More than 1,500 physicians call on Trump to release health care plan

More than 1,500 physicians around the country are calling on former President Trump to release his health care plan with three weeks until election day.

In the new letter authored by the Committee to Protect Health Care PAC, which has endorsed Vice President Harris, more than 1,500 physicians urge the GOP nominee to clarify his plans for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) following his remarks on the topic during his debate against Harris last month.

“I have concepts of a plan. I’m not president right now,” Trump said during the debate.

“Mr. Trump has either refused or simply failed to share any concrete plans for improving the ACA, including in the most recent debate,” the medical professionals said in a letter shared with The Hill. “Our patients and Americans nationwide deserve to know what would be in store for their health care in a second Trump presidency so that they can make informed decisions on November 5.”

The letter comes as the ex-president and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (Ohio), have sent mixed messages on their plans for health care reform. In the debate, Trump said the law was “lousy” but that he would run it “as good as it can be run” unless a cheaper and better option arises. 

“It’s still never going to be great,” Trump said. “If we can come up with a plan that’s going to cost our people, our population less money and be better health care than ObamaCare, then I would absolutely do it. … We could do much better than ObamaCare.” 

The ABC News moderators pushed Trump on the issue, leading to his often-mocked “concepts of a plan” line.

Trump has been attacking ObamaCare since he first entered the presidential race in 2015. At the time, he said he would replace it “with something terrific.”

But during his four years in the White House, including two years with both chambers of Congress controlled by Republicans, he was unable to repeal and replace the program.

Some 60 percent of voters said they had a favorable opinion of the ACA, according to a KFF health tracking poll published in May. 

“So when Mr. Trump says he’s going to make the ACA ‘much better,’ doctors have to wonder, how,” the physicians said in the letter. 

The Trump campaign responded to the letter with a statement from its national press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying the GOP nominee “is not running to terminate the Affordable Care Act — he is running to make healthcare affordable again by increasing transparency, promoting choice and competition, and expanding access to new affordable healthcare and prescription drug options.”

She also said Trump will “establish a special Presidential Commission of independent minds who are not bought and paid for by Big Pharma and will charge them with investigating what is causing the decades-long increase in chronic illnesses.”