President-elect Donald Trump had better make sure he has a viable alternative before, once again, he tries to get rid of Obamacare. Having “concepts of a plan” won’t cut it as a replacement. If the latest enrollment period figures are any indication, the Affordable Care Act remains extremely popular among an increasing number of people who believe it’s the federal government’s responsibility to ensure all Americans have health coverage.
Maintaining the ACA may not go over well with Republicans who feel that Trump’s recent presidential win gives them a shot at dismantling the one federal program that has lifted many Americans from the ranks of the uninsured. But, if they want to blow any political capital they think they may have received from the 2024 elections, let them try.
The data for the state and county Trump now calls home should give him pause. Palm Beach County has 44,215 persons who lack health insurance, according to the National Institutes of Health. In Florida, Obamacare is so popular that the state once again leads the nation with more than 1.4 million people signing up for the program during the first month of its enrollment period. Nationally, more than 5.3 million people signed up for coverage, according to federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
The Post’s ACA Primer::Opinion: The Civics Project explainer column: How does Obamacare work?
The numbers show the need for the ACA, despite a decade of wrath from Republicans who have vowed to replace it with something better. The problem, of course, is that the critics have never come up with an alternative. Meanwhile the public has embraced the ACA. Since 2014, nearly 50 million Americans, or one in seven of us, have found health coverage through Obamacare. That’s too big of a number for Trump and his GOP allies to play politics with just to scratch a hyper-partisan itch.
Don’t get it twisted. America wants Obamacare.
Congress passed The Affordable Healthcare Act and President Barack Obama signed the bill into law in 2010. It made private health insurance more accessible to more people by providing tax credits to people purchasing private health insurance through government-run marketplaces or state-run exchanges. In addition, the law barred insurers from charging higher premiums or denying coverage to people with pre-existing medical conditions, such as cancer or diabetes. The program also expanded Medicaid services to a number of poorer and elderly recipients and provided several other key health benefits, including emergency care, maternity services and mental health treatment.
While the Affordable Healthcare Act opened access to better healthcare, the program got off to a rocky start among partisan critics who saw the reform as nothing more than a “government takeover” of healthcare. Once Republicans gained control of the U.S. House in 2011, they wasted little time in filing legislation to repeal the ACA. H.R. 2, “Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act,” passed the House that year by a 245-189 vote. It would be the first of many votes by Republicans to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, particularly when the party gained control of both the White House and Congress when Donald Trump was elected president in 2016.
Unfortunately, President-elect Trump is continuing to wage war against Obamacare. Last week on Meet the Press, he reiterated that he had “concepts of a plan” that would be better than the existing program, before finally conceding that he still didn’t have an actual plan. He contended that “Obamacare stinks” minutes before concluding nonsensically, “I am the one that saved Obamacare.”
The President-elect has chance to make those words good, though. With the Affordable Care Act now receiving its strongest support and recent poll showing the highest percentage of U.S. adults in more than a decade believe the federal government should make sure all Americans have health coverage, Trump should tamp down any attempts to weaken the ACA. The public has accepted Obamacare; the new Trump administration should, too.
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