A guide for voters in the field of health care

With rare exceptions, early voting began everywhere in the United States before Election Day on November 5. We are providing an additional newsletter to remind you about health care rates before the election. We also offer a 40% off STAT+ annual subscription.

What if Harris wins?

The Affordable Care Act and the Lower Inflation Act, both passed exclusively by Democrats, formed the basis of Vice President Harris’s health care platform. It plans to rely heavily on both to maintain high levels of coverage and keep insurance affordable.

its promotion of reproductive health services and a focus on maternal mortality also singled her out, even among Democrats.

However, withhe added policy agendas to this platform during her brief presidential campaign. Her first new proposal was eliminate billions of dollars in medical debtwhich can be a good for hospitals.

Harris proposed expand Medicare price negotiations to fund new Medicare home care, vision and hearing benefits.

She wants too extend drug pricing reforms beyond Medicare to people who get health insurance through work.

The cost of drug pricing reform is not only for drug manufacturers. She wants too pursue drug dealerswhich will benefit drug manufacturers.

Who to know in the Harris administration

STAT make a list of 10 people which helped shape Harris’s positions and could continue to be influential if she wins the election.

Some of Harris’ important relationships go back several years. She knew Sen. Lafonza Butler (D-Calif.) before Harris became California attorney general, when Butler led the home care workers union. Others, like billionaire business mogul Mark Cuban, have arrived on the scene much later.

And if Trump wins?

Former President Trump is harder to predict than Harris. In a debate against Harris, he said he had “plan concept” to replace the “Affordable Medicines” law. After a several attempts to clarify this statement by partner JD VanceTrump said he would probably leave the ACA.

Trump, it seems creation of a health care platform based on the fight against chronic diseases in ways that avoid insurance and traditional treatment.

Some from the GOP the most divisive policies regarding immigrants and transgender people were included in Trump’s health care platform.

However, abortion is an area in which he has tried to be less divisive softening his stance on a national abortion ban – even though he still brags about having shaped the Supreme Court that overturned federal protections against abortion. Trump also backed off his most aggressive attack yet on the drug industry, when he dropped its proposal to lower prescription drug prices by tying them to prices abroad. However, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) said Tuesday that the House GOP has a plan for “massive reform” of the ACA if Trump wins.

Who to watch in Trumpworld

Trump interest in chronic diseases created an opening for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and a a circle of like-minded people to get closer to Trump. They are pushing a vague health care agenda they call “Make America Healthy Again.”

Trump has promised to give vaccine skeptics a role in his administration, is causing industry concern. Trump did not say what that position would be, but at his rally at Madison Square Garden in New York on Sunday, he said he was going to let Kennedy “walk around in good health.” I’ll let him go wild on food. I’ll let him go wild on the meds.”

There are also several people from his previous administration who could go back for a second.

What to expect from Congress

Congress could have an important role in shaping health care policy after the election, as many of Trump’s and Harris’ proposals would require the cooperation of lawmakers. And much more policies that Congress is expected to consider during the lame duck session and next year don’t rise to the level of becoming part of either candidate’s health care platforms.

Some are also independent of any party’s control. For example, anti-China sentiment is common in both parties and could push Congress to pass legislation aimed at harming China’s biotech industry. Conversely, both parties support allowing Medicare to continue to cover telemedicine services.

But next year’s fight over expanded premium subsidies under Trump’s Affordable Care Act and the 2017 tax cuts, which expire at the end of 2025, will depend on who controls Congress and the White House.

What is happening in the states

Residents of more than a dozen states arepeatedly voting on health care issues which include abortion, psychedelics, long-term care and medically assisted suicide.

Among the activities related to voting, abortion occupies an important place. Ten states have abortion initiatives on the ballot, the most since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.

Several states with health care ballot initiatives also have key Senate races that could determine which party controls that chamber. Among the most interesting Montana, where voters can approve measures to protect access to abortion electing anti-abortion Republican candidate Tim Sheehy over Democratic incumbent Jon Tester.

California has an interesting mix of seemingly unrelated ballot measures. After controversial longtime AIDS activist Michael Weinstein got a rent control measure on the ballot, apartment builders launched a ballot initiative that would undermine a drug rebate program that is a key source of revenue for Weinstein’s AIDS clinics.