President-elect Donald Trump's return to the White House could embolden Republicans who want to weaken or repeal the Affordable Care Act. Trump, long an ACA opponent, expressed interest during the campaign in retooling the health law. In addition, some high-ranking Republican lawmakers — who now have control over both the House and the Senate — have said revamping the landmark 2010 legislation known as Obamacare would be a priority.
They say the law is too expensive and represents government overreach. The governing trifecta sets the stage for potentially seismic changes that could curtail the law's Medicaid expansion, raise the uninsured rate, weaken patient protections, and increase premium costs for millions of people. But implementing such sweeping changes would still require overcoming procedural and political hurdles.
"The Republican plans — they don't say they are going to repeal the ACA, but their collection of policies could amount to the same thing or worse," said Sarah Lueck, vice president for health policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a research and policy institute. "It could happen through legislation and regulation. We're on alert for anything and everything.
It could take many forms." Congressional Republicans have held dozens of votes over the years to try to repeal the law. They were unable to get it done in 2017 after Trump became president, even though they held both chambers and the White House, in large part because some GOP lawm.
