President-elect Donald Trump revealed his first-term plans during his Meet the Press interview. During his debate against Kamala Harris, he infamously touted that he had “concepts of a plan” regarding healthcare. Months later, Trump is still in the conceptualizing stage.
Kristen Welker from NBC News asked Trump about his plans for the Affordable Care Act (ACA). She brought up that replacing the ACA (otherwise known as Obamacare) is no longer possible. She asked Trump if he finally had a full-blown plan for healthcare. Trump vaguely told her, “Yes, we have concepts of a plan that would be better.”
Welker further pressed Trump, “Still just concepts? Do you have a fully developed plan?” Trump answers by calling Obamacare “lousy,” but concedes that he and his team have no better alternative yet. Instead of relaying further details, Trump went to assert that he was the one who “saved” the Affordable Care Act.
Needless to say, social media users were unimpressed by Trump’s response. Comments under the YouTube interview pointed out that Trump has no plan in place. Others on Twitter joked that Trump will be releasing his plans in a couple of weeks.
A promise that is never fulfilled
During the interview, Welker reminded Trump that he had his Department of Justice gut the Affordable Care Act—quite the opposite of Trump’s claim. In his first term, Trump approved the sale of loosely regulated insurance plans. He also reduced outreach through ads and shortened the enrollment period for the ACA.
It’s a full-circle irony that Trump, as early as his first term, has been proposing to replace Obamacare to no avail. He criticized the ACA for being “dysfunctional and expensive.” His promise of an alternative never came during his presidency, and the ACA stayed despite his efforts to sabotage the act. Most notably, Trump asked the US Supreme Court to strike the ACA down amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Unsurprisingly, during his bid for re-election in 2020, Trump has promised vague notions of improved healthcare once more. It’s one of the oldest tricks in his playbook.
Published: Dec 9, 2024 12:04 pm