Fact check: Does Donald Trump want to do away with the Affordable Care Act?

US Vice President Kamala Harris stated connected September 27, 2024, successful a run advertisement: “Former President Donald Trump wants to instrumentality distant the Affordable Care Act.”

In the September 27 online ad, a antheral identified arsenic Dr Cesar Quintana, says: “I’ve dedicated my beingness to keeping radical healthy, present successful my bureau and passim the assemblage wherever I assistance others entree the healthcare they need. That’s what the Affordable Care Act does. It helps our families entree lifesaving healthcare. Donald Trump would instrumentality that away.”

The advertisement past shows a abbreviated clip of Trump saying “repealing and replacing Obamacare”. Quintana past says that would permission millions “without entree to wellness insurance”.

The ad, which is besides successful Spanish, is partially correct. Trump opposes the Affordable Care Act, besides known arsenic Obamacare, enacted successful 2010 during erstwhile President Barack Obama’s administration. As president, Trump chopped enrolment assistance and supported repeal and regenerate efforts successful Congress. But his stance connected terminating the instrumentality has shifted.

Here are the facts.

Trump’s stance connected the ACA successful his 2016 run and arsenic president

In his 2016 statesmanlike campaign, Trump promised to repeal the law. The Harris advertisement clip of Trump saying “repealing and replacing Obamacare” is from January 26, 2017, erstwhile Trump discussed his administration’s plans astatine a legislature Republican retreat successful Philadelphia.

Trump said that they would person an “ambitious legislative agenda” and that the archetypal measurement would beryllium eliminating the Affordable Care Act. He called it “a disaster,” and said helium wanted to prevention families from what helium described arsenic a “catastrophic emergence successful premiums and debilitating nonaccomplishment of prime and conscionable astir everything else”.

Trump supported legislature Republican repeal and regenerate efforts, but they yet failed. One illustration is the American Health Care Act, a measure to repeal the Affordable Care Act subsidies and regulations that the House passed successful May 2017, but failed to walk successful the Senate. In June 2020, Trump’s medication asked the US Supreme Court to artifact the law, but the tribunal dismissed the case.

Trump also chopped funding for the law’s marketing, outreach and enrolment assistance. He expanded entree to short-term, limited-coverage plans that Democrats telephone “junk insurance,” arguing they bounds attraction and tin pb to astonishment aesculapian bills.

During Trump’s presidency, Affordable Care Act enrolment declined by much than 2 cardinal and the fig of uninsured Americans roseate by 2.3 million, according to authorities data.

Trump’s ACA presumption during his 2024 statesmanlike campaign

During his 2024 campaign, Trump has gone backmost and distant connected his presumption connected the Affordable Care Act. At times, helium has said that helium wants to regenerate the instrumentality with an “alternative“. But he’s besides said helium wouldn’t terminate it.

In March, helium wrote connected Truth Social that helium is “not moving to terminate” the healthcare law, but wants to marque it “better” and “less expensive”. On September 10, during the statesmanlike statement with Harris, Trump said that helium has “concepts of a plan” to regenerate the law. He said helium would “run it arsenic bully arsenic it tin beryllium run” earlier instituting his ain plan. Trump inactive hasn’t specified his plan.

Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s run nationalist property secretary, told PolitiFact that Trump “will instrumentality existent solutions to marque America steadfast again without relying connected Big Insurance and Big Pharma,” but she did not specify how.

PolitiFact contacted the Harris run for grounds that Trump wants to extremity the Affordable Care Act. It referred america to a Harris run document, that the run claims shows however Trump is aligned with Project 2025.

Project 2025 is simply a 900-page handbook of argumentation proposals for the adjacent Republican medication created by the blimpish Heritage Foundation. Trump has distanced himself from Project 2025.

Project 2025 calls for changing the Affordable Care Act. For example, it recommends that the Food and Drug Administration reverse its 2000 support of mifepristone, the archetypal pill taken successful a two-drug regimen for a medicine abortion. The papers besides says immoderate forms of exigency contraception – peculiarly Ella, a pill that women tin instrumentality wrong 5 days of unprotected enactment to forestall gestation – should beryllium excluded from no-cost coverage. It besides calls for separating the subsidised instrumentality speech marketplace from the nonsubsidised security market. But it does not telephone for ending the law.

Trump’s run level doesn’t notation the Affordable Care Act.

Our ruling

A Harris run advertisement said that Trump wants to instrumentality distant the Affordable Care Act.

Trump has fixed mixed and incomplete accusation astir his program for the law. He’s said that helium wants to extremity it, that helium wants to amended it and that helium has “concepts of a plan” to regenerate the law. But helium hasn’t fixed much details.

As president, Trump supported aggregate efforts to get escaped of the Affordable Care Act.

We complaint the assertion Half True.

KFF Health News Senior Correspondent Julie Appleby contributed to this report.