Against a backdrop of a monthlong government shutdown, millions of American consumers are poised to choose their health care coverage for the next year as the open enrollment period gets underway. For millions of families, however, this is an occasion more for dread than excitement, due to dramatically higher prices.
On Thursday night, Donald Trump published an item to his social media platform that suggested he is aware of the problem but that failed to present much of a solution. The missive read in its entirety:
As I have said for years, OBAMACARE IS A DISASTER! Rates are going through the roof for really bad healthcare!!! Do something Democrats!!!
He managed to say quite a bit in three sentences, so let’s unpack this.
First, the Republican claimed that the Affordable Care Act is a “disaster.” That’s plainly false: The ACA hasn’t just worked effectively for years, it also reached new levels of popularity with the American public over the summer. (Support for the reform law reached 66% in June, making it more than 20 points more popular than the president who hates it, and raising the question of whether the president is just jealous.)
Second, Trump said coverage costs are “going through the roof for really bad healthcare.” The first part of this is true — consumers are facing sticker shock, though leading Republican officials have spent recent weeks suggesting this isn’t a big deal — but the idea that the care itself is “really bad” is baseless. People raise concerns all the time about costs and access, but there’s no evidence to suggest Americans are dissatisfied with the services provided by medical professionals themselves.








