Although neither leading presidential candidate is particularly focused on health coverage, experts in the field anticipate significant changes after the vote, regardless of who wins. Most Americans could see a dramatic shift in accessibility and cost of care.
From the social history and plan pledges of former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, health coverage analysts anticipate activity on the Affordable Care Act, Medicare and Medicaid, price controls, industry regulations, and other big U. S. health policies.
Joel White, the founder and president of Horizon Government Affairs, declares that” Both prospects will follow an aggressive health plan through extensive regulatory and legislative work.” He said this would likely involve modifications to government-run plans, increasing controls on drug costs, and addressing prices results.
The number one vote health problem in swing state is pricing, which persons are right to be concerned about, White said. By 2030, the typical American household does spend 40 % of its money on health care if recent patterns persist.
Americans still worry about cost and access to care, which have declined in recent decades, despite more than 90 % of Americans having some form of health insurance. According to a survey conducted by KFF, nearly 3 in 4 Americans over the age of 18 rate health costs above those related to gas, food, and rent.
Big Government versus Individual Choice
Trump and Harris both make promise that affordable health care will be provided by various delivery methods. While Trump’s presidency was characterized by the deregulation of health care and expanding access to short-term insurance plans that were re-regulated under Biden, Harris is in favor of federal regulation.  ,
” Under the Trump administration, I believe there would be an emphasis on expanding coverage options for middle-income families and small businesses”, said Brian Blase, president of the Paragon Health Institute. ” These could include ways for small businesses to join together to offer coverage,” according to the statement. They could also include less-regulated and much more affordable plans in comparison to Obamacare.
A Harris administration would harm the middle class, according to White, and lessen access to private insurance across the socio-economic spectrum.
” Both in the campaign and as president, Harris will offer a sense of security by promising government-run health care will be the fix people need”, White said.  ,” She will seek to expand Obamacare subsidies ]set to expire in 2025 ] for the well-off and further weaken access to and affordability of employer coverage and private insurance generally”.
Trump’s main priority is to lower health costs by boosting competition and enabling market innovation, according to White. He anticipates that a Trump administration will work to improve broken insurance markets and perhaps address the high deductibles, cost spiral, and Medicaid’s degrading access to care. Expanding health savings accounts, short-term plans, and off-ACA exchange options, as well as Medicaid reforms and addressing core cost drivers, can be expected under Trump, said policy analysts.
” In a Trump-Vance administration …expect most, if not all, previous Trump health care initiatives, such as short-term, limited-duration insurance policies, to be re-upped”, said Twila Brase, Citizens ‘ Council for Health Freedom president and co-founder. ” Expect freedom of conscience rights to be resurrected”.
Cost Controls for Drugs
Both Harris and Trump support regulating prescription drug prices.  , Trump’s proposal for international reference pricing set by foreign bureaucrats would reduce Americans ‘ access to medicine, White said. More than 50 years of history on drug price controls supports this expectation, he said.
Harris pledges to expand the price controls on drugs under the Inflation Reduction Act, which have been in place more frequently since Biden took office. Federal drug pricing is one step away from pure socialized medicine, according to White.
” Innovation will be crippled by government strong-arm tactics”, said Grace-Marie Turner, president of the Galen Institute. ” Most of the progress in modern medicine has come from new and more effective medicines, biologics, devices, and diagnostics. They have helped to raise life expectancy and quality of life more than any other form of health care, but they are in the spotlight with politicians because” we cannot price-control our way to better health outcomes or reduce spending on health care.”
Waste, Fraud, and Abuse
An analysis by Paragon in June found that an estimated 5 million Obamacare enrollees receive far more in subsidies than they are legally entitled to. The Trump administration would likely combat waste, fraud, and abuse like this in government programs, which increased substantially during the Biden administration, Blase said.
According to Brase, Trump is likely to enact a new executive order to establish Schedule F. This would allow the administration to fire bureaucrats, including HHS employees, at will.
” A Harris administration would push gender identity confusion, suppress parents ‘ rights, and advocate for whatever public health officials deem the theme of the day, the month, or the year, posing dangers to the economy, individual rights, and health”, Brase said.
According to White, Harris would also require medical professionals to gather data in order to address such social issues in settings, adding burden and expense to these professionals.
Harris for Government-Run Medicine
Democrats currently vary in approaches to Medicaid and Medicare, with prominent figures like Sen. Bernie Sanders advocating for government-run health care, or” Medicare for All”. Harris ‘ campaign has recently distanced itself from a” Medicare for All” platform, but Brase believes she would support it if elected.
” Harris will push for’ Medicare for All,'” Brase said. ” Whether she’d want health plans running the operation is unclear”.
Under Trump, reform could depend on what Congress looks like after the election, Blase said.
” Under a Trump administration, I expect a focus to ensure that Medicaid is not open to illegal immigrants”, Blase said. ” I anticipate potential efforts to reform Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion so that the program no longer discriminates against the most vulnerable,” said the Trump administration’s Republican majority.
This would mean equalizing reimbursements for able-bodied, working-age adults with children, pregnant women, seniors, and the disabled on the program, Blase said.
The real question is “how much Trump has learned about health care and who to trust over the past eight years,” Brase said.
Ashley Bateman blogs for Ascension Press and writes for The Heartland Institute about policy. Her work has been featured in The Washington Times, The Daily Caller, The New York Post, The American Thinker and numerous other publications. She previously held positions as an adjunct scholar for The Lexington Institute and as an editor, writer, and photographer for The Warner Weekly, a publication for the German-speaking American military community in Bamberg. Ashley serves on the board of a Virginia-based Catholic homeschool cooperative. Along with her brilliant engineer/scientist husband, she educates four of her incredible children at home.
