WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) — Former President Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) are denying allegations that they plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
On Monday, Johnson was seen at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania promising massive health care reforms to his supporters.
“Health care reform will be part of the agenda,” Johnson said. “When I say we have a very aggressive agenda for the first 100 days, we have a lot of things on the table.”
Vice President Kamala Harris echoed his comments. Before a campaign rally on Thursday, she told reporters that Trump would seek to repeal the federal health care plan with Johnson’s lend a hand.
“He has made dozens of attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act. And now we have further confirmation of that agenda from his supporter, the Speaker of the House,” Harris said.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump called his opponent a “liar” and wrote that he had never thought about it.
Trump has already stated during the campaign that he will not repeal the Affordable Care Act unless he creates a “better” option. In August, he told a crowd that the show “stinks.”
“We’re going to do something with it. If we can do better. That means lower costs and better health care for you,” Trump said.
Trump has not yet presented a concrete health policy plan. Matthew Fiedler, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute, says that’s probably intentional.
“I think a lot of these proposals were pretty unpopular in 2017,” Fiedler said. “They don’t necessarily want to be explicit about it.”
Fiedler says that during Trump’s first term, Republicans in Congress tried to pass reforms that would have stripped an estimated 20 million Americans of health insurance coverage.
The proposals scaled back student tax credits, rolled back states’ Medicaid expansion programs and loosened insurance company rules that provided coverage for Americans with pre-existing conditions.
According to the Department of Health and Human Services, 50 million Americans, or one in seven U.S. citizens, have been covered through the Affordable Care Act health insurance marketplace since 2014.
Ultimately, Republicans must win the White House, House and Senate to pass health care reforms.
