Kamala vs Trump: Healthcare

An issue where Trump can do some real damage.

Oct 11, 2024

Let’s discuss healthcare, specifically the Affordable Care Act, one of this election's most critical economic issues.

Healthcare presents probably the most significant divide between Harris and Trump and is an area where Trump’s policies will, and already have, caused significant damage.

Here’s The Bottom Line:

Since its inception, the Affordable Care Act has led to a 258% increase in insured Americans. Kamala Harris has spent her entire career defending and strengthening the ACA. As president, Donald Trump tried to repeal the ACA 60 times, and when he failed to do so, he took executive actions that significantly weakened the ACA.

The simplest way to understand the difference between Harris’ healthcare record and Trump’s is to look at the score.

Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, 45 million Americans now have insurance. Kamala Harris wants to strengthen the law. Donald Trump wants to repeal it.

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Why does this matter in the election?

The love for the ACA remains one of the few bi-partisan things in this country. A majority of Democrats, Independents, and Republicans support extending financial assistance for people who purchase their healthcare plans through the exchange.

And that is precisely what Vice President Harris has done and will continue to do.

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Amplify This: Harris’ ACA Record

Kamala Harris has spent her entire career defending and strengthening the ACA. As attorney general, she defended the law in court against Republican attacks. As Vice President, she cast the tie-breaking vote for the Inflation Reduction Act, which extended federal assistance for the ACA. This lowered premium costs, directly increasing the number of insured Americans.

These important subsidies expire in 2025. Kamala Harris has promised to extend them. Donald Trump has not.

In addition, the Inflation Reduction Act allowed the federal government to negotiate lower prices for the ten most commonly used medicines for Medicare recipients. These negotiations resulted in an annual savings of $1.5 billion in out-of-pocket costs for Medicare recipients and saved US taxpayers $6 billion.

Kamala Harris wants to expand these negotiations to include “up to 50 drugs” per year. Donald Trump has not commented on these negotiations but has openly talked about repealing the Inflation Reduction Act.

Amplify This: Trump’s ACA Record

Since entering presidential politics, Donald Trump has talked about repealing the ACA. As president, he tried to repeal the ACA 60 times. When that failed, he took a series of executive actions that weakened the law, resulting in more uninsured Americans.

He cut the enrollment period in half to just six weeks.
He cut the marketing budget by 90%, limiting the amount of information people could access about the ACA.
He cut the federal subsidies used to lower premiums for people on the exchange.
This resulted in 2.3 million fewer insured Americans during his presidency.

As we all witnessed on the debate stage, Donald Trump has no plan to replace the ACA. If he is elected president, his promise to repeal the ACA, with no replacement, would result in an economic disaster for the country.

45 million Americans would lose health coverage.
Insurance companies would go back to denying coverage for pre-existing conditions.
Young people could not stay covered under their parent’s plans until 26.

Use our healthcare toolkit to spread the word.