Donald Trump made his opinion of Obamacare clear when he was running for President of the United States. In the second presidential debate he stated, “Obamacare is a disaster. You know it. We all know it. We have to repeal it and replace it with something absolutely, much less expensive, and something that works.”
He continued with, “Obamacare will never work. It’s very bad, very bad health insurance. Far too expensive. And not only expensive for the person that has it, unbelievably expensive for our country. It’s going to be one of the biggest line items very shortly.” He then turned his focus to why he thought Hillary Clinton’s plan to improve Obamacare wouldn’t work, “she wants to go to a single-payer plan, which would be a disaster, somewhat similar to Canada. And if you haven’t noticed the Canadians, when they need a big operation, when something happens, they come into the United States in many cases because their system is so slow. It’s catastrophic in certain ways.”
During the second debate, Donald Trump’s explanation of better healthcare was, “You’re going to have plans that are so good, because we’re going to have so much competition in the insurance industry. Once we break out – once we break out the lines and allow the competition to come… President Obama, by keeping those lines, the boundary lines around each state, it was almost gone until just very toward the end of the passage of Obamacare, which, by the way, was a fraud. You know that, because Jonathan Gruber, the architect of Obamacare, was said – he said it was a great lie, it was a big lie. President Obama said you keep your doctor, you keep your plan. The whole thing was a fraud, and it doesn’t work. But when we get rid of those lines, you will have competition, and we will be able to keep pre-existing, we’ll also be able to help people that can’t get – don’t have money because we are going to have people protected. And Republicans feel this way, believe it or not, and strongly this way. We’re going to block grant into the states. We’re going to block grant into Medicaid into the states so that we will be able to take care of people without the necessary funds to take care of themselves.”
During the second presidential debate, Donald Trump stated, “Nobody’s ever seen numbers like this for health care.” But Donald Trump doesn’t seem to know what these numbers are, “when I watch the deals being made, when I watch what’s happening with some horrible things like Obamacare, where your health insurance and health care is going up by numbers that are astronomical, 68 percent, 59 percent, 71 percent…” None of these numbers match the ones he later stated in the third presidential debate, “You take a look at the kind of numbers that that will cost us in the year [2017]. It is a disaster if we don’t repeal and replace. It is probably going to die of its own weight, but Obamacare has to go. The premiums are going up 60%, 70%, 80%. Next year, they’re going to go up over 100%.”
In his congressional address after being elected president, Donald Trump broached the issue of healthcare, “Here are the principles that should guide the Congress as we move to create a better healthcare system for all Americans: First, we should ensure that Americans with pre-existing conditions have access to coverage, and that we have a stable transition for Americans currently enrolled in the health-care exchanges. Secondly, we should help Americans purchase their own coverage, through the use of tax credits and expanded health savings accounts, but it must be the plan they want, not the plan forced on them by our government. Thirdly, we should give our great state governors the resources and flexibility they need with Medicaid to make sure no one is left out. Fourth, we should implement legal reforms that protect patients and doctors from unnecessary costs that drive up the price of insurance – and work to bring down the artificially high price of drugs and bring them down immediately. And finally, the time has come to give Americans the freedom to purchase health insurance across state lines –- which will create a truly competitive national marketplace that will bring cost way down and provide far better care.”
Since then a new bill has made it to the House floor. The official title of the replacement plan is the “World’s Greatest Healthcare Plan of 2017”, introduced by Texas Representative Pete Sessions. Trump supported it when addressing House Republicans, “I’m proud to support the replacement plan, released by the House of Representatives, and encouraged by members of both parties. I think, really, that we are going to have something that’s going to be much more understood and much more popular than people can even imagine. It follows the guidelines I laid out in my congressional address. A plan that will lower costs, expand choices, increase competition, and ensure healthcare access for all Americans. This will be a plan where you can choose your doctor. This will be a plan where you can choose your plan. And you know what the plan is, this is the plan. And we’re gonna have a-a tremendous- I think we’re gonna have a tremendous success. It’s a complicated process, but actually it’s very simple. It’s called good healthcare.”
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