Tammy Baldwin says Eric Hovde wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Does he?

It’s been around for well over a decade, but it’s still a hot topic in congressional campaigns in 2024: the Affordable Care Act.

That’s true in the U.S. Senate race in Wisconsin, where Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin faces Republican challenger Eric Hovde.

“My opponent wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act and kick millions off their health insurance,” Baldwin said at Vice President Kamala Harris’ first presidential campaign rally in West Allis on July 23, 2024.

She’s made similar claims before, including in a post on the social media platform X that has nearly a quarter of a million views.

Does Hovde want to repeal the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare? And has his position on the issue changed over the years?

Let’s take a look.

Hovde said he supported repealing as recently as June, also in comments back in 2017 and 2012

When we reached out to Baldwin’s campaign for backup, communications director Andrew Mamo shared a memo with Hovde’s comments about the ACA from 2024, 2017 and 2012.

The most recent of those examples was in June of this year, when Hovde was interviewed by WMTV 15, a Madison television station.

“Would you want to repeal the Affordable Care Act?” the reporter asked.

“Oh, 100%. I think we need to change the Affordable Care Act,” Hovde answered.

Hovde added the “only thing I think that was worthy in that bill was pre-existing conditions. So, I believe in supporting and keeping pre-existing conditions.”

Hovde is referring to the part of the ACA that says insurers can’t refuse to cover or charge more when people have preexisting conditions: such as multiple sclerosis, which Hovde was diagnosed with in 1991.

Baldwin’s campaign also shared clips of Hovde’s remarks in 2017, when he said he would have voted for two Republican bills that would have repealed and replaced the ACA.

“You should push it through. You should get it done because it’s a vast improvement (to) where we are. But is it a perfect bill, absolutely not,” Hovde told conservative radio host Jerry Bader on WTAQ in June 2017.

And in 2012, when he was running in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate, Hovde made multiple comments that he’d repeal the law.

One of those instances was during an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial board, in which Hovde said he’d repeal the ACA “in its entirety.”

“I think we need to move back to a free-market approach to solve a lot of these problems. I think we need to break up the mini-monopolies in every single state,” Hovde said in part.

While those are statements from the past, his comments from June indicate he still wants to repeal the ACA.

Hovde says he wants reform on his website, but doesn’t suggest ACA alternatives

Meanwhile, PolitiFact Wisconsin reached the Hovde campaign, but they didn’t have anything to add from his most recent interview on the matter.

But we can glean more information from Hovde’s campaign website, where he lists health care reform as one of his top four issues, along with the cost of living, immigration and foreign policy.

On the health care page, Hovde doesn’t explicitly say he wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act, rather that the health care system is “deeply flawed and in need of reform.”

The webpage “has many inaccurate statements and misrepresentations of data,” said Donna Friedsam, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies health care policy and reform.

To be clear, we’re fact-checking Baldwin here, not Hovde. But it’s important context for understanding why he wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

For example, prescription drug prices did not “skyrocket,” like Hovde asserts on the website.

The average price of a prescription has not increased considerably in recent years, Friedsam said, pointing to a Congressional Budget Office analysis from 2022.

That’s partly due to rebate discounts and lower-cost generic drugs that offset rising prices for brand-names.

Finally, Hovde also doesn’t lay out specifics of an alternative plan he wants to see.

His June comments indicated he wants to keep protections for preexisting conditions, but there’s not much more information on his campaign website.

Would millions get kicked off their health insurance if ACA is repealed?

Finally, let’s look at the last part of Baldwin’s claim: that “millions” would get kicked off their health insurance if the ACA is repealed.

PolitiFact has looked at a similar claim before, when Biden said over a hundred million Americans would lose protections for preexisting conditions if former President Donald Trump repealed the law.

Baldwin’s campaign pointed PolitiFact Wisconsin to a 2023 fact sheet from the White House.

The White House cited a Congressional Budget Office estimate from 2017 that found the Republican repeal legislation would “grow the ranks of the uninsured by 23 million.”

And the number of people with some type of ACA coverage has grown since 2017, the White House noted. They put the number at 40 million people whose insurance would be at risk.

The picture is a bit complicated when estimating what would happen if the ACA was repealed. But Baldwin does seem on par that millions would lose their insurance or be at risk.

Our ruling

Baldwin said Hovde “wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and kick millions off their health insurance.”

Hovde made comments in the past, and as recently as June, that he does want to repeal the law. He calls for health care reform on his website, but doesn’t explicitly call for repealing the ACA.

That website also contains inaccuracies and misrepresentations about the ACA, according to a health care expert that reviewed it. Hovde doesn’t lay out an alternative plan.

We rate Baldwin’s claim True.

Sources

CBS58, VP Kamala Harris speaks at campaign event in West Allis, Wisconsin, YouTube, July 23, 2024.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Recap: Kamala Harris holds first presidential campaign rally in West Allis, July 23, 2024.

Tammy Baldwin, X, March 23, 2024.

Email exchange, Andrew Mamo, communications director for Tammy Baldwin for Senate, July 29, 2024.

WMTV 15, One-on-One: Eric Hovde says inflation, health care are the biggest issues this election, June 19, 2024.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Can I get coverage if I have a pre-existing condition?, 2023.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, On Amazon trip, Eric Hovde ate armadillo, swam with piranhas – and found relief from MS, May 22, 2024.

The Hill, TIMELINE: The GOP’s failed effort to repeal ObamaCare, Sept. 26, 2017.

Hovde for Wisconsin, Issues.

Hovde for Wisconsin, Healthcare.

Email exchange, Donna Friedsam, distinguished researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, July 29, 2024.

Congressional Budget Office, Prescription Drugs: Spending, Use, and Prices, January 2022.

PolitiFact, Biden mostly right on how Obamacare repeal would affect preexisting condition protections, June 12, 2024.

White House, FACT SHEET: The Congressional Republican Agenda: Repealing the Affordable Care Act and Slashing Medicaid, Feb. 28, 2023.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Does Eric Hovde want to repeal the Affordable Care Act?