Donald Trump has told lie after lie to Mainers over the last four years about his health care plans and record, and with the first debate coming tonight, this may be the week he’s finally held accountable.
When he ran for president in 2016, Trump promised “great health care for a fraction of the price” and that “whoever wants health care is going to have it”. But the moment he took office, Trump began breaking those promises and instead has spent his entire presidency attempting to sabotage and repeal the Affordable Care Act, a move that would lead to nearly 100,000 Mainers losing their insurance in the midst of an ongoing pandemic without a plan to replace it. Trump’s latest attempt to do so, a lawsuit seeking to invalidate the ACA, will be heard by the Supreme Court the week after the election.
His mission to repeal the ACA additionally threatens the Medicaid expansion program that has covered more than 60,000 Mainers, would rip away protections for Americans with pre-existing conditions, increase premiums nationwide, and risks raising out-of-pocket prescription drug costs by $2,000 each year for many older adults on Medicare. And when COVID-19 began spreading across the country, he failed to create a robust coordinated national response, leading to more than 200,000 deaths nationwide and one of the worst coronavirus outbreaks in the world.
“From day one, Trump’s presidency has been a catastrophe for Americans’ health care,” said Maine Democratic Party Chair Kathleen Marra. “His attempts to sabotage the health care law that’s covered tens of thousands of Mainers for the first time and helped to lower the prescription drug costs for older Mainers is unconscionable––especially in the midst of a pandemic that has killed more than 200,000 of our fellow Americans. Tonight on the debate stage, Joe Biden will show the country we need his leadership to clean up the health care mess that Trump has left us in.”
###