GOP vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance’s call this week to roll back how the nation’s chronically ill are handled through Obamacare plans is sparking outrage from advocates who say the plan he floated could damage the protections that have been in place since 2010.

Vance, during a speech in North Carolina on Wednesday said the Trump campaign backs a plan to group chronically ill patients in insurance pools that are based on their elevated care risks, The Washington Post reported Friday.

The Affordable Care Act, however, ended the practice of forcing the chronically ill to purchase more expensive coverage through high-risk pool insurance and instead allowed new protections for people with preexisting conditions.

Vance, an Ohio Republican, said that if Trump is elected, the administration would “implement some regulatory reform in the healthcare system that allows people to choose a healthcare plan that works for them.”

The Trump campaign, he added, wants to “allow people with similar health situations to be in the same risk pools,” which would let healthy patients choose different health plans.

“I feel like I’ve been transported back to 2009,” Harvard University health professor Adrianna McIntyre, who studies insurance markets, told The Post.

“Prior to the Affordable Care Act, a number of states had these high-risk pools, and in general, they were hard for people to access,” she said.

Democrat nominee Kamala Harris’ campaign has seized on Vance’s comments as well, particularly after Trump said in his debate with the vice president that he has “concepts” of a plan to revamp health insurance.

“There should be no doubt about Donald Trump’s commitment to end the Affordable Care Act,” Harris campaign spokesman Joseph Costello said. “Now, one of the ‘concepts’ he’s bringing back is his plan to rip away protections for pre-existing conditions, throw millions off their health care, and drive up costs for millions of Americans with pre-existing conditions.”

Trump campaign aides, however, insist that the party’s ticket will preserve the protections for people with preexisting conditions.

A Vance spokesman also said the senator was not proposing any new ideas, but “simply talking about the significant improvements President Trump made to the Affordable Care Act through his deregulatory approach, which aimed to bring down the cost of premiums while ensuring coverage for pre-existing conditions.”

Meanwhile, Brian Hughes, a campaign senior adviser, said Trump and Vance, “share the underlying principles of using more choice in the marketplace and efficiency as tools for better, more affordable health care.”

Trump has often pushed for ACA repeal, and too some steps to weaken the law, and Vance’s comments echoed what had been the health insurance industry policy for years.

Before the ACA, patients were evaluated based on their health risks and could be charged higher amounts for health insurance, leading to chronically ill people saying they often could not afford coverage or even qualify.

ACA plans are limited about how much to charge the more at-risk patients, with payments from young, healthy patients subsidizing costs for older and chronically ill people.

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