During this week’s presidential debate, ABC News’ Linsey Davis reminded Donald Trump that he has “long vowed to repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act. She then asked, “So tonight, nine years after you first started running, do you have a plan, and can you tell us what it is?”
The Republican nominee’s answer meandered for a while — he claimed to have “saved” the ACA during his first term, which was a brazen lie — before assuring voters that he and his team are “working on things.”
Asked in a follow-up question whether he has a plan to replace “Obamacare” or not, the former president replied, “I have concepts of a plan.” He added that Americans should expect to hear more about this “in the not-too-distant future.”
This did not go unnoticed by his Democratic rival. As a Washington Post report noted:
At a Charlotte campaign event, Kamala Harris began mocking Donald Trump’s comments during the Tuesday presidential debate about what he would do with the Affordable Care Act. People in the crowd began yelling ‘Concepts!’ — reprising Trump’s answer that he had ‘concepts’ of a health-care plan.”
The vice president didn’t just highlight her GOP opponent’s rhetoric, she ridiculed Trump and turned him into a punchline. A few hours later, Harris held a second event in North Carolina and did it again.
Around the same time, the Harris campaign issued a press release shining a light on the Republican’s intention to tear down the existing health care system — a fact that is well documented.
A day earlier, as NBC News noted, Trump’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, told CNN that the candidate will share his plan on health care policy in the “not too distant future.” Asked when, she added that the campaign doesn’t yet have a specific date.
I can appreciate why Team Trump feels the need to play this tiresome game, but the Republican and his political operation have been making absurd promises along these lines for so many years, the idea that he’ll soon unveil an actual plan is literally laughable.
Indeed, let’s take a brief stroll down memory lane and take note of the familiarity of the circumstances.
In mid-July 2020, for example, as part of his re-election campaign, Trump appeared on Fox News and said, “We’re signing a health care plan within two weeks, a full and complete health care plan.”
As regular readers might recall, two weeks went by, and the “full and complete” health care plan was nowhere to be found. As July 2020 neared its end, the then-president was pressed for some kind of explanation. He told reporters, “We’re going to be doing a very inclusive health care plan. I’ll be signing it sometime very soon. It might be Sunday [Aug. 2], but it’s going to be very soon.”
On Aug. 3, 2020, Trump presented a new timeline: “I do want to say that we’re going to be introducing a tremendous health care plan sometime prior — hopefully, prior to the end of the month. It’s just about completed now.”
August 2020, of course, came and went without the emergence of the elusive plan. In mid-September 2020, the then-president balked at the idea that he was failing to follow through on his promise. “I have it all ready. I have it all ready,” Trump told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, adding, “I have it all ready.”
That was exactly four years ago this week. He did not have it all ready.
A month later, the Republican told CBS News’ Lesley Stahl his health care blueprint would be “announced very soon.” After Trump abruptly ended the interview, then-White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany handed the “60 Minutes” anchor a thick binder that she said included the White House health care plan. It didn’t.
Four years later, not only is Trump talking about the “concepts” of his non-existent plan, but his campaign team is maintaining the fiction that a blueprint will soon be released to the public.
My advice: Don’t hold your breath waiting for a plan that will never appear.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.