CNN
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Former President Donald Trump is doubling down on his promise to repeal Obamacare if he wins the White House again, even as more Americans support the landmark health reform law in recent years.
“We’re going to fight for much better health care than Obamacare. Obamacare is a disaster. Nobody talks about it. You know, without John McCain, we wouldn’t have done it.” That would have been the case,” President Trump said Saturday in a speech in Newton, Iowa, referring to the late Republican senator’s landmark vote in 2017 against repealing the Affordable Care Act.
A record number of people are signing on to Obamacare, and the law enjoys far greater popularity among the public than ever before. But President Trump revived his quest to kill Obamacare in his latest contest for the Republican nomination, although the issue has become a politically losing issue for Republicans in recent elections. It started in November when he posted on his Truth Social site that Republicans should “never give up” on efforts to repeal the law and replace it with “much better health care.” .
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is also vying for the Republican nomination, followed suit late last year, calling for a “replacement and replacement” of the Affordable Care Act with a “better plan” because “Obamacare is not working.” It will be replaced,” he said. The legislation received much attention during the fourth Republican presidential debate in November.
But even if Republicans secure control of the White House and Congress in this year’s elections, trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act will be even more difficult than it was in 2017.
The law, enacted nearly 14 years ago, is even more deeply integrated into the nation’s health care system than it was when President Trump took office, vowing to eliminate Obamacare. But he and the Republicans who controlled Congress tried unsuccessfully for months to come up with an alternative, but ultimately ended up repealing the Affordable Care Act. Failed to replace.
Most of the public, especially Republican voters and many Republican legislators, have abandoned efforts to repeal and replace this law. And President Trump’s comments gave President Joe Biden and Congressional Democrats another opportunity to criticize President Trump and the Republican Party for trying to take away people’s health insurance.
Obamacare got off to a rocky start, with enrollment falling below expectations on federal and state exchanges, insurers leaving the market, and many Republican-led states refusing to expand Medicaid. , and has since stabilized.
Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, more than 40 million Americans now have health insurance, up from just under 27 million in 2017, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. Obamacare’s popularity increased after Congressional Democrats expanded federal premium subsidies in 2021.
It protects people with pre-existing conditions from being turned down or charged higher premiums by insurance companies, allows children to remain on their parents’ insurance plan until age 26, and provides a range of preventive services for free. Many more people are benefiting from the provisions of the law.
“We are closer than ever to achieving the ACA’s ambitious 2010 goals,” said Rodney Whitlock, vice president at McDermott + Consulting and health policy advisor to the Republican Senate Finance Committee. “There is,” he said. Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa. “In 2017, it was still in its infancy. Now it is mature and stable.”
This is why repealing the Affordable Care Act will be more difficult than it is now.
Record interest in Obamacare coverage: More people than ever are getting insurance through the Affordable Care Act exchanges. About 15.7 million people were enrolled in Obamacare plans as of February 2023, a 13% increase from the previous year, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversees the system. Additionally, the number of subscribers from March 2023 to September increased by 1.5 million compared to the same period in 2022.
Americans also continue to flock to the exchanges for coverage of 2024. As of mid-December, more than 15.3 million people enrolled in Obamacare plans in states using the federal exchange healthcare.gov during this season’s open enrollment period, which begins Nov. 1 and runs through mid-January. did. This is an increase of 33% compared to around the same period last year.
Much of this interest is fueled by large federal premium subsidies available through 2025. Biden and Congressional Democrats ramped up aid as part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 and again as part of the Suppressing Inflation Act of 2022. Thanks to subsidies, 4 out of 5 people can find a plan for less than $10 per month. As of February 2023, approximately 91% of enrollees received subsidies.
In 2017, only 10.3 million people enrolled in an Affordable Care Act plan.
Additionally, insureds now have far more choice of insurance companies and policies than they did in 2017. Approximately 210 health insurance issuers will join the Federal Exchange in 2024. The average subscriber has fewer than seven issuers to choose from.
However, in 2017, only 167 issuers participated, leaving the average consumer with only three to choose from. Several major insurance companies, including Aetna, Humana, and United Healthcare, announced they would reduce their participation in 2016.
More states will expand Medicaid: Currently, 40 states have adopted Obamacare provisions that expand Medicaid coverage to more low-income adults. This is 9 more cases than in 2017.
In most states, voters forced Republican-led legislatures to expand Medicaid by approving ballot initiatives over resistance. The trend started in Maine in 2017, but it wasn’t implemented until a Democratic governor took office in 2019. South Dakota was the slowest state to adopt Medicaid expansion at the polls in 2022, followed by Idaho, Nebraska, Utah, Missouri and Oklahoma.
Virginia expanded Medicaid in 2018, and North Carolina expanded Medicaid on Dec. 1. In each of those two states, Democratic and Republican officials worked together to introduce the provision after years of resistance by Republicans.
As of September 2022, approximately 18.8 million newly eligible Americans enrolled in Medicaid nationwide, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. In 2017, that number was 12.2 million.
Higher likability: Nearly 60% of adults have a favorable opinion of the May 2023 Affordable Care Act, the highest percentage since the law was passed in 2010, according to a KFF Health Tracking poll. It was close to
This is a big change from December 2016, when only 43% had a favorable opinion of Obamacare.
Another change is that the future of the law matters more to Democratic voters than Republican voters, according to a separate KFF poll. Overall, 49% of voters said the issue was “very important,” but by party, 70% of Democratic voters felt that way, compared to just 32% of Republican voters. I was feeling it. Obamacare has long been a key health care issue for Republican voters.
The Supreme Court leaves the law alone: After Congress failed to repeal Obamacare, a coalition of Republican-led states and the Trump administration attempted to repeal it through the U.S. court system.
The states argued that the law’s separate mandate became unconstitutional in 2017 when Congress reduced the penalty for not having insurance to $0. They also argued that this obligation is intertwined with many other provisions and that the entire law should be repealed.
However, the Supreme Court dismissed the case in 2021, saying the challengers had no legal right to sue.
The case marks the third time the law has survived a significant challenge at the Supreme Court.
CNN’s Alayna Treene and Veronica Stracqualursi contributed to this article.
