Former President Donald Trump has pledged to dismantle the Affordable Care Act (ACA), instituted by his predecessor Barack Obama, if he secures the presidency in 2024.
This commitment comes despite numerous unsuccessful attempts to abolish the ACA in the past.
"Obamacare is too expensive, and otherwise, not good healthcare," Trump declared on his social media platform, Truth Social.
This declaration, made during the Christmas period, emerges in the wake of Congress's long-standing yet unsuccessful attempts to repeal the ACA, colloquially known as Obamacare.
The Republican party has largely retreated from the battle against Obama's landmark healthcare legislation. However, Trump has assured his followers that he will "come up with a much better, and less expensive, alternative!"
"People will be happy, not sad!" Trump asserted.
In a previous post on Truth Social, Trump stated that providing superior healthcare "than Obamacare for the American people will be a priority of the Trump Administration." The ACA was enacted in March 2010.
"It is not a matter of cost, it is a matter of HEALTH," he emphasized. "America will have one of the best Healthcare Plans anywhere in the world. Right now it has one of the WORST!"
Despite Trump's assertions, GOP lawmakers have indicated that reigniting the battle against Obamacare is not a priority. Sen. Majority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., reportedly expressed his advocacy for reducing healthcare costs "and making our healthcare system more efficient."
"But Im not sure," he responded to Trump's post. "Id want to know what the proposal is."
Similarly, Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., the ranking Republican on the Senate Health Committee, stated that such a healthcare replacement is "unlikely to happen."
Earlier this year, a Texas judge known for previously ruling Obamacare unconstitutional, struck down a key aspect of the healthcare law related to mandatory coverage for contraception and HIV prevention. The judge sided with a conservative activist and a Christian dentist on religious grounds.
This decision challenged Obamacare's mandate for insurers to cover certain preventative care, causing alarm within the Biden administration and in over 20 predominantly Democrat-controlled states.
This legal dispute mirrors previous challenges, notably the lawsuit by the Little Sisters of the Poor in 2020, when the Supreme Court upheld exemptions to Obamacare's insurance requirements for religiously-affiliated groups and select for-profit companies.
As of January 2023, nearly 16 million Americans had enrolled in Obamacare plans for the year, marking a 13% increase from the previous year.
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