Former President Trump emphasized late Tuesday night that he wants to “replace” the Affordable Care Act — more commonly known as ObamaCare — rather than “terminate” it entirely.
“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. “America will have one of the best Healthcare Plans anywhere in the world. Right now it has one of the WORST!”
“I don’t want to terminate Obamacare, I want to REPLACE IT with MUCH BETTER HEALTHCARE,” Trump added in a separate post. “Obamacare Sucks!!!”
Trump, the leading 2024 GOP candidate, wrote over the weekend that he was “seriously looking at alternatives” to one of former President Obama’s signature achievements. He claimed the failure to repeal the health care law in 2017 was a “low point for the Republican Party.”
Republicans have largely given up campaigning against ObamaCare after the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) famously tanked the GOP effort in 2017. Three subsequent attempts to repeal the law by the GOP have also failed in court.
Several GOP senators were caught off guard by Trump’s comments, noting there had been no serious discussions about replacing ObamaCare in recent years.
“I’m for lowering costs and making our health care system more efficient, but I’m not sure,” Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.) said in reference to the former president’s posts. “I’d want to know what the proposal is.”
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, also seemed less than optimistic about finding an alternative to ObamaCare and it passing both chambers.
“It’s a narrowly divided Congress. It’s unlikely to happen,” he said.