In response to Nikki Haley’s yearslong record of railing against the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid expansion, DNC National Press Secretary Sarafina Chitika released the following statement:

“Trump is running to rip away Americans’ health care and Nikki Haley is marching right alongside him, just like she did as Governor of South Carolina and as a MAGA minion during his failed one-term presidency. Nikki Haley has promised to follow the Trump agenda of jacking up health care costs for millions of Americans and abandoning 135 million Americans with preexisting conditions, from asthma to diabetes. As governor, Haley used her power to block Medicaid expansion for her constituents, leaving millions of them uninsured, and railed against access to affordable health care. Hardworking American families don’t want to go back to paying exorbitant out-of-pocket costs or see their coverage ripped away so that Nikki Haley can line the pockets of her rich friends.”

Nikki Haley has a yearslong record of attacking the Affordable Care Act and calling to “defund” it, even though it’s providing over 40 million hardworking Americans with health care who couldn’t otherwise afford it.

Haley: “We have fought Obamacare in South Carolina as much as we possibly could. We said no to the state exchanges. We said no to the Medicaid expansion.…They just turned and set every state back with this bill that we know did not work.”

Haley: “When it came to Obamacare, we didn’t just say ‘no,’ we said ‘never.’… And we’re going to keep on fighting until we get people like [Senator Tim Scott] and everybody else in Congress to defund Obamacare.”

Haley: “We would end a disastrous health care program, and replace it with reforms that lowered costs and actually let you keep your doctor.”

Live News 5: “Gov. Haley speaks against Affordable Care Act, SC prepares for key deadline”

Haley vowed to never expand Medicaid coverage as governor of South Carolina – which left millions of her constituents uninsured and forced them to pay exorbitant out-of-pocket costs to receive essential care. 

NBC News: “Haley opposed efforts to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (South Carolina remains just one of 11 states that hasn’t expanded Medicaid to allow more Americans to have health insurance).”

ABC News Radio: “In her introduction of former presidential candidate Mitt Romney at the 2013 Conservative Political Action Conference, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley vowed to oppose President Obama’s recommendations to expand Medicaid in her state.”

Haley: ‘They’re trying to throw Obamacare and tell us that we have to bust our budgets and expand Medicaid.… Not in South Carolina. As long as I am the governor of South Carolina, we will not expand Medicaid on President Obama’s watch. We will not expand Medicaid ever.”

Trump renewed his efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, saying MAGA Republicans “should never give up” in their efforts to “terminate” the landmark legislation. 

Daily Beast: “Trump Revives Plan to Dismantle Obamacare if Elected in 2024”

The Messenger: “Former President Donald Trump said he is ‘seriously looking at alternatives’ to Obamacare in a new post on his social media platform Truth Social. He also called it a ‘low point for the Republican Party’ that lawmakers failed to ‘terminate’ the health insurance program established by the Affordable Care Act. According to the latest figures this year, more than 40 million Americans rely on the program for those who can’t afford private plans.”

Trump: “The cost of Obamacare is out of control, plus, it’s not good Healthcare. I’m seriously looking at alternatives. We had a couple of Republican Senators who campaigned for 6 years against it, and then raised their hands not to terminate it. It was a low point for the Republican Party, but we should never give up!”

If a MAGA Republican such as Haley or Trump takes power and repeals the Affordable Care Act – as many as 135 million people with preexisting conditions could have their protections ripped away from them – opening the potential for insurance companies to discriminate against them.

Center for American Progress: “According to new estimates from the Center for American Progress, 135 million people under age 65, or about half of nonelderly people, have a preexisting condition that an insurer could use to discriminate against them if they ever sought coverage through the individual market in the absence of ACA protections.”

KFF Poll: “While partisans are divided over the importance of keeping many provisions of the ACA in place, majorities of Democrats [88 percent], Republicans [62 percent], and independents [73 percent say it is ‘very important’ to continue each of these protections for people with pre-existing conditions.”

Repealing the Affordable Care Act would be devastating for the millions of Americans who depend on it.

Jon Favreau: “If Trump wins, 40 million people could lose their health care, and insurance companies would get to deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions. If Biden wins, that…won’t happen.”

Washington Post: “But what’s clear is that an effort to ‘terminate’ Obamacare is not something Americans are pining for. Not only were the GOP’s efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare during Trump’s term historically unpopular, but the law also appears to have gotten more popular since then. … And when politicians talk of ending health insurance for tens of millions of Americans, dropping coverage of preexisting conditions and cutting Obamacare’s Medicaid funding, things get even dicier.”

KFF Poll: 64% believe it is “very important” insurance companies continue to be prohibited from charging sick people more – including 55% of Republicans. 

NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist Poll: “Thirteen years after the Affordable Care Act was signed into law, more than eight in ten Americans (83%) either agree or strongly agree that all Americans have a basic right to healthcare coverage.”
Bryan Bennett: “Per our October @NavigatorSurvey research, repealing the ACA (and January 6) remain the top concerns about Trump’s first term as president”