On the third day of Trump’s chaos convention, the Administration will try to hide its broken promises on health care and their repeated efforts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act that has created a crisis in Maine and across the country. 

Despite making a number of ambitious promises about health care when he took office––from "insurance for everybody" to "beautifully" covering pre-existing conditions to "nobody will be worse off financially"––Trump has spent every waking moment of his presidency trying to undermine the Affordable Care Act. His sabotage has hiked premiums around the country and threatens to strip health coverage from nearly 100,000 Mainers and millions of Americans.

“Since he took office, Donald Trump has fought tooth and nail to make health care less affordable and less accessible for Mainers,” said Maine Democratic Party Executive Director Lisa Roberts. “With the help of his Republican allies in Congress, Trump has attempted to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, which thousands of Mainers rely on to get much needed care. Joe Biden believes that health care should be affordable and accessible for all Americans, and that’s why we have to do everything we can to send him to the White House this November.”

BACKGROUND ON TRUMP’S BROKEN PROMISES ON HEALTH CARE

PROMISE: Trump claimed that "we’re going to have insurance for everybody."

PROMISE: A Trump administration official said that "We don't want anyone who currently has insurance to not have insurance."

PROMISE: Trump guaranteed that he would cover pre-existing conditions and "cover it beautifully."

REALITY: Trump has spent the bulk of his Presidency trying to dismantle the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which would cause millions of Americans to lose their health insurance, and remove important protections for people with pre-existing conditions.

  • Trump has aggressively pursued various strategies for repealing the ACA without providing a plan to replace it.
     
    • His administration and legislative Republicans attempted to pass two bills to repeal the law, cutting most of the benefits and coverage the ACA provided without providing replacements.
       
    • After failing to legislatively repeal the ACA, Republicans undermined the law by voting to repeal the individual mandate in their 2017 tax bill. As a result, the Trump administration is suing to invalidate the entire law on the basis that the tax bill rendered it unconstitutional.
       
  • If Trump is successful and the ACA is repealed, 23 million Americans, including nearly 100,000 Mainers, would lose access to their health insurance.
     
  • Additionally, a study found that Maine would be "hit harder than almost any other state" if the lawsuit to overturn the ACA is successful, increasing the number of uninsured Mainers by 164%.

PROMISE: Trump’s Secretary of Health and Human Services insisted that "nobody will be worse off financially" because of the administration’s actions.

REALITY: As a result of Trump’s sabotage of the ACA, health insurance premiums have gone up in Maine and around the country.

  • One estimation found that the Trump administration’s undermining would raise premiums for Maine families by an annual average of $3,780.

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