Former President Donald Trump’s renewed focus on repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, known colloquially as Obamacare, has alarmed some Republicans scarred by the GOP’s failure to deliver on promises to dismantle the law and who view the issue as a political loser with the American people.
Many on Trump’s team said they were surprised by the former president’s recent declaration on his social media website Truth Social that replacing Obamacare would be a priority of his administration, as Obamacare had not been a focal issue in ongoing policy conversations and the campaign has not yet drafted any kind of health care policy alternative. One Trump adviser told CNN the post came “completely came out of nowhere,” and said the team “has not been talking to him about health care.”
Some Trump advisers who spoke with CNN also conceded that calling for the termination of a health care law that provides millions of Americans coverage and is largely viewed favorably by the public is a political loser going into 2024. Republicans have tried and failed for years to implement substantial changes to Obamacare and the party has largely abandoned efforts to campaign on the issue.
It’s easy to forget that as bad as America’s health care system is compared to other developed nations, it was way, way worse before Obamacare. Some people just couldn’t get insurance back then. And not just people with rare diseases. Pregnant women were denied coverage all the time.
And affordable insurance used to have lifetime caps. I remember a young couple in my hometown having to purposely become impoverished enough for Medicaid because their daughter got leukemia and they hit the cap in no time. People with sick kids were literally giving up promising careers and home ownership to bartend and rent as a way to avoid medical debts.