PITTSBURGH — During a campaign event for Vice President Kamala Harris in Pittsburgh on Wednesday, Pennsylvania Democratic Party officials and a local doctor disputed former President Donald Trump’s comment during the Sept. 10 presidential debate that he had a “concept plan” to replace the Affordable Care Act.
Trump has previously said Republicans should “never give up“trying to overturn the ACA after his attempts to repeal it while president failed.
The 2010 law is still popular, with some in 2024 435,000 Pennsylvanians have health care coverage through Pennie, the state health insurance marketplace created by the ACA, under the Pennsylvania Health Insurance Exchange Authority. Nationwide, over 20 million people According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, ACA enrollment hit a record high in 2024.
Pennsylvania state Rep. Arvind Venkat (D-Allegheny), who has been a practicing emergency physician in Pennsylvania for nearly 25 years, said Wednesday that before the Affordable Care Act was passed, 20% of his patients had no health insurance.
It’s not “an abstract statistic,” he said.
Venkat recalls asking a patient with breast cancer why she hadn’t sought treatment sooner. She told him that previous doctor visits had left her in debt and she was afraid of the cost of future visits.
“My patient died,” he said. “All we could do was treat her pain and stabilize her, and that is a direct result of the lack of health insurance that existed before the Affordable Care Act.”
In an interview after the press conference, Venkat drew attention to Act on Emergency Treatment and Active Childbirth which prevents Medicare-covered hospitals from refusing to treat patients.
“Before the Affordable Care Act, we saw millions of Americans who could only seek care in the emergency room. They weren’t getting the preventive care they needed. They weren’t getting the ongoing care they needed,” he said. “I would like to say that the patient I described who died because of a delay in necessary care was exceptional, he was not exceptional.”
Pennsylvania Rep. Dan Frankel (D-Allegheny), chairman of the House Health Committee, warned of the potential for an effective repeal of the ACA if Trump wins another term.
“Let’s be clear. We know exactly what Trump’s plans are. He has publicly promised that if he is re-elected, he will end the ACA,” Frankel said. “Although he recently fell just one vote short, if he is re-elected, he plans to fulfill that promise as part of his Project 2025 program.”
Trump’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
Frankel’s reference to Project 2025 has been a common theme during this year’s election, as Democrats try to link the 900-page conservative policy bill to Trump, who denies having anything to do with it.
Dr. Kristina Nicholson, a local trauma surgeon, said her daughter has medical needs that most children do not have and is “terrified” about what a second Trump presidency would mean for her and her family.
“I can’t imagine a world where my daughter is denied health insurance when she grows up because Donald Trump took that protection away from her,” Nicholson said.
