After securing a second presidential term in the United States, Republican Donald Trump outlined a series of proposed changes to the country’s health care system, including giving staunch vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. the freedom to ” going wild” in matters of health, medicine and food policy.
Trump secured the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency early Wednesday, defeating Vice President Kamala Harris in a highly contentious campaign.
During the presidential campaign, Trump and Harris highlighted the deep divergence between Republican and Democratic views on U.S. health policy.
Harris has advocated for expanding access to birth control, capping prescription drug costs and protecting abortion rights. She also forcefully defended the Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare), a law that Trump unsuccessfully tried to dismantle in 2017.
Meanwhile, Trump has remained relatively quiet on his healthcare policy, choosing instead to focus on issues such as immigration and inflation.
However, during the September presidential debate, he said he had “an idea of a plan” for health care.
Now that Trump has secured his presidency, here’s what he’s said about health care.
Letting RFK Jr. go wild when it comes to health
At a campaign rally on Oct. 28, Trump proposed allowing Kennedy, a staunch vaccine skeptic, to take charge of the nation’s food and drug agencies.
“Robert F. Kennedy cares more than anyone about human beings, health and the environment,” Trump told the crowd. “I’m going to let it run wild on health, I’m going to let it run wild on food, I’m going to let it run wild on drugs.”
Kennedy said Trump promised him control of the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, according to multiple media outlets.
However, in an interview with CNN last week, Trump’s transition co-chair Howard Lutnick said Kennedy would not be in charge of the Department of Health and Human Services, but suggested he could give advice on vaccines.
Lutnick said Kennedy wanted access to federal health data so he could show that vaccines are unsafe, leading them to be taken off the market in a second Trump administration.
Over the years, Kennedy has promoted unproven theories about the dangers of childhood vaccinations and has long pushed the debunked idea that they cause autism.
The World Health Organization estimates that global vaccination efforts have saved at least 154 million lives over the past 50 years.
According to Kennedy, the Trump administration will also push to have fluoride removed from drinking water in the United States on its first day in office.
“On January 20, the Trump White House will notify the entire United States. 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 message.
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Trump told NBC News on Sunday that he hasn’t yet talked to Kennedy about fluoride, “but it seems OK to me.” You know it’s possible.
“Concepts” of a health plan
During his 2016 campaign, Trump repeatedly pledged to repeal Obamacare, and after his election, when the House voted to do so, he hosted Republican representatives at the White House for a celebration. But repeal efforts failed in the Senate in July 2017.
In June 2020, the Trump administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block the law, but the court rejected the case.
Since then, Trump has flip-flopped on whether he plans to try to repeal it again.
In November 2023, Trump spoke out on the issue on his social media platform, Truth Social.
“The cost of Obamacare is out of control, and what’s more, it’s not a good health care system. I am seriously looking for alternatives,” he wrote. “We had a few Republican senators who campaigned for 6 years against this project, then raised their hands not to stop it. It was a low point for the Republican Party, but you should never give up!
In March 2024, he wrote on Truth Social that he is “not running to end” the Affordable Care Act, but wants to make it “better” and “cheaper.”
Asked about health care during the September 10 televised debate with Harris, he reiterated his assertion that “Obamacare was a bad health care system.”
“It’s not very good today. And what I said is if we find something and we work on it, we will do it and we will replace it,” Trump said.
“I have ideas for a plan. I’m not president right now, but if we find something, I won’t change it unless we find something better and cheaper. And we have concepts and options to make this happen, and you’ll be hearing about them in the not too distant future.
Trump took credit for appointing the judges who overturned Roe v. Wade.
Since winning the Republican primary earlier this year, he has said he would not support a national ban on abortion and that each state should be free to restrict abortion as they wish.
He called for exceptions to any bans to include incidents of rape and incest or to protect the health of the mother. However, Trump said in August that he would vote against an amendment in Florida to protect abortion rights that would lift the ban on abortion for six weeks, before many women know they are pregnant.
Trump has wavered on his stance on mifepristone, a drug used in medical abortions, and recently made headlines as abortion opponents unsuccessfully challenged the FDA’s approval of the drug.
In an interview published in April 2024 by Time magazine, Trump declined to comment on access to mifepristone, an abortion pill.
“Well, I have an opinion about that, but I’m not going to explain it. I’m not going to say it yet. But I have some pretty strong opinions on this. And I’ll probably publish it next week,” he said in the Time interview.
During the first presidential debate of 2024 with President Joe Biden in June, Trump said he would not restrict access to abortion medications if elected.
However, Project 2025, the conservative government blueprint written by former Trump officials and other close advisers, in which he has said he is not involved, calls on the FDA to withdraw its approval of mifepristone.
In August, Trump said that if he won a second term, he wanted to make IVF treatment free for families.
The remarks follow a wave of protests and warnings from doctors who say overturning Roe v. Wade and state restrictions on reproductive health care, as well as legislative efforts to define the fetus as a person, would endanger IVF because it uses embryos and common reproductive medications.
“I am announcing today that under the Trump administration, your government will pay, or your insurance company, will be mandated to pay for all costs associated with IVF treatment,” he told a rally electoral.
However, the former president did not detail how he would finance it or how it would operate.
Cut funding for schools that need vaccines
During the COVID-19 pandemic, in December 2021, Trump told former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly that he had received the booster shot.
In an interview with Candace Owens published two days later, Trump responded when Owens suggested the shots were unsafe.
“Oh no, the vaccine works,” interrupted Trump Owens, who said she was not vaccinated. “The ones who get very sick and go to the hospital are the ones who don’t get vaccinated.”
Although Trump has officially endorsed COVID-19 vaccines and credited his administration for their rapid development, he has also been an outspoken critic of the vaccines.
In March 2024, Trump promised to cut funding for public schools that require vaccines for children if he is re-elected in 2024.
“I will not give a dime to a school that has a vaccination mandate or a mask mandate,” Trump said.
All 50 states require certain vaccines for school attendance.
– with files from the Associated Press and Reuters