Former President Trump vowed Monday to replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA) with his own “much better” alternative program, reviving his push to slash the now-popular health care option used by millions of Americans.
“Obamacare is too expensive, and otherwise, not good healthcare,” Trump, the front-runner for next year’s GOP presidential nomination, wrote in a post on his social media platform, Truth Social.
“I will come up with a much better, and less expensive, alternative! People will be happy, not sad!”
While attacking President Obama’s signature health care law had once been a popular political message among GOP voters, the law now has significant support across the country, with 60 percent of Americans holding a favorable view of the health law.
After several failed “repeal and replace” efforts in Congress and a number of losing battles in court, Republicans have largely given up on the issue, focusing instead of issues such as the economy and crime.
Last month, Trump similarly resurfaced his criticism of the health care law, catching many GOP lawmakers off guard when pressed by reporters on his policy proposal.
Trump, facing some pressure, tried to walk back his comments, saying, “I don’t want to terminate Obamacare, I want to REPLACE IT with MUCH BETTER HEALTHCARE.”
“Getting much better Healthcare than Obamacare for the American people will be a priority of the Trump Administration. It is not a matter of cost, it is a matter of HEALTH,” he wrote on Truth Social last month. “America will have one of the best Healthcare Plans anywhere in the world. Right now it has one of the WORST!”
GOP lawmakers made clear that was unlikely to happen.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said, “Whether we can build a political consensus for something else or not remains to be seen.”
Sen. Bill Cassidy (La.), the ranking Republican on the Senate Health Committee, similarly expressed doubt over the likelihood of finding an alternative to ObamaCare.
“It’s a narrowly divided Congress. It’s unlikely to happen,” he said.