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Donald J. Trump is officially president again beginning Monday, January 20 and his second term promises to look nothing like the first.
Trump enters the Oval Office this time with previous experience and a cohort of advisors and officials who essentially operate as “yes men” to Trump’s outlandish proposals. The Republican party also has majority control over the House of Representatives and the Senate and right-leaning conservative Justices make up the majority of the Supreme Court bench giving the president-elect more influence over all branches of government.
Multiple aspects of American life will look different in Trump’s second term from the economy and education, to environmental and foreign policies. One area where Americans may feel the most immediate side effects of the Trump administration is in our health care. Throughout his campaign, Trump has made promises to implement several policies that could negatively impact American health outcomes for generations.
Donald Trump Health Policies
If we want to know whether another Trump presidency is good for our health, we need only listen to what he’s already told us.
The Affordable Care Act
The Affordable Care Act is an Obama-era legislation that has allowed roughly 40 million people in the U.S. access to health care that was previously unavailable to them. Trump called for repealing the Affordable Care Act (which he and other members of the GOP and far right disparagingly refer to as “Obamacare”) in his first term and he brings the same energy into his second stint as president.
However, he has not proposed a replacement to lifesaving legislation, stating during the September presidential debates that he has “concepts of a plan” and not elaborating any further to date. Should the ACA be repealed, millions of Americans would lose their health insurance. Cutting the ACA puts people at risk for incurring insurmountable medical debt and increases the chance of Americans succumbing to health issues simply because they could not afford to receive the necessary care.
Abortion
It was Trump-era Supreme Court appointees that ushered in the Dobbs decision, rolling back federal protections for access to abortion and leaving it to the states to create their own abortion legislation. As a result, a number of states have introduced highly restrictive bans on the medical procedure which has led to death and dangerous health outcomes for women across the country.
Throughout his campaign, Trump and his running mate, soon-to-be Vice President J.D. Vance, have flip flopped on their stance on abortion, at times calling for a nationwide ban and then saying he would leave it to the states to decide how to proceed with abortion legislation. However, Trump’s appointees in the Department of Defense and the Food and Drug Administration can potentially provide a way to federally limit access to abortion by rescinding licensing of the medication that induces abortion, or reinstituting the Comstock Act, which would make the distribution of abortion pills and medical equipment used in abortion punishable by up to five years in prison. Such restrictions could potentially restrict doctors’ ability and freedom to treat patients and make access to abortion, maternal healthcare, and even medical procedures outside of abortions more difficult to access across the nation.
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Climate and Environment
Throughout his campaign, Trump has repeatedly called climate change a “hoax” and promised to cut back on Biden-era fuel efficiency standards that seek to reduce carbon emissions in the U.S. and lessen the effect of climate change. As a result, use of fossil fuels in Trumps second term will go unchecked, even encouraged.
Climate change and rising global temperatures are directly related to catastrophic environmental disasters like the wildfires in California or increasingly powerful hurricanes that decimate coastal states. Such major weather and environmental events pose a direct threat to American health, safety, and livelihood. Other environmental justice issues like access to clean air and water also impact our health and wellbeing and under a Trump administration, there doesn’t appear to be a plan to address these crucial issues and so the effects of climate change will continue to be felt.
Social Security and Medicare
While Trump has promised to protect social security and Medicare, he has also promised to eliminate payroll taxes on tip income and overtime wages. He has also promised to lower corporate income taxes, which would provide a hefty tax break to some of the wealthiest Americans.
Social security and Medicare are government funded programs that rely on payroll and income taxes for funding. If Trump follows through on his proposed tax cuts, there could be a trickle down effect on these programs, that would negatively impact older and retirement aged Americans.
Overall Healthcare
Trump has appointed anti-vaxer and conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as head of the Department of Health and Human Services and Trump plans to let the former presidential candidate “go wild” on healthcare issues. Many medical professionals already consider RFK’s health theories wild enough. Kennedy has a track record of outlandish and dubious health claims including sharing that wi-fi causes cancer, chemicals in water are making children transgender, and that antidepressants are responsible for school shootings.
Under Kennedy’s leadership, Americans will be vulnerable to dangerous theories that may weaken confidence in medical professionals and lead to an increase in the exposure and spread of preventable diseases as well as misinformation. Kennedy has also promised to follow through on Trump’s mandate to replace over 600 employees in the National Institute of Health. Kennedy’s promise to “make America healthy again” could actually threaten American wellbeing more than ever before.
During his victory speech following the 2024 presidential election, Trump told his supporters that he would “govern by a simple model: promises made, promises kept.” No one can know exactly what the future holds under a second Trump presidency but if he does indeed plan to keep the promises he made on the campaign trail, Americans will feel and see significant changes in healthcare policies that we once took for granted.
Trump has told us who he is and what he plans to do. We should believe him.
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