No discuss of Obamacare. Or abortion.
At the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this week, the place delegates formally nominated Donald Trump because the get together’s 2024 presidential candidate, well being care points acquired little consideration from prime-time audio system.
The silence is stunning, given well being care makes up the largest chunk of the federal finances, practically $2 trillion, in addition to 17% of U.S. financial output.
It additionally stands in stark distinction to the GOP’s priorities when it first nominated Trump.
In 2016, the final time Republicans gathered en masse for a presidential conference, repealing the Affordable Care Act was a favourite subject. So was overturning Roe v. Wade and its constitutional protections for abortion.
The change in tone displays Trump’s political sensitivities. The failed try below the previous president to repeal Obamacare in 2017 contributed to a crushing GOP defeat within the 2018 congressional elections, and the legislation now enjoys broad help. Abortion, too, has grow to be a treacherous subject for Republicans since Roe was overturned in 2022, with most Americans against a nationwide ban.
In one of many solely items of well being coverage within the GOP’s 2024 platform, the previous president vows to not lower Social Security or Medicare, the well being program for older and disabled Americans, or change the federal retirement age.
In his speech accepting the nomination Thursday night time, Trump promised to guard Medicare and discover cures for Alzheimer’s illness and most cancers. But he didn’t define any well being care proposals for a second time period. “Democrats are going to destroy Social Security and Medicare,” he stated.
Health care isn’t a successful topic for Republicans, stated Charles Coughlin, CEO of a Phoenix public affairs agency who was a longtime GOP political operative earlier than he turned an impartial in 2017.
Speakers on the conference have as a substitute targeted on inflation, crime, and immigration. “They have the tried-and-true polling data to show those are winning issues for them, and that’s where they want to keep the narrative focused,” he stated.
Immigration has bled into a couple of well being points, together with the U.S. opioid disaster and public insurance coverage protection. Some Republicans — together with Georgia U.S. House Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who addressed the conference on July 15 — have claimed a rise in folks crossing the southern border has precipitated a surge of drug overdoses and deaths.
However, most fentanyl seized on the border with Mexico enters by authorized ports of entry, according to the Cato Institute, a libertarian assume tank, and most of the people sentenced within the U.S. for fentanyl trafficking are American residents, according to the U.S. Sentencing Commission.
Speaking on July 17, U.S. House Rep. Monica De La Cruz of Texas claimed Democratic insurance policies enable individuals who come into the nation with out authorization to obtain authorities advantages, regardless that they’re largely not eligible for federal well being packages.
De La Cruz additionally stated the Biden administration had lower Medicare Advantage for seniors. While the Biden administration this yr modestly lower spending on the non-public plans, the federal authorities nonetheless spends more cash per beneficiary on Medicare Advantage than for these within the conventional Medicare program.
The paucity of conference audio system targeted on well being care displays the brand new GOP platform, a doc hewing intently to each the substance and tone of Trump’s views. Along with its promise to guard Medicare, the 28-page doc vows that Republicans will develop veterans’ well being care decisions, in addition to entry to “new Affordable Healthcare and prescription drug options” extra broadly, with out elaboration.
On abortion, the get together stripped from the platform its decades-old name for federal limits, together with as a substitute language suggesting the 14th Amendment prohibits abortion. The platform additionally says the get together helps state-level elections on abortion coverage and opposes “Late Term Abortion.” Only about 1% of abortions within the U.S. happen after 21 weeks of pregnancy, in response to KFF, a well being data nonprofit that features KFF Health News.
In distinction, the 2016 platform — a 66-page doc — additionally known as for shifting open-ended federal Medicaid funding into block grants and introducing a Medicare “premium-support model” to cap spending. It additionally known as for limiting payouts from medical malpractice lawsuits and combating drug abuse.
The phrase “abortion” seems 32 occasions within the 2016 platform, in contrast with as soon as within the 2024 doc.
“The GOP is in a headlong sprint away from that issue,” Coughlin stated.
During the week of the conference, video of a name between impartial presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Trump appeared on-line. In the video, Trump is heard sharing disproven claims about childhood vaccines, saying falsely that the photographs may cause a child to “change radically” and dismissing their well being advantages.
As a candidate, Kennedy has repeatedly made false claims concerning the security and efficacy of vaccines. Trump has lengthy entertained vaccine skeptics. (Before Trump took the oath of workplace in 2017, Kennedy told reporters Trump had invited him to chair a presidential fee on vaccines, although the fee by no means materialized.) But as president, Trump ordered the creation of the “Operation Warp Speed” program in 2020 that helped drive growth of covid-19 vaccines.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, nonetheless, vaccine skepticism has blossomed within the Republican Party. Just 36% of Republicans say they’re assured covid vaccines are secure, and 44% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say mother and father ought to be capable of determine to not vaccinate their kids towards measles, mumps, and rubella “even if that may create health risks for other children and adults,” in response to KFF polling.
Phil Galewitz:
pgalewitz@kff.org,
@philgalewitz
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