Trump's ACA Replacement Plan: Insurance for All

In a recent interview with The Washington Post, President-elect Donald Trump pledged that his Affordable Care Act (ACA) replacement plan would provide all Americans with health insurance.

Drastically reducing the uninsured rate is a goal that outgoing President Barack Obama had during the creation of the ACA. Because of the health law, millions of Americans received health coverage they would not have been able to afford, and the uninsured rate plummeted to the lowest levels in history. However, Trump plans to do this on a larger scale.

“We’re going to have insurance for everybody,” Trump told The Post. “There was a philosophy in some circles that if you can’t pay for it, you don’t get it. That’s not going to happen with us.”

People covered under the law “can expect to have great health care. It will be in a much simplified form. Much less expensive and much better,” Trump added in the interview.

While Trump said he plans to provide more expansive health coverage, he did not discuss any concrete plans to do so. In the past, he has vowed to keep provisions that allow young adults to stay on their parents’ insurance until age 26, and those that benefit individuals with pre-existing conditions.

Interestingly, Trump seems to go back and forth with ideas, with some that conform with traditional Republican views, and other that are more in-touch with ideas espoused by Democrats.

In a recent press conference, Trump said he supported increased government involvement with drug costs and Medicare drug spending, a traditionally Democratic view. Some may say that health insurance for all Americans is also a surprising view for a Republican.

However, dismantling the ACA is something GOP lawmakers have been actively trying to accomplish since it was implemented. Repealing parts or all of the ACA has been the subject of more than 60 votes in the House, The Post reported. Trump is expecting that Congress will move quickly to repeal and replace the law.

“The Congress can’t get cold feet because the people will not let that happen,” Trump told The Post.

Although nothing substantial has been announced about the replacement law to date, Trump has said the legislation is nearly finished. What he has divulged includes promises of lower costs.

Despite opposition to an outright ACA repeal by Democrats and some Republicans, Trump is confident that once the replacement law is announced, it will gain bipartisan support.

Trump has also said that the replacement plan will not leave millions uninsured, as was speculated by critics. His stated goal is to provide coverage without causing individuals to experience difficulties affording healthcare.

“It’s not going to be their plan,” Trump said in The Post article. “It’ll be another plan. But they’ll be beautifully covered. I don’t want single-payer. What I do want is to be able to take care of people.”

Lowering costs without sacrificing patient outcomes is central to the replacement plan. Trump’s efforts thus far have focused on pressuring pharmaceutical companies to lower drug costs through public avenues, similar to his stated concerns over the high price tag for a new Air Force One. This public Tweet about the cost of the jet caused Boeing stocks to plummet, according to NPR.

While no concrete plans have been announced, his promises for the replacement plan could generate bipartisan support, since there seems to be a mixing of both parties’ ideals in Trump’s proposal.