House Speaker Mike Johnson is promising to take away healthcare for millions of Americans if Donald Trump wins the presidential election next week and Republicans control Congress.
“Health care reform’s going to be a big part of the agenda. When I say we’re going to have a very aggressive first 100 days agenda, we got a lot of things still on the table,” Johnson said in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania while campaigning for Republican representative Ryan Mackenzie, according to video footage obtained by NBC News.
An attendee asked Johnson if that means “no Obamacare” referring to the healthcare law Democrats passed in 2010.
“No Obamacare,” Johnson replied, rolling his eyes according to the outlet. “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.”
“If you take government bureaucrats out of the health care equation and you have doctor-patient relationships, it’s better for everybody. More efficient, more effective,” Johnson added. “That’s the free market. Trump’s going to be for the free market.”
This year a record 21.3 million Americans signed up for the Affordable Care Act to get healthcare coverage.
As Democrats are campaigning on protecting and expanding Obamacare, Trump is doubling down on destroying it.
During his one term as president, Trump tried and failed to repeal the ACA despite having a GOP controlled the House and the Senate for two years.
But Johnson insists that this time will be different.
“Trump’s going to big,” he said. “I mean, he’s only going to have one more term. Can’t run for re-election. And so he’s going to be thinking about legacy and we’re going to fix these things.”
“We want to take a blow torch to the regulatory state,” Johnson added. “These agencies have been weaponized against the people, it’s crushing the free market; it’s like a boot on the neck of job creators and entrepreneurs and risk takers. And so health care is one of the sectors and we need this across the board.”
Trump has revived his promise to repeal Obamacare, saying it “sucks.” He vows to replace it with a better plan but has yet to unveil one saying only that he has “concepts of a plan.”
