Obamacare has taken an unusual backseat during most of the election, but Donald Trump plans to pound it continually in the final two weeks of the presidential race.
“We should hear about Obamacare every day, and we will hear about Obamacare every day right up to Election Day,” Peter Navarro, a University of California economics professor who is serving as a senior policy adviser to the Trump campaign, told the Washington Examiner.
“It’s part of every speech Donald Trump has made and will continue to make until Election Day,” Navarro said.
The Republican presidential nominee has brought up President Obama’s Affordable Care Act in every stump speech since Monday, when the administration announced the law’s marketplaces will see an average 25 percent rate hike and diminished plan options next year.
Trump even mentioned the law Wednesday during a ribbon-cutting ceremony to open his new hotel in Washington, D.C.
“Obamacare is in a free-fall,” Trump said. “It was called Hillarycare before it was called Obamacare.”
He also has been blasting the law on Twitter, one of his favorite social media sites, using the hashtag #ObamacareFail and proclaiming it a “disaster” and writing that it’s “ready to explode.”
“REPEAL AND REPLACE OBAMACARE!” Trump tweeted Wednesday.
Trump has said throughout the campaign that as president, he would repeal and replace the law with something else. But while he has offered a handful of ideas on his website of how he would replace it, he hasn’t talked in much detail about healthcare on the campaign trail.
But when the administration released the 2017 marketplace prices this week, Trump and Republicans seized on the news of higher premiums and fewer choices as a way to pummel Democrats in tough races.
“A lot of the news is driven by the news cycle and news hooks, and obviously when we get all this information about premiums skyrocketing across the country, particularly in key swing states, it’s going to become an issue of higher profile,” Navarro said.
Administration officials have said enrollment will begin Nov. 1, as scheduled, although Trump has said several times that Obama would delay its start until after the election.
Navarro said he’s not aware of Trump’s claims of enrollment being delayed.
“I have no knowledge of that, and it’s not something I’ve looked at or heard about,” Navarro said.
