To hear Republican leaders in Congress tell it, the public can expect terrific ideas about health care policy in the very near future. House Speaker Mike Johnson boasted this week, for example, “We’ve got notebooks full of ideas,” though he didn’t share what they might be.
Around the same time, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer was asked to name something the GOP wants to do to reform the existing health care system. The Minnesota Republican responded, “More choice. More transparency. More competition. There’s all kinds of ideas.”
Whether we’ll get free ice cream and ponies, too, was unclear.
Meanwhile, on the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue in the nation’s capital, the White House has some related ambitions on the same subject. The conservative Washington Times reported earlier this week:
President Trump is ready to propose a new health care policy when the government reopens to replace the ‘broken’ Obamacare system Democrats created, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday. Ms. Leavitt said that negotiating the Obamacare system is ‘untenable.’
While trashing the popular and effective Affordable Care Act, Donald Trump talked about a new model during a Fox News interview, telling host Laura Ingraham that a revised system could be known as “Trumpcare.”
And what, pray tell, might be included under such a plan? For now, the details are in short supply. The president published a few items to his social media platform in which he endorsed sending an undetermined amount of money to consumers, who’d purchase an undetermined amount of care from undetermined providers.
In other words, those hoping to learn how “Trumpcare” would work will need to be patient: Literally every aspect of such a policy is yet to be announced.
As for how long Americans can expect to wait, let’s not forget that it was about a year ago, during a presidential debate, when ABC News’ Linsey Davis reminded Trump that he’d “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 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, Trump replied, “I have concepts of a plan.” He added that Americans should expect to hear more about this “in the not-too-distant future.”
We’re still waiting.
Indeed, we’ve been waiting for quite a while. In mid-July 2020, 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 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 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.” 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 did not. More than five years later, there are suddenly new assurances that a “Trumpcare” blueprint is on the way. I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for it. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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