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The San Diego Union-Tribune: “The Republican Party is Trump’s party and if he wants to take aim at Obamacare again, GOP leaders may well follow his lead”
Last weekend, Donald Trump loudly proclaimed his promise to rip health care away from millions of Americans – saying Republicans ‘should never give up’ their goal of repealing Obamacare, and Californians are hearing how Republicans will help the disgruntled former president rip their health care apart.
The San Diego Union-Tribune outlined the latest push to destroy the Affordable Care Act — spearheaded by Donald Trump and with no tangible replacement in the works.
It’s an understatement to call this rhetoric unpopular. In a May KFF Health poll, 59% held a favorable opinion of Obamacare, a number 16% higher than when Obama left office in 2017.
Meanwhile, Democrats like Mike Levin are once again the ones stepping up to the plate and pledging to protect the health and wellness of their communities.
DCCC Spokesperson Dan Gottlieb:
“The Affordable Care Act is not only popular with voters — it has saved countless lives and made life more manageable for millions of Americans with pre-existing conditions. The contrast is abundantly clear: while Republicans want to help Trump gut health care in the Golden State, leaders like Mike Levin are fighting to preserve that care and keep Californians safe.”
The San Diego Union-Tribune: Affordable Care Act could become an issue again in San Diego congressional race
Michael Smolens | December 1, 2023
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Out of the blue, former President Donald Trump has raised the prospect of another election-year fight over the Affordable Care Act in battleground congressional districts such as San Diego’s 49th represented by Democrat Mike Levin.
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Other Republicans had shown little appetite for what likely would be another futile, and potentially politically damaging, attempt to overturn what has become known as Obamacare.
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The health care program passed in 2010 under President Barack Obama provides coverage for some 40 million people, according to the Department of Health and Human Services, with polls showing increased public support for the program over the years.
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In recent days, Trump has called for doing away with the ACA, just as he did as president, and replacing it with some other health plan he has not yet produced.
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Among the popular ACA components: insurers cannot refuse coverage for people with pre-existing conditions or charge them more, and must allow coverage for dependents up to age 26.
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The potential loss of those provisions — and coverage in general — was highlighted by Democrats six years ago when House Republicans passed a bill to dismantle the ACA and offered a vastly scaled-back alternative that would have left millions of people without coverage. The measure was defeated in the Senate.
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That vote was one of several factors that helped Democrats retake control of the House in 2018. That’s when Levin was first elected to Congress, flipping what had long been a reliably Republican district that straddles the San Diego-Orange County line and previously had been trending Democratic.
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Levin was among many Democrats who were quick to note that Trump was targeting the ACA again.
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“Over the weekend, Donald Trump doubled down on his commitment to destroy the Affordable Care Act,” Levin said Monday on X (formerly Twitter). “Let me be crystal clear, all Americans deserve access to affordable, quality health care. I’ll fight to make sure they have that access.”
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As a candidate in 2018, he vowed to protect the ACA from future attacks.
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“The bill didn’t pass,” he noted at the time, “but the damage that they’re trying to do to the Affordable Care Act continues.”
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How this may affect the 49th Congressional District race probably depends on whether Trump continues to push against the ACA. Whichever of the handful of Republicans running in the 49th district emerges from the March primary to take on Levin almost certainly would be pressed to take a position on legislation to repeal it.
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The notion that Republicans would make another run at Obamacare, something they have done periodically over the past 13 years, wasn’t even on the campaign radar nationwide. Several news organizations reported the GOP had abandoned its “repeal and replace” strategy after repeated failures.
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Earlier this year, House Republicans introduced a package of bills collectively known as the CHOICE Arrangement Act that could reduce some consumer costs partly by rolling back consumer protections, according to National Public Radio.
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But the Republican Party is Trump’s party and if he wants to take aim at Obamacare again, GOP leaders may well follow his lead. There’s been little public discussion among Republicans in Congress or candidates about what they’ll do.
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Until now, the developing broad campaign themes for Democrats nationally had been focused on infrastructure spending, social program expansion to assist families, and protecting Social Security and Medicare from cuts suggested by Republicans. Warding off further efforts to limit abortion rights and calling attention to Trump’s assault on democracy also are at the top of the Democratic Party’s list.
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Locally, Levin has pushed for expanding clean energy, bolstering assistance for veterans and resolving the nuclear waste storage issue at the shuttered San Onofre nuclear power plant.
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Republicans have been keying on consumer frustrations with continued high prices — despite improving economic indicators — along with concerns about immigration and crime, even though crime rates remain comparatively low from past years. Divisions among Democrats over the Israeli-Hamas conflict may become a wild card for the GOP in next year’s campaign.
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A fight over the Affordable Care Act almost certainly would be an advantage for Democrats. A move to repeal it would seem a dead letter in this Congress, but there’s no guarantee that would be the case if Republicans take full control in Washington.
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In 2017, the GOP held the White House, Senate and House and still couldn’t repeal Obamacare, but their efforts to do so helped knock them out of power. After Democrats took control of the House, they gained the Senate and White House in 2020.
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A poll published in May of this year by KFF, formerly known as the Kaiser Family Foundation, found that 59 percent of those surveyed had a favorable opinion of the Affordable Care Act — 16 points higher than when Obama left office in January 2017. Not surprisingly, there’s a huge split between Democrats who favor the health program and Republicans who don’t.
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