Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers are reigniting their war on the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Trump announced that if elected president he will make it a top priority to repeal the ACA, and Republican lawmakers across the country have echoed the call to rip health care away from tens of millions of Americans.
Nearly 16 million Americans enrolled in a Marketplace plan and 1,027,643 are newly enrolled in Medicaid thanks to expansion. The consequences of ACA repeal would touch nearly every household in the country: in addition to millions losing coverage, over 135 million Americans with pre-existing conditions would lose critical protections, 49 million seniors would have to pay more for prescription drugs, and insurance companies could charge women more than men for coverage and would not be required to cover preventative care, such as vaccinations, contraception, and cancer screenings. Adult children would no longer be able to stay on their parents’ insurance and insurance companies could impose annual and lifetime limits on coverage.
After years of Republican failures to repeal and sabotage the ACA, more people support and rely on the ACA’s protections and benefits than ever before. Last year, President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law, which builds on the strong foundation of the ACA by lowering premiums for working families. This past year, a record 16 million Americans enrolled in ACA coverage, and early snapshots of enrollment suggest even more are finding affordable coverage on the marketplaces this year.