Speaker Johnson disputes accusation he’ll try to repeal ObamaCare

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is disputing Democrats’ assertion that he wants to repeal ObamaCare after Vice President Harris’s campaign seized on comments he made at a campaign stop this week.

“Despite the dishonest characterizations from the Harris campaign, the audio and transcript make clear that I offered no such promise to end ObamaCare, and in fact acknowledged that the policy is ‘deeply ingrained’ in our health care system,” Johnson said in a statement to The Hill. 

“Still, House Republicans will always seek to reduce the costs and improve the quality and availability of health care for all Americans. Anyone who has been a patient or known a loved one who has struggled with health issues understands why this is so important,” Johnson said.

ObamaCare, also known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA), came up Monday as Johnson was fielding questions at a campaign stop in Bethlehem, Pa., and was asked about former President Trump’s plans for health care reform.

“Health care reform’s going to be part of the agenda,” Johnson said. “When I say we’ve got a very aggressive first 100 days agenda, we’ve got a lot of things on the table.”

“Trump’s going to go big,” Johnson later said. “He’s only going to have one more term, and so he’s going to be thinking about legacy.”

“No ObamaCare?” a person in the crowd asked.

Johnson repeated, “No ObamaCare,” as he rolled his eyes and tilted his head, continuing, “The ACA is so deeply ingrained. We need massive reform to make this work, and we’ve got a lot of ideas on how to do that.”

The Harris campaign blasted Johnson’s comments in a release Tuesday, arguing it showed a Republican plan to get rid of ObamaCare.

“Health care is on the ballot this November. Speaker Mike Johnson is making it clear – if Donald Trump wins, he and his Project 2025 allies in Congress will make sure there is ‘no Obamacare,’” Harris campaign spokesperson Sarafina Chitika said in a statement, citing an NBC News article that first reported the comments and video of the exchange.

In response to Johnson’s pushback on Wednesday, Chitika stood her ground: “Mike Johnson probably didn’t mean to give the American people a sneak peak of his and Donald Trump’s Project 2025 plans to rip away health care coverage, jack up costs for millions of Americans, and eliminate protections for preexisting conditions. But voters heard it from his own mouth: If Trump wins there will be ‘no Obamacare,’ plain and simple. We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.”

But while Johnson says he did not commit to repeal the ACA, he did talk about changes to the health care system.

At the campaign event, Johnson referenced a “menu” of health care reforms proposed by the GOP Doctors Caucus, composed of members of congress who are physicians.

“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. That's the free market. Trump's going to be for the free market. You heard a little sample of that last night,” Johnson said, “We want to take a blowtorch to the regulatory state.”

The back-and-forth, though, highlights the difficulty Republicans have had in articulating plans for the now-popular health care law that they unsuccessfully attempted to repeal during Trump’s White House stint.

ObamaCare has been one of the top achievements for Democrats, but it wasn't always so popular.

Almost as soon as the law was passed in 2010, it became a political albatross for Democrats. It cost them control of the House and Senate, and eventually the presidency, as Trump won the White House in 2016 with the help of a pledge to “repeal and replace” the health law. 

But after Trump and congressional Republicans failed to repeal the law in 2017 by a single vote, its popularity soared. Democrats won back control of the House in the 2018 midterms by campaigning on protecting preexisting conditions. The White House last month touted a report showing nearly 50 million people have had coverage through the law over the past decade.

Harris has promised to build on the law and strengthen it if elected.

When pressed by ABC moderators during September’s presidential debate, Trump acknowledged he doesn’t currently have a plan to replace ObamaCare if it were repealed, only “concepts of a plan.”  

Trump has been criticizing the law lately while also claiming he “saved” it from failing.  

The Republican presidential nominee has never been specific about how he’d replace health coverage for tens of millions of Americans.  

Updated at 4:20 p.m.