Analysis: The administration’s renewed focus on eliminating Obamacare is a baffling political move
By Philip Bump Philip Bump National correspondent focused largely on the numbers behind politics Email Bio Follow March 26 at 1:18 PM President Trump clearly recognizes, at least in the abstract, that providing affordable health care is a political winner. During the 2016 campaign, he embraced his party’s push to repeal the Affordable Care Act but couched it in sweeping, almost Bernie Sanders-ian language.
No replacement legislation that would meet Trump’s lofty goals ensued. Instead, he and his administration last year tried to further undercut the law by supporting a lawsuit filed by the attorneys general from 20 states aimed at finding Obamacare unconstitutional. That forced the question of Obamacare’s benefits into the national spotlight during the 2018 election — and probably not to Trump’s or Republicans’ benefit.
On Election Day, the importance of health care was revealed in exit polling. Four in 10 voters said that health care was the most important issue, and Democrats won those voters by a 3-to-1 margin. In other words, a full 30 percent of the electorate said that they considered health care to be the most important issue and then voted for a Democrat in their local House race.
The aforementioned appeal of O’Connor’s decision is moving forward. On Monday, the Trump administration weighed in on the appeal: It supports throwing out the law entirely.
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