Health Care

Trump's 'Great Healthcare Plan' To Replace Obamacare Isn't Much of a Plan

The administration's goal to lower prices is a good one, but officials don't actually have a plan to make it happen.

Peter Suderman | From the May 2026 issue

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For the better part of a decade, Republicans ran on a single mantra when it came to health care: repeal and replace Obamacare. When the slogan was conceived, it made political and strategic sense.

But Republicans never had a plan for what to replace it with. Multiple proposals at various levels of completion circulated, but there was never any agreement about even the broad outlines of a GOP health care plan, much less the myriad complicated specifics.

When pressed, Republicans often defaulted to vague, poll-tested language to describe their ideas, such as "personalized" and "patient centered"—or, in the case of President Donald Trump, "great" and "terrific." In debates leading up to the 2016 election, Trump stumbled over phrases like "lines around the states," likely a reference to allowing interstate purchase of insurance, and praised European socialized medicine. When asked about his health care policy ideas during his 2024 campaign, he claimed to have "concepts of a plan."

In January 2026, Trump finally........

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