{"id":24641,"date":"2025-11-20T10:37:46","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T18:37:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/trump-and-republicans-once-more-face-tough-political-fight-health-care\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T10:37:47","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T18:37:47","slug":"trump-and-republicans-once-more-face-tough-political-fight-health-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/trump-and-republicans-once-more-face-tough-political-fight-health-care\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump and Republicans once more face tough political fight health care"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trump and Republicans Face Tough Political Fight on Health Care<\/h1>\n

Introduction to the Issue<\/h2>\n

President Donald Trump is once more targeting former President Barack Obama\u2019s signature health care law, picking a political fight before next year\u2019s elections that is reminiscent of one he lost in his first term. Back then, Trump and fellow Republicans tried but failed to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, a stinging defeat viewed as contributing to the party\u2019s losses in 2018.<\/p>\n

Scaling Back Ambition<\/h2>\n

This time, Trump seems to be scaling back his ambition to repeal and replace the law. But he is struggling to ease voters\u2019 concerns over the high cost of living \u2014 combined with a looming deadline to extend expiring subsidies that help people pay for their \u201cObamacare\u201d premiums \u2014 and it is not clear how he plans to prevent history from repeating itself.<\/p>\n

Concerns Over Affordability<\/h3>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t address an affordability crisis by making health care less affordable,\u201d said Jonathan Oberlander, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill whose work has focused on health care policy and the politics of the Obama-era health overhaul. Consumers insured through the law\u2019s marketplaces have received notices of hefty premium increases for next year if the subsidies are not extended by Jan. 1 \u2014 a reprieve that Trump said Tuesday he would not support. Unless he changes his mind, that leaves it to Congress to find a solution or let the tax credits expire, raising the rates of 24 million people covered through ACA exchanges.<\/p>\n

Concepts of a Plan<\/h4>\n

During his White House campaign last year, Trump was calling to repeal the law, but said he only had the \u201cconcepts of a plan\u201d to do so. He has yet to elaborate. The president has since focused on overhauling the COVID-era subsidies that have helped keep down premiums. Democrats forced the recent government shutdown by demanding an extension and have linked that to broader concerns about affordability that were front and center during elections this month as Democrats had big victories.<\/p>\n

Call it Trumpcare<\/h4>\n

\u201cCongress, do not waste your time and energy on anything else,\u201d he wrote on social media. Republicans in Congress are working behind the scenes with the White House to devise an answer. There is no guarantee they will succeed. Sens. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and Bill Cassidy, R-La., have floated separate proposals that would create savings accounts along the lines of what Trump says he would support.<\/p>\n

The Debate and Its Challenges<\/h2>\n

House Republicans are working on a series of bills \u201cthat would actually lower costs for families,\u201d said Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La. \u201cWe\u2019re going to keep bringing those bills over the next few months.\u201d House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York panned Trump\u2019s idea of giving money directly to those buying insurance. He said people can already access the tax break on a monthly basis to defray the costs of the policies. \u201cDonald Trump has zero idea what he\u2019s talking about,\u201d Jeffries said. \u201cIt\u2019s all fantasy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Unwinding of Obamacare<\/h3>\n

The debate underscores how hard it is to unwind Obamacare. Democrats may have unintentionally put a spotlight on the problems in the law in their shutdown fight by drawing attention to the need for subsidies to make the coverage affordable, said Tevi Troy of the Ronald Reagan Institute. \u201cRepublicans have been scared about talking about the issue,\u201d said Troy, who was a deputy health secretary in Republican President George W. Bush\u2019s administration. \u201cAnd this fight raised the issue again in a way that is favorable for Republicans because eight years later the prices have not gone down\u201d since Trump\u2019s first-term repeal effort.<\/p>\n

Bipartisan Compromise<\/h4>\n

Troy said more Republicans are starting to realize they need to do something about the high costs of coverage, but will need to find some sort of bipartisan compromise to get it passed. Oberlander, the North Carolina professor, said the \u201cnever-ending war over Obamacare\u201d since it was signed into law 15 years ago has been fueled partly by problems with it, but largely by the hyperpartisan era of modern politics. \u201cThis is one front in a broader partisan war in American politics,\u201d Oberlander said of the ACA. \u201cPartisan polarization makes it hard to come to bipartisan compromise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/h2>\n

If Trump and Republicans attempt to repeal Obamacare again, they will have a much harder political fight than in 2017, when then-Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., doomed the effort with a decisive thumbs-down, Oberlander said. There are now more than twice as many people getting insurance through the ACA as there were then, and some of the law\u2019s provisions are popular, such as the ban on denying coverage or raising rates for people with preexisting health conditions. \u201cYou cannot go all the way back to 2009,\u201d Oberlander said. \u201cAnd whatever Republicans do, they have to work with that reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

FAQs<\/h2>\n