What Is Trump's Healthcare Plan for America?

Donald Trump makes a historic comeback to the White House. What does it mean for healthcare?

Trump's campaign was filled with contradicting statements on various issues, and healthcare is no exception. We look into what reproductive rights, the Affordable Care Act, and public health could look like in his second term.

Trump and reproductive rights

Overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022 was only possible after Trump appointed three anti-abortion judges to the Supreme Court. However, in recent months, he softened his tone, saying that abortion rights should be left to the states to decide, and promised to veto a federal abortion ban.

Trump expressed his support for exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother. However, these exceptions don't necessarily work: an increasing number of pregnant women across the U.S. are being denied abortion care despite risks to their health, lives and future fertility.

Trump has sent mixed signals about medication abortion, which now accounts for more than half of abortions nationwide. He didn't rule out the possibility of banning mifepristone, one of the two drugs used in medication abortion, but then said he would not enforce the Comstock Act of 1873, which would ban mail delivery of medication abortion pills.

However, his track record with birth control is controversial. For example, the Trump administration issued regulations allowing any employer with moral objections to contraception to qualify for an exemption from the Affordable Care Act's (ACA) contraceptive coverage requirement.

During the 2024 campaign, Trump promised to protect access to in-vitro fertilization (IVF) months after IVF treatments were temporarily ceased in Alabama due to a ruling extending the Wrongful Death of a Minor Act to unborn children who are not located in the uterus.

Trump also promised to make the government insurance companies cover the cost of IVF treatment for women in need.

Trump and the Affordable Care Act

Despite recent Trump claims that he never wanted to repeal the ACA, also known as Obamacare, which helped reduce the number of uninsured people to historically low levels, his efforts are well-documented.

Lyin’ Kamala is giving a News Conference now, saying that I want to end the Affordable Care Act. I never mentioned doing that, never even thought about such a thing. She also said I want to end Social Security. Likewise, never mentioned it, or thought of it. She is the one that…

undefined Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 31, 2024

In 2020, the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to overturn the ACA, which would have left 23 million Americans without coverage.

His administration passed the American Health Care Act (ACHA), which amended Medicaid eligibility and weakened protections for patients with pre-existing conditions. However, the legislation failed to pass in the Senate.

During this campaign, Trump promised to replace the ACA with better healthcare for less money. When asked to provide details about the plan, he said he had "concepts of a plan."

"It's not very good today and, what I said, that if we come up with something, we are working on things, we're going to do it and we're going to replace it," Trump said during the ABC News presidential debate in September.

Trump and public health

Trump's first term was marked by the pandemic of COVID-19, the severity of which he repeatedly downplayed. He also proposed unproven treatments for coronavirus, such as malaria drug hydroxychloroquine and even bleach injections.

Days before the election, Trump said he would give a major role in healthcare to Robert F. Kennedy Jr, a conspiracy theorist and vaccine skeptic, letting him "go wild" on health, food and drug regulation.

Kennedy's appointment would come at a time when routine child vaccination rates in the U.S. are already plummeting, coinciding with growing rates of measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases.

However, a president's nominations for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration must be approved by Congress, making JFK Jr a very unlikely candidate for chief of any of these agencies.