DOMINICK REUTER/AFP/Getty Images(KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa.) — After slamming the Affordable Healthcare Act (ACA) for weeks, Donald Trump appeared with his running mate Gov. Mike Pence in Pennsylvania, saying he intends ask Congress to meet specifically to repeal the law.
“I will ask Congress to convene a special session so we can repeal and replace, and it will be such an honor for me, for you and for everybody in this country because Obamacare has to be replaced,” Trump said. “It’s a catastrophe.”
Speaking in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Pence spoke at length about the ACA. Though he is the Governor of Indiana now, he served in Congress when the healthcare law was passed.
“Obamacare, the debacle previously known as Hillarycare, was a government takeover of healthcare from the start, plain and simple,” he said.
And though Pence expanded Medicaid under Obamacare in Indiana, he continued to tout the “healthy Indiana plan” he created in his home state.
“You know back in the Hoosier state we said no thanks to expanding traditional Medicaid. We fought for almost two years to make coverage more widely available the right way, with consumer-driven health care and health savings accounts, and its working,” Pence said.
Neither Trump nor Pence discussed new policy proposals; their existing plan involves repealing and replacing Obamacare, expanding Health Savings Accounts and allowing the purchase of healthcare across state lines.
Trump was joined by members of Congress who have also fought against Obamacare, as well as supporter and former presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson. Trump said he hoped Carson would be “very much involved” his his administration.
In Democratic-leaning Pennsylvania, a state in which the campaign claims they are now increasing ad spending, Trump appealed to minority communities and millennials.
“In many instances, their health care costs are more than their mortgage costs, more than their rent — which by the way is a first in American history,” Trump said. “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.”
Both GOP nominees used the opportunity to attack their Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.
“I mean we can’t trust Hillary Clinton with our healthcare any more than we can trust her with classified information,” Pence quipped.
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