President Donald Trump is setting out to destroy Obamacare slowly, but surely.
“There is no such thing as Obamacare anymore," Trump said during a recent cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C.
The Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare or ACA, was put in place by former president Barack Obama in 2010. The healthcare bill is designed to help reduce out-of-pocket medical expenses for lower-income Americans.
And while the ACA remains in effect, the Trump administration has taken steps to dismantle Obamacare.
On Oct.12, Trump signed an executive order that led federal agencies to search for ways to increase enrollment in health insurance plans that don't meet minimum standards set by the law.
Meantime, House and Senate Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer voiced their opposition of the move.
“Make no mistake about it, Trump will try to blame the Affordable Care Act, but this will fall on his back and he will pay the price for it," they said in a joint statement.
Trump, also said: "Obamacare is "finished, its dead, its gone."
However, Senate Republicans have repeatedly failed to replace and repeal Obamacare. According to a recent Kaiser Health Tracking poll 7 out of 10 Americans believe Trump should encourage Obamacare to work instead of removing it all together.
As of Oct. 16, cost-sharing reductions or CSRs, have been knocked out. Those are payments made directly to insurance companies to help cover healthcare costs for enrollees.
Trump says he is no longer going to engage in paying those payments. This, despite more than six million people qualifying for CSR payments in 2017.
Senior Alethia Odham says she's been impacted by the changes.
“Before school had begun, I tried to get glasses and braces under Obamacare, but I couldn’t because they didn’t accept that insurance anymore," she said.
