, and his administration refused to defend the law in court. He expanded options for short-term plans and association health plans, a move conservatives praised and Democrats derided as ‘junk insurance.’”