As Democrats lay out their plans for building on their accomplishments, building on their vision for the future, Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans are working to drag America backwards. House Speaker Mike Johnson has openly confirmed that the MAGA agenda for health care if Donald Trump is elected includes “no Obamacare.” Donald Trump’s Republican Party wants to “take a blowtorch” to the Affordable Care Act, destroying protections for more than 100 million Americans with pre-existing conditions, ripping coverage away from more than 40 million Americans, and raising costs across the board for everyday Americans.
READ MORE: ‘Mike Johnson Vows to Kill Obamacare’: MAGA Republicans Finally Admit They Want to Repeal The ACA.
Time and again, MAGA Republicans have made clear plans for American health care: they are going to fight tooth and nail to raise costs, deny coverage to millions of people, and slash funding for Medicare and Medicaid. In 2023 alone, Republicans tried to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act’s measures that make prescription drugs more affordable for seniors, impose burdensome Medicaid paperwork requirements designed to throw people off of coverage, and weaken protections for 135 million people with pre-existing conditions. 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.
Key points of the GOP health care plan include:
Repealing the ACA. Donald Trump sabotaged affordable health care and pre-existing condition protections while he was in office, and has renewed his calls to “terminate” the ACA at least seven times over the last several months with MAGA Republicans echoing his calls. If Trump doesn’t succeed at repealing the ACA altogether, he will stop at nothing to gut it and other critical protections that the American people rely on.
Ripping away protections for pre-existing conditions. MAGA Republicans want to remove many protections for the over 100 million Americans with pre-existing conditions made possible through the ACA, allowing insurers to deny coverage or charge more. MAGA Republicans also want to codify rules put forth by the Trump administration that expanded junk health insurance plans.
Increasing premium costs on middle class families. MAGA Republicans want to end enhanced premium tax credits that lower insurance costs for Americans, which were originally enacted in the American Rescue Plan and extended through 2025 by the Inflation Reduction Act. These enhanced tax credits have reduced ACA Marketplace enrollees’ premiums by an average of $800 per year and contributed to record enrollment.
Hiking drug costs for seniors. MAGA Republicans want to fully repeal the Inflation Reduction Act’s prescription drug provisions that are saving Americans thousands of dollars on health care. They want to raise costs on seniors while giving more tax breaks to drug companies and their CEOs.
Slashing Medicare and Medicaid funding. MAGA Republicans continue to push for raising the retirement age, which would cut benefits for millions of American seniors, and they have proposed cutting Medicaid spending by over 54 percent in the next decade and ripping coverage away from tens of millions of children, seniors, and people with disabilities.
If Republicans are successful in enacting their health care plan, 46 million Americans across the country risk losing coverage, 20 million will see higher premiums, and 67 million people on Medicare will have to pay increased drug costs for lifesaving medications.