Johnson vows health care overhaul if Republicans win: ‘No Obamacare’
By Sarah Ferris, CNN
(CNN) — House Speaker Mike Johnson told a group of supporters on Monday night that Republicans will seek “massive reform” to the Affordable Care Act if Donald Trump is reelected — previewing a major piece of the GOP’s legislative plans for next year.
During a campaign swing in Pennsylvania, the GOP speaker vowed that overhauling the 14-year-old health care law would be part of a “very aggressive” first 100-days agenda if Republicans win back control of the White House, according to a video of the event obtained by CNN. Johnson was speaking at a GOP campaign event at Trump’s volunteer headquarters in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
At one point, an attendee asked Johnson directly: “No Obamacare?” And the speaker, wearing a personalized Trump-Vance jacket, responded: “No Obamacare.”
Johnson’s comments on the landmark 2010 health care law known as Obamacare — which has been a perennial GOP punching bag — come as both parties are making their closing arguments to voters. And it’s particularly notable after the Republican party’s high-profile failure to repeal key parts of the health care law during Trump’s first term in office.
“Health care reform is going to be a big part of the agenda,” Johnson said at the event. It was Johnson’s third time visiting the critical swing seat in the Lehigh Valley in eastern Pennsylvania as he looks to help GOP challenger Ryan Mackenzie unseat Democratic Rep. Susan Wild.
Republican leaders attempted to dismantle Obamacare when they had full control of Washington in 2017, but were stymied by then-Sen. John McCain, who opposed the GOP’s effort because the party didn’t have a substantive plan to replace the law. Since then, Republicans have shifted focus away from health policy, especially as they eye a big tax overhaul early next year.
But Johnson made clear this week that the GOP isn’t giving up on targeting the law.
“The ACA is so deeply ingrained; we need massive reform to make this work. And we got a lot of ideas on how to do that,” Johnson said.
The speaker offered no specifics of the GOP’s legislative plans but noted that a group of Republican physicians in the House, known as the GOP Doctors Caucus, has been drafting potential legislative ideas.
And he said it wouldn’t just be health care getting a massive “free market” overhaul.
“We need this across the board. And Trump’s gonna go big. I mean, he’s only gonna have one more term, right?” Johnson said.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, the top House Democrat, also seized on the comments in a campaign trek across Michigan.
“Just yesterday, the top Republican in the House said one of the first things they’ll do is repeal and get rid of the Affordable Care Act as we know it. This is still on their mind,” Jeffries said at a union hall in Lansing, Michigan, according to video obtained by CNN. “We know they’ll do it because I’m convinced that if Roe v. Wade can fall, then anything can fall.”
The once-contentious health care law has not been a major theme of the 2024 campaign. That’s in part because of the popularity of several provisions, including protections for people with pre-existing conditions.
There’s also the political reality: Republicans in Congress have failed to do much more than chip away at the edges of the law, while the Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld the legislation.
Taking a different tact than his previous campaigns, Trump himself has stressed to voters that he wouldn’t eliminate the health care law.
In a video posted to Truth Social in April, Trump said he is “not running to terminate the ACA” as Democrats have alleged.
Instead, he said: “We’re going to make it much better, much stronger.”
Even so, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris warned in a recent health care ad blitz that Americans could risk losing their Obamacare protections if Trump wins.
Johnson’s remarks were first reported by NBC News.
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