As Obamacare turns 14, Biden warns us: Trump wants to take our health care

The next time you find yourself in a sweaty panic over the possibility that Donald Trump will become president again, recall that he has the political instincts of a drunk raccoon with its head stuck in a Pringles can. 

Saturday marks the 14th anniversary of the ACA, also known as Obamacare. And the Biden administration—which has made several significant, under-the-radar moves to improve Americans’ access to health care under the law—hasn’t been shy about clueing people into the threat that Donald Trump poses to their continued well-being.

Trump may have the political instincts of a drunk raccoon with its head stuck in a Pringles can, but he’s still competitive in general election polling—largely because not nearly enough Americans have watched his recent rallies, during which he does an uncannily accurate impression of Adolf Hitler trying to find his car in a Costco parking lot. They also haven’t heard all his policy prescriptions, which include imposing inflation-boosting tariffs, possibly invading Mexico, replacing competent civil servants with an army of clueless toadies, and repealing the Affordable Care Act.

Yes, you read that right. Trump wants to repeal the now very popular medical lifeline from which tens of millions of Americans currently get their health insurance and replace it with … whatever he comes up with in the next two weeks.

Huffington Post:

On Saturday, Biden and Obama plan to mark the anniversary with a virtual campaign event, as part of a broader effort to put the law at the center of Biden’s presidential reelection campaign. The idea is to remind voters about what the Affordable Care Act has accomplished ― and what could happen to it if Donald Trump retakes the White House.

[…]

Tens of millions of Americans now get health insurance through the Affordable Care Act, either via expanded state Medicaid programs that the ACA funds or subsidized private coverage that the ACA makes available. Together, those features have brought the proportion of Americans without health insurance to historic lows.

The law also introduced legal guarantees of coverage for people with preexisting conditions. Those matter because, back in the day, insurance companies could charge higher premiums to people with diabetes or a history of cancer ― or deny them insurance altogether. They could also sell policies that left out whole swaths of coverage, like maternity care or treatment for mental illness.

Remember those days? When people could be denied insurance for having preexisting health conditions? No one really wants to go back to that. No one except this guy, apparently.

NBC News, Nov. 29, 2023:

Even as his party has backed away from the issue, Donald Trump is doubling down on his calls to replace the Affordable Care Act, also known as “Obamacare,” if he’s elected president again.

“I don’t want to terminate Obamacare, I want to REPLACE IT with MUCH BETTER HEALTHCARE. Obamacare Sucks!!!” Trump said in a pair of late-night posts on social media.

Well, that sounds promising. Who doesn’t want better health care? And surely after talking about it for nearly 10 years, Trump has something in the works that will be simply brilliant. It will cover everyone in the country for far less money, because … it just will, okay?

Yeah, about that.

The former president made a similar promise in 2016. The following year, he endorsed a Republican-led bill to undo a substantial portion of the law, repealing the ACA’s subsidy extensions and regulations in an attempt to lower costs on the open market. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projected that it would have rescinded insurance coverage for about 23 million people. It also threatened protections for pre-existing conditions. It fell short in Congress; as did his effort to get the Supreme Court to invalidate the law.

There’s a good reason Republicans never came up with a credible replacement for Obamacare after attempting to repeal the law dozens of times. It’s because passing a more conservative law that covers as many people as the ACA and also protects those with preexisting conditions is essentially impossible. How do we know that? When Republicans attempted to replace the law in 2017, after taking control of Congress and the White House, the Congressional Budget Office scored their bill and discovered it would have both spiked the insurance rate and left people with preexisting conditions vulnerable to prohibitive costs.

A May 2017 NPR story on the CBO’s analysis highlighted the dangers that less-healthy people would’ve faced under the Republicans’ ACA replacement, despite Trump’s empty boast that he would always protect people with preexisting conditions—a cynical promise that eventually earned him The Washington Post’s coveted “Bottomless Pinocchio” award. 

The act could make obtaining health care coverage prohibitively expensive for some sicker Americans, the CBO found.

That’s because under the AHCA, states could get waivers exempting them from some Obamacare provisions, including what are called essential health benefits — a list of basics like mental health and prescription drugs that the Affordable Care Act required plans to cover. States could also get waivers that allow insurers to charge more for people with pre-existing conditions.

[…]

In states that obtained both of those waivers, it would mean lower premiums for people buying individual insurance. But less healthy Americans in those states could face “extremely high premiums,” the report said.

In other words, Republicans—as usual—were trying to pull a fast one. But voters were savvy enough about to eventually acknowledge the ACA’s many benefits. And, indeed, the threat of losing health care—and Trump’s clumsy rhetoric on the issue—galvanized many voters during the 2018 midterms, leading to sweeping Democratic victories. 

So you’d think after all that, Trump—who is so plugged into the issue he thinks young Americans pay $12 a year in health insurance premiums—would have learned to keep his mouth shut about Obamacare, which he hates with a passion because it’s nicknamed “Obamacare” and not, say, “Dr. Don’s Old-Timey Health Care Law, Beard Tonic, and All-Day Rheumatism Cure.”

But you’d be wrong. He’s still fecklessly flailing at the ACA, which nearly three-fifths of Americans now view favorably. 

Of course, Trump’s noncarcinogenic windmill-tilting stands in stark contrast to the current GOP consensus that repealing the ACA is now a clear political loser. In fact, during the 2022 midterms, Republicans were nearly silent on Obamacare. Because while they don’t know shit about health care, they know that continually banging your head against a brick wall for 12 straight years is bad for you.

Apparently, Trump never got that memo. 

I have a feeling the Biden-Harris campaign is eager to muster a robust response to Trump’s latest anti-ACA threats. In fact, they’ve already started. Expect more ads like this—and not just on Obamacare’s anniversary. They’ll likely be sending fragrant bouquets like the following to Dear Leader from now until November. 

Such a nice ad! It would be a shame if you sent it to everyone you know. They might get sick to their stomachs at the thought of voting for Trump, and then we’ll never get a look at his fantastic health care plan—which, during the 2020 election campaign, he promised to release in two weeks. It’s been nearly four years, so imagine how tremendous the plan must be now! 

So happy anniversary, ACA! As GOP Sen. John Cornyn acknowledged nearly two years ago, you’re “probably here to stay.” Unless Americans are actually sick enough to elect that guy again. Then all bets are off.

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Check out Aldous J. Pennyfarthing’s four-volume Trump-trashing compendium, including the finale, Goodbye, Asshat: 101 Farewell Letters to Donald Trump, at this link.