Vance claimed Trump 'salvaged' Obamacare, but the facts show otherwise

During Tuesday's vice presidential debate, Sen. JD Vance claimed that former President Donald Trump "salvaged" the Affordable Care Act and tried to improve it during his time in office.

"When Obamacare was crushing under the weight of its own regulatory burden and health care costs, Donald Trump could have destroyed the program. Instead, he worked in a bipartisan way to ensure that Americans had access to affordable care," he said.

However, that claim doesn't line up with Trump's past outspoken opposition to "Obamacare" and the actions he took as president to weaken it.

The Trump administration reduced resources for advertising and online resources for signing up for ACA programs and reduced the annual enrollment program. His administration also approved "demonstration waivers" from states that imposed work requirements on patients who sought Medicaid from the ACA's expansion.

Trump most famously backed efforts in 2017 by Republicans in Congress to dismantle the ACA, which was defeated in the 11th hour by Republican Sen. John McCain's vote against it. The proposal would have eliminated the ACA's individual and employer mandate and other provisions.

"3 Republicans and 48 Democrats let the American people down. As I said from the beginning, let ObamaCare implode, then deal. Watch!" Trump tweeted after the bill died in the Senate.

Republicans would eventually pass legislation in Congress later that year that repealed the individual mandate.

In December 2019, Trump issued an executive order requiring all hospitals to make public their standard charges, payer-specific negotiated charges, the amount the hospital is willing to accept in cash and the minimum and maximum negotiated charges, but critics said the figures were often inconsistent and confusing and made it difficult to use the figures for what they were intended for.

Trump kept pushing efforts to repeal the ACA and in 2020 submitted a brief to the Supreme Court arguing that the ACA was unconstitutional due to the removal of the individual mandate. Texas and 17 GOP-led states sued the federal government and brought the case to the high court.

In 2021, the court ruled 7-2 that the plaintiffs did not have standing to sue.

"We do not reach these questions of the Act’s validity ... for Texas and the other plaintiffs in this suit lack the standing necessary to raise them," Justice Stephen Breyer wrote in his opinion.

During the 2024 campaign, Trump has repeatedly bashed the ACA and promised to come up with a better plan to replace it.

Trump has not given any specifics about his ideas. During last month's debate on ABC News, he claimed he had "concepts of a plan."

Vance was asked to clarify Trump's comments during Tuesday's debate and the Ohio senator also failed to provide specifics.

"You're not going to propose a 900-page bill standing on a debate stage, it would bore everybody to tears, and it wouldn't actually mean anything," he said.