No talk of Obamacare. No talk of abortion.
in Republican National Convention The delegation is official this week in Milwaukee. Nominate Donald Trump As the party’s 2024 presidential candidate, health care issues received little attention from prime-time speakers.
When it comes to healthcare, the silence is astonishing. account for the largest proportion It accounts for about $2 trillion of the federal budget and 17% of U.S. economic output.
This is in stark contrast to the priorities that led Republicans to first nominate Trump.
In 2016, when Republicans gathered in droves for their presidential convention, repealing the Affordable Care Act was a popular topic on the agenda. Roe v. Wade and constitutional protections against abortion.
The change in tone reflects Trump’s political sensibilities. Efforts to repeal it under previous presidents failed. Obamacare The 2017 bill contributed to Republican defeats in the 2018 congressional elections, and the law now has broad support. abortionSince Roe was overturned in 2022, most Americans oppose a nationwide ban, making it another dangerous talking point for Republicans.
As one of the few health policies Republican 2024 PoliciesThe former president has vowed not to cut Social Security or Medicare or change the federal retirement age.
In his acceptance speech Thursday night, Trump promised to protect Medicare and find cures for Alzheimer’s disease and cancer, but gave no indication of what health care proposals he would make for a second term. “Democrats are trying to destroy Social Security and Medicare,” he said.
Charles Coughlin, CEO of a Phoenix public relations firm who was a longtime Republican political activist before becoming an independent in 2017, said health care is not an easy issue for Republicans to win on.
Convention speakers have focused on inflation, crime and immigration. “They have hard polling data that shows those are the issues that will win, and that’s what they want to focus on,” he said.
Immigrants have been implicated in several health issues, including the opioid crisis and public health coverage in the U.S. Republicans, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who spoke at the convention on July 15, have argued that the increase in people crossing the southern border is causing a spike in drug overdoses and deaths.
But most fentanyl seized at the Mexican border comes through legal ports of entry. According to the Cato Institutea libertarian think tank, says most people convicted of fentanyl trafficking in the United States are American citizens. According to the U.S. Commission on Criminal Justice:.
Rep. Monica de la Cruz, D-Texas, argued in a July 17 speech that Democratic policies allow people who enter the country without authorization to receive government benefits even though they are not eligible for federal health programs.
De la Cruz also noted that the Biden administration has made cuts to Medicare Advantage for seniors. Though the Biden administration made small cuts to spending on private plans this year, the federal government still spends more per Medicare Advantage beneficiary than those in the traditional Medicare program.
The paucity of speakers focused on health care at the convention reflects the party’s new platform, which hewed closely to the content and tone of Trump’s ideas. Along with promising to protect Medicare, the 28-page platform also pledges that Republicans will expand health care options for veterans and broader access to “new affordable health care and prescription drug options,” without providing details.
On abortion, the party removed from its platform a decades-old call for federal regulation, instead including language suggesting that the 14th Amendment bans abortion. The platform also states that the party supports state-level elections on abortion policy and opposes “late-term abortions.” Only 1% of abortions in the United States are performed in the U.S. After 21 weeks of pregnancyAccording to KFF, a health information nonprofit that includes KFF Health News.
in contrast, 2016 Platform The 66-page document also called for shifting open-ended federal Medicaid funding to block grants and implementing a “premium support model” for Medicare to limit spending, limit payouts from medical malpractice lawsuits and combat substance abuse.
The word “abortion” appears 32 times in the 2016 platform but only once in the 2024 platform.
“Republicans are running away from this issue at breakneck speed,” Coughlin said.
During the week of the convention, a video of a phone call between Trump and independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was published online. In the video, Trump is seen sharing disproven claims about childhood vaccines, falsely saying vaccinations can “dramatically change” babies and dismissing the health benefits of vaccines.
As a candidate, Kennedy has made numerous false claims about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines, while Trump has long embraced vaccine skeptics. (Before Trump was sworn in in 2017, Kennedy was a He told reporters President Trump had invited him to be chairman of a presidential commission on vaccines, which never materialized, but as president, he ordered the creation of the Operation Warp Speed program in 2020 to expedite the development of a COVID-19 vaccine.
But vaccine skepticism has been growing within the Republican Party since the pandemic began. 36% of Republicans According to the KFF poll, 44% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say parents should be able to decide not to vaccinate their children against measles, mumps, and rubella, even if that poses health risks to other children and adults.
KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism on health issues. KFF — An independent source of health policy research, polling and journalism.
