DNC National Press Secretary Sarafina Chitika released the following statement: 

“It’s not just Donald Trump who wants to rip away health care from hardworking Americans — Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley are sharpening their knives to kill the Affordable Care Act and gut Medicaid. Both of them would put 40 million Americans’ coverage in danger, jeopardize health care access for young people and communities of color, and threaten protections for as many as 135 million Americans with preexisting conditions. Every Republican pushing this toxic anti-health care agenda should remember what happened the last time they tried to gut Americans’ health coverage — and be ready to pay for it again at the ballot box this November.”

In addition to Trump, Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley both have records of railing against and trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act. 

Jack Heath: “They’re going ahead and saying you would repeal the Affordable Care Act, would you?”

Haley: “It’s not about one small policy of, you know, Affordable Care Act. It’s about fixing the entire health care system.”

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.”

DeSantis: “That was one of [Trump’s] big promises as president, he had Republican majorities, and didn’t get the job done. … I opposed Obamacare, I did support the repeal and replace … What we’ll end up doing is effectively just superseding Obamacare.”

Justin Dougherty, Fox Carolina: “The conversation about the Affordable Care Act — repealing and replacing it — has come up once again. Republicans failed to repeal it or replace it in 2017. If Republicans get control of Washington, [with] you in the White House, what’s your plan to repeal or replace the Affordable Care Act?”

DeSantis: “Well, look, that was a big failure. Obviously, under the Trump administration, that was a core promise — it didn’t happen. You know, what we’re gonna do is we have this massive health care bureaucracy: pharmaceutical, government, insurance, all this stuff. It’s a total mess. We’re gonna have a comprehensive plan to lower people’s costs, and yes Obamacare hasn’t done it, so we’ll transcend Obamacare, but I think you got to do a lot more than just that.”

DeSantis: “We must repeal ObamaCare … I have no desire to ‘improve’ or ‘reform’ ObamaCare. I intend to repeal it.” 

DeSantis: “Obamacare should never have been passed.”

DeSantis: “The full and complete repeal of ObamaCare is one of the most critical issues of our time.”

Tampa Bay Times: “When he was soliciting Republican votes in the GOP primary, the front page of DeSantis’ site highlighted how he ‘led efforts’ to ‘repeal ObamaCare.’”

May 2013: DeSantis voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

January 2016: DeSantis voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act without a replacement plan.

May 2017: DeSantis voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act and let states roll back requirements for coverage of essential health services and pave the way for higher premiums on those with preexisting conditions. 

HuffPost: “As a Republican serving in the U.S. House, [DeSantis] was part of a far-right caucus that voted against the first ACA repeal bill that leadership brought to the floor because, DeSantis and his allies said, it didn’t undo enough of the law’s protections for people with pre-existing conditions. GOP leaders eventually put forward a more aggressive repeal. DeSantis and his colleagues voted yes on that one, but it failed in the Senate.”

St. Augustine Record: “[DeSantis signed into law a measure that] would allow insurance companies to sell short-term health coverage — an approach backed by President Trump and leading Republicans in Congress as a workaround of the Affordable Care Act, which they oppose.”

As governors of South Carolina and Florida, Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis have both refused to expand Medicaid, leaving hundreds of thousands to pay exorbitant costs or live without health 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.”

HuffPost: “Ron DeSantis Still Can’t Defend His Record On Health Care”

HuffPost: “While Ron DeSantis Is Fighting Culture Wars, Millions Of Floridians Are Losing Their Health Care”

Orlando Sentinel: “Florida is taking sick kids off Medicaid months before planned”

KFF: “If Florida were to expand its Medicaid program, 789,800 uninsured nonelderly adults would become eligible for coverage, 33% of the state’s uninsured nonelderly adult population.”

NBC News: “More than 400,000 Floridians have lost coverage since Covid-era protections ended in March, and more than half (55%) were unenrolled due to ‘procedural reasons,’ not because they were found ineligible, according to the health research nonprofit KFF.”

HuffPost: “DeSantis could do something about this. He has refused. In fact, as of this moment, his administration is embarking on a plan that some analysts worry could make the problem worse.”

HuffPost: “But [expanding Medicaid] has been a tough sell in Tallahassee, where Republicans have had nearly uninterrupted control of the Florida’s lawmaking process since 1999. Two previous efforts to get expansion through the state legislature failed. DeSantis’ spokesperson confirmed in 2021 that he remained opposed to it.”

Spectrum News 13: “Studies show Florida hospital bills rank among the highest in the nation”

WUSF: “Study finds employees in Florida pay among the highest rates for health insurance”