Donald Trump Hits at Obamacare on First Day of Open Enrollment

During a joint campaign rally in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, the Republican presidential ticket of Donald Trump and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence used the first day of open enrollment for the Affordable Care Act to hammer away at President Barack Obama’s signature legislation.

Trump resumed his call to “repeal and replace” Obamacare, but went a step further in his speech:

I would like to thank my incredible running mate, Governor Mike Pence, who has been a tremendous leader on health care issues.

Let me also thank Dr. Ben Carson, not only a great man—but one of the toughest competitors I’ve ever faced. People do not know how well he did during the primaries, but even more importantly, he is a brilliant physician, and I hope he will be very much involved with my Administration.

I’d also like to recognize the distinguished Members of Congress in attendance, who have all been at the forefront of health care reform. Congresswomen Ellmers and Lummis, and Congressmen Price, Harris, Burgess, Desjarlais. And let me give a special thanks to Senator Barrasso, a terrific doctor, and a Senate leader, who did incredible work chairing our platform committee.

When we win on Nov. 8, and elect a Republican Congress, we will be able to immediately repeal and replace Obamacare. I will ask Congress to convene a special session.

Obamacare is a catastrophe. The President said if you like your plan you can keep your plan, if you like your doctor you can keep your doctor—which may go down as one of the great political lies of the century. Even the skeptical Democrats believed him and approved the legislation.

No one even read the 2,700-page bill.

The Obama administration has just announced massive double-digit and triple-digit Obamacare premium hikes everywhere in the country. Here, in Pennsylvania, premiums are going to increase more than 60 percent.

That means parents won’t have enough money to pay their bills, or get medicine for their kids.

In the great state of Arizona, a wonderful place I just left, premiums will go up even higher than 116 percent—others states are going up more than 60, 70, 80, and 90 percent. Deductibles can go to $12,000, $13,000, $14,000 and even $15,000. These deductibles are so high that your health care won’t even be usable.

People all across the country are devastated. In many instances, their health care costs are more than their mortgage costs or rent, a first in American history. This is particularly unfair to millennials, and younger Americans generally, who will be totally crushed by these massive health care costs before they even get started on their journey through life.

One-third of the counties in Pennsylvania will have only a single insurance company. That includes Philadelphia.

The Associated Press found that “some of the 440,000 Pennsylvania consumers who buy insurance through healthcare.gov will face some of the highest premium increases in the nation.”

Insurers are leaving, premiums are soaring, doctors are quitting, companies are fleeing, and deductibles are through the roof.

Workers’ hours are being cut, hiring is frozen, and wages are being slashed.

Obamacare means higher prices, fewer choices and lower quality.

Yet, Hillary Clinton wants to expand Obamacare and make it even more expensive. She wants to put the government totally in charge of health care in America.

If we don’t repeal and replace Obamacare, we will destroy American health care forever—it’s one of the single most important reasons why we must win on Nov. 8.

Our replacement plan includes Health Savings Accounts, a nationwide insurance market where you can purchase across state lines, and letting states manage Medicaid dollars. We will create quality, reliable, affordable health care in a free market where parents can make the health care decisions that are right for their families. It will be much better health care, at a much less expensive cost.