After securing a second United States presidential time period, Republican Donald Trump has outlined a variety of proposed modifications to the nation’s health-care system, together with giving staunch anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. the liberty to “go wild” on well being, medication and meals coverage.
Trump secured the 270 electoral votes wanted to clinch the presidency within the early hours of Wednesday, defeating Vice-President Kamala Harris in a extremely contentious marketing campaign.
Through the presidential marketing campaign, Trump and Harris highlighted the deep divide between Republican and Democratic views on U.S. well being coverage.
Harris advocated for increasing entry to contraception, capping prescription drug prices and defending abortion rights. She additionally strongly defended the Reasonably priced Care Act (also referred to as Obamacare), a regulation that Trump unsuccessfully tried to dismantle in 2017.
In the meantime, Trump has been comparatively quiet on his health-care insurance policies, selecting as a substitute to concentrate on points like immigration and inflation.
Nevertheless, through the September presidential debate, he said that he has “concepts of a plan” for well being care.
Now that Trump has secured his presidency, here’s what he has stated about well being care.
Letting RFK Jr. ‘go wild’ on well being
On Oct. 28, throughout a marketing campaign rally, Trump proposed permitting Kennedy, a staunch vaccine skeptic, to take cost of the nation’s meals and drug companies.
“Robert F. Kennedy cares more about human beings and health and the environment more than anybody,” Trump stated to the group. “I’m going to let him go wild on health, I’m going to let him go wild on the food, I am going to let him go wild on medicines.”
Kennedy has stated that Trump promised him management over the Meals and Drug Administration, the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention, the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Companies and the US Division of Agriculture, in keeping with a number of media shops.
Nevertheless, in an interview with CNN final week, Trump transition co-chair Howard Lutnick stated Kennedy just isn’t going to be put accountable for the Division of Well being and Human Companies, however advised he might advise on vaccines.
Lutnick did say Kennedy needs entry to federal well being information so he can present vaccines are unsafe, main them to be pulled from the market in a second Trump administration.
Through the years Kennedy has promoted unproven theories in regards to the risks of childhood vaccinations and has lengthy superior the debunked concept that they trigger autism.
The World Well being Group has estimated that world immunization efforts have saved at the very least 154 million lives up to now 50 years.
A Trump administration will even push for the removing of fluoride from U.S. ingesting water on his first day in workplace, in keeping with Kennedy.
“On Jan. 20, the Trump White House will advise all U.S. water systems to remove fluoride from public water. Fluoride is an industrial waste associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders, and thyroid disease,” Kennedy said in his submit.
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Trump informed NBC Information on Sunday that he had not spoken to Kennedy about fluoride but, “but it sounds OK to me. You know it’s possible.”
‘Concepts’ of a well being plan
In his 2016 marketing campaign, Trump repeatedly vowed to repeal Obamacare and following his election, when the Home voted to just do that, he welcomed Republican representatives to the White Home for a celebration. However the repeal effort died within the Senate in July 2017.
In June 2020, Trump’s administration requested the U.S. Supreme Courtroom to dam the regulation, however the court docket dismissed the case.
Since then Trump has flip-flopped on whether or not he plans to attempt to repeal it once more.
In November 2023, Trump weighed in on the problem on his social media platform, Reality Social.
“The cost of Obamacare is out of control, plus, it’s not good Healthcare. I’m seriously looking at alternatives,” he wrote. “We had a couple of Republican Senators who campaigned for 6 years against it, and then raised their hands not to terminate it. It was a low point for the Republican Party, but we should never give up!”
In March 2024 he wrote on Reality Social that he’s “not running to terminate” the Reasonably priced Care Act, however needs to make it “better” and “less expensive.”
When requested about well being care within the Sept. 10 televised debate with Harris, he repeated his rivalry that “Obamacare was lousy health care.”
“It’s not very good today. And what I said that if we come up with something and we are working on things, we’re going to do it and we’re going to replace it,” Trump stated.
“I have concepts of a plan. I’m not president right now, but if we come up with something, I would only change it if we come up with something that’s better and less expensive. And there are concepts and options we have to do that, and you’ll be hearing about it in the not-too-distant future.”
Trump has taken credit score for appointing the justices who overturned Roe v. Wade.
Since profitable the Republican main earlier this 12 months, nevertheless, he stated he would not assist a nationwide ban on abortions and that particular person states ought to be free to limit abortion as they select.
He referred to as for exceptions on any ban to incorporate incidents of rape and incest or to guard the well being of the mom. Nevertheless, Trump stated in August he would vote in opposition to an modification in Florida to guard abortion rights that might raise a six-week abortion ban, earlier than many ladies know they’re pregnant.
Trump has wavered on his stance concerning mifepristone, a medicine utilized in medical abortions, and has lately made headlines as abortion opponents unsuccessfully challenged the FDA’s approval of the drug.
In an interview revealed in April 2024 by Time journal, Trump declined to touch upon entry to the abortion capsule mifepristone.
“Well, I have an opinion on that, but I’m not going to explain. I’m not gonna say it yet. But I have pretty strong views on that. And I’ll be releasing it probably over the next week,” he said within the Time interview.
Within the first 2024 presidential debate with President Joe Biden in June, Trump said that he wouldn’t limit entry to abortion medication if elected.
Nevertheless, Mission 2025, the conservative governing blueprint authored by former Trump officers and different shut advisers, which he has stated he isn’t concerned with, requires the FDA to withdraw its approval of mifepristone.
In August, Trump stated if he wins a second time period, he needs to make IVF therapy free for households.
These remarks have adopted a surge in outcry and warnings from medical doctors who say that the overturning of Roe v. Wade and state restrictions on reproductive well being care, in addition to legislative efforts to outline a fetus as an individual, would put IVF in peril because it makes use of embryos and customary reproductive medicines.
“I am announcing today that under the Trump administration, your government will pay for, or your insurance company will be mandated to pay for all costs associated with IVF treatment,” he stated throughout a marketing campaign rally.
Nevertheless, the previous president didn’t element how he’ll fund it or the way it will work.
Reduce funding for faculties that require vaccines
Through the COVID-19 pandemic, in December 2021, Trump informed former Fox Information host Invoice O’Reilly that he’d acquired the booster shot.
In an interview with Candace Owens launched two days later, Trump pushed again when Owens advised the photographs weren’t secure.
“Oh no, the vaccine works,” Trump interrupted Owens, who stated she was not vaccinated. “The ones that get very sick and go to the hospital are the ones that don’t take the vaccine.”
Though Trump has formally endorsed COVID-19 vaccines and credited his administration with their speedy growth, he has additionally been outspoken in his criticism of vaccines.
In March 2024, Trump promised to chop funding to public faculties that require childhood vaccines if he’s reelected in 2024.
“I will not give one penny to any school that has a vaccine mandate or a mask mandate,” Trump declared.
All 50 states require sure vaccinations for college attendance.
— with recordsdata from The Related Press and Reuters
