Former President Donald Trump has recently touted the idea of replacing Obamacare ahead of the 2024 primary season in Iowa and New Hampshire, elevating the contentious topic of healthcare in the presidential campaign.
Repealing and replacing former President Barack Obama‘s 2010 domestic achievement was a central talking point of the 2016 presidential campaign cycle, with each candidate proposing an alternative.
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After Trump’s victory, congressional Republicans failed to pass an Obamacare replacement proposal in 2017. Shortly thereafter, Democrats retook the majority in the lower chamber in the 2018 midterm elections, closing Trump’s opportunity to fulfill his campaign promise before the COVID-19 pandemic overshadowed other healthcare priorities.
Since then, Republicans have moved on from the idea of replacing Obamacare and its protections for people with preexisting conditions. But Trump’s recent comments have rekindled the debate, a development welcomed by President Joe Biden and Democrats, who see the subject as a political winner for them.
Here is where each of the candidates in 2024 stands on Obamacare.
Former President Donald Trump
Trump posted on Truth Social on Monday that Obamacare is “too expensive” and “not good healthcare,” saying he will “come up with a much better, and less expensive, alternative.”
Trump promised in late November that “getting much better Healthcare than Obamacare for the American people will be a priority of the Trump Administration,” adding that the United States will have “one of the best Healthcare Plans anywhere in the world.”
“People will be happy, not sad!” Trump said on Monday.
Gov. Ron DeSantis
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) said earlier this month that his plan would “supersede Obamacare” by lowering prices and increasing transparency while requiring coverage of preexisting conditions.
“And we’re going to look at the big institutions that are causing prices to be high: Big Pharma, big insurance, and big government,” DeSantis told Meet the Press in early December.
“If you want to lower prices, you need to have markets actually work,” DeSantis said, adding that patients should have a share in lower premium prices if they actively compare prices when seeking medical treatment.
DeSantis has continued to promise that a more comprehensive document laying out his entire healthcare plan will be made public “in the spring.”
Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley
Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley has repeatedly supported repealing Obamacare but has not released details of her plan for the 2024 campaign trail.
Under Haley’s governorship, South Carolina was one of the 10 states to refuse to implement an Obamacare exchange program and did not expand Medicaid. Haley has also said that it is “unrealistic” for any candidate not to propose changes to entitlement programs, such as Obamacare, Medicare, and Social Security.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie also attacked Trump this summer for failing to replace Obamacare early in his presidency.
Christie has chided Obamacare as a failure since 2014 despite embracing the state exchange program and expanding Medicaid in the Garden State during his term in office.
After losing his 2016 presidential bid, Christie said in 2017 that he would be available to assist then-President Trump in the implementation of a replacement for the Obamacare system.
President Joe Biden
Biden has praised the original version of Obamacare passed under his vice presidency and his own reforms to the act while president, including efforts to make COVID-era decreases to premiums permanent.
The White House last week celebrated a record-breaking 19 million people enrolling in an Obamacare plan, growing by more than 7 million since Biden took office in 2021.
“Extreme Republicans want to stop these efforts in their tracks,” Biden said earlier this month. “While I’ve called for making lower premiums permanent, they’ve repeatedly pushed to repeal my Affordable Care Act improvements.”
Biden also pledged that his administration will continue to expand health coverage “because every family deserves the dignity and peace of mind that comes with health insurance.”
Other presidential hopefuls
Republican hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy accused the former president in September of making “a false promise” on repealing Obamacare, saying that any campaign promise is false if it is contingent on Congress.
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Independent challenger Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has criticized the degree to which Obamacare has elevated the pharmaceutical industry and entrenched it into Democratic Party politics.
Meanwhile, Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN), a long-shot primary challenger against Biden, has strongly supported “Medicare for All,” in opposition to the president and more centrist members of the party.
