Given the nation’s preoccupation with remembering that President Trump once promised to get Mexico to pay for a wall, some may have forgotten that he similarly pledged universal health coverage shortly before being inaugurated. As with Mexico’s payment, no universal coverage emerged during the two years that Republicans held unified control of Congress. Unlike the wall, Trump didn’t dig in his heels and force a government shutdown to get his way.
In fact, as Gallup reported Wednesday, the number of uninsured Americans has increased during Trump’s time in office, from a low at the end of Barack Obama’s second term in office — a function of the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (known more generally as Obamacare). The attitude of Trump’s administration toward Obamacare has varied from indifferent to overtly hostile.