Various outlets reported that Donald Trump would give a “policy speech” about health care Tuesday in Pennsylvania. My boss made me watch it because she dislikes me on a personal level and wants me to be unhappy. The upshot for you, the reader, is that I can now report that the portion of Trump’s Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, speech that involved health care policy in the United States lasted 5 minutes and 22 seconds. He started off promising to repeal Obamacare, obviously, and went on about it a few minutes. Here was the entirety of what he said about his own health care plan:
Our replacement plan includes health savings accounts, a nationwide insurance market where you can purchase across state lines, and letting states manage Medicaid dollars.
I’m not exaggerating. That was it. (The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget* has estimated that Trump’s plan would increase the number of uninsured Americans by 21 million. For a good breakdown of why selling insurance across state lines wouldn’t be a cure-all solution to the problem of high premium prices, click here.)
“It will be a much better health care at a much less expensive cost,” Trump concluded. Those are his exact words.
Truly a majestic policy address of statesmanlike eloquence. I will now light myself on fire.
Read more Slate coverage of the 2016 campaign.
*Correction, Nov. 2, 2016: This post originally misattributed the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimate to the Congressional Budget Office.
