Republicans Once Again Have Their Sights Set on the Affordable Care Act

With less than a week to go before the election, Donald Trump still hasn’t produced a concrete healthcare plan after teasing that he had “concepts” of one last month. Instead, one of his most prominent allies is wading into radioactive territory for Republicans: vowing to eliminate the Affordable Care Act. 

On Monday, while speaking to attendees at a House campaign event in Pennsylvania, House Speaker Mike Johnson vowed that under his purview, Republicans would dismantle the healthcare regulatory state. 

“No Obamacare,” Johnson responded to a question from an attendee, according to The Washington Post. “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.”

Johnson also said that “health care reform’s going to be a big part of the agenda,” for Republicans, and that he hoped to take “a blowtorch to the regulatory state” and “fix things.”

The Republican vendetta against former President Barack Obama’s signature legislation is nothing new. In the 14 years since it was passed, the GOP has repeatedly attempted to repeal or cripple the legislation — with generally poor outcomes. While the moniker “Obamacare” once drew virtually universal disdain from Republican voters, the provisions passed under Obama have since become broadly popular amongst the American public. 

More than 50 million Americans have obtained health care through the ACA, and in 2024 enrollments saw a notable surge in red states. Efforts to repeal the law are effectively an electoral hot potato, and likely contributed to the GOP’s loss of the House in 2018. With Trump and congressional Republicans battling razor-thin margins in their bid to retake control of Congress and the White House, one would expect them to tread carefully.

During his September debate against Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump said he and his team were looking at different plans. “If we can come up with a plan that’s going to cost our people, our population less money and be better health care than Obamacare, then I would absolutely do it,” he said. “But until then I’d run it as good as it can be run.” The former president also falsely claimed that he had “saved” the ACA from repeal as president, despite multiple failed attempts by his administration and Congress to gut the law. 
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“I have concepts of a plan,” Trump said when asked what he would replace the ACA with. “There are concepts and options we have to do that. And you’ll be hearing about it in the not-too-distant future.” 

The election is not-so-distant now, and no plan has been produced. Instead, Trump’s surrogates are falling back on the same promises they’ve failed to deliver in the past, promises that become more unpopular with each electoral cycle.