If former President Donald Trump returns to the White House, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., says he will take another swing at repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA), legislation that was enacted by former President Barack Obama in 2010 to expand health care coverage to poorer and middle-class Americans. In its place, he proposed "massive reform," but did not offer details on what they would entail.
“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 said at a campaign event for GOP House candidate Ryan Mackenzie in Pennsylvania.
“No Obamacare?” an attendee asked Johnson, using the shorthand name for the ACA.
“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.”
Republicans have long been fixated on repealing Obamacare since the moment it was passed, even as it remains popular among Americans. Trump and the GOP congress nearly succeeded in 2017 but were thwarted by three Republican defections during the Senate vote. Recently, Trump proclaimed his desire to reopen the fight.
“I don’t want to terminate Obamacare, I want to REPLACE IT with MUCH BETTER HEALTHCARE. Obamacare Sucks!!!” Trump said on Truth Social.
He has not specified what he would replace Obamacare with, and when asked about it during the presidential debate against Vice President Kamala Harris, he responded only that he had "concepts of a plan." Harris has argued that Trump's only idea is to eliminate a health care law that has expanded coverage to nearly 50 million people, according to government data.
On Thursday, Trump, referring to his rival as "Lyin' Kamala," claimed in a Truth Social post to have "never mentioned" and "never even thought about" ending Obamacare, even though he spearheaded the attempt to repeal it in 2017 and issued executive orders trying to weaken key provisions.
Johnson, for his part, offered few details besides a promise to “take government bureaucrats out of the health care equation" and "take a blowtorch to the regulatory state."
"These agencies have been weaponized against the people. It’s crushing the free market; it’s like a boot on the neck of job creators and entrepreneurs and risk takers. And so health care is one of the sectors, and we need this across the board,” Johnson said.
