Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump admitted Tuesday night he still has no healthcare plan, but “concepts of a plan.”
In the lone presidential debate scheduled between Democrat Kamala Harris and the Republican Trump, the former President Tuesday night said he still has no health plan after four years as President from 2017 to 2021 and the last nearly four years running as a candidate to return to the White House. Trump also repeatedly bashed the Affordable Care Act, the sweeping health plan signed into law by President Barack Obama, in the years leading up to his 2020 election.
Yet despite his criticism of the ACA, also known as Obamacare, Trump still has no plan.
“We’re looking at different plans,” Trump said during his debate with Harris without offering specifics. “I have concepts of a plan. I would only come up with something that’s better . . . there are concepts and options we have to do that. And you will be hearing that in the not so distant future.”
In the past, Trump has said he wants to get rid of the Affordable Care Act and for years before he was elected in 2020 said he wanted to see the law repealed. And during his administration, Trump and the Republican-led Congress unsuccessfully attempted to repeal the ACA several times. Trump has also said more recently the health law is “too expensive” through he never offers solutions on how he would improve or replace the landmark legislation signed into law by President Obama in 2010.
Tuesday night was no different. Trump again said he thought the ACA was too expensive and that he has ideas for something better and less expensive but offered no specifics.
Meanwhile, Harris, the U.S. Vice President, Tuesday night said she would continue to support private health insurance options in addition to the existing healthcare coverage options that includes Medicare insurance for the elderly and Medicaid for the poor. Harris said she would “maintain and grow the Affordable Care Act.”
There’s been record enrollment for individual coverage purchased on exchanges under the ACA in part because tax credits have continued and been enhanced to more Americans under the Biden-Harris administration. And that has helped such coverage to hit record enrollment of more than 20 million Americans this year.
The so-called “enhanced premium tax credits” have reduced monthly premium payments for millions of individuals and families since 2021. Just this week, a new report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded Urban Institute says Americans with annual incomes of about $60,000 or more, “those aged 50+ stand to see the greatest cost-savings from healthcare tax credits that lower monthly payments for consumers.”
“The tax credits lowered average out-of-pocket premium payments by 60% for 64-year-olds and 57% for 60-year-olds,” the Urban Institute said in statement accompanying their report, which was released Monday. “Conversely, the tax credits lowered payments for 30-year-olds by just 3%.”
“Without the tax credits, an average 60-year-old with an annual income of roughly $60,000 would have to spend 20% of their annual earnings on health insurance premiums,” the Urban Institute said. “A 60-year-old with an individual income of just over $75,000 would have to spend 16% of their income on premiums.”
Losing the tax credits could force some Americans to drop coverage altogether, Urban Institute researchers said.
“If the enhanced credits are allowed to expire after 2025, many Marketplace enrollees, particularly older adults and those in high-cost states, would face extremely high out-of-pocket premiums forcing many out of coverage,” Jessica Banthin, senior fellow at the Urban Institute, said in a statement accompanying the report.
