The Candidates on Healthcare

America is facing a fiscal crisis. 

Government spending at all levels is out of control. And we have very limited capacity to increase taxes, which are already far too high.

We can’t print our way out of the problem, either, without debasing our currency and causing another round of inflation. 

We also face a healthcare crisis. But the fact is we cannot make real progress in solving our healthcare problems without getting a handle on fiscal and monetary policy.

Realistically, we have just two courses of action left to us:

1.) Ignore the problem and conduct business as usual, as though the problems will disappear. They won’t.

2.) Get serious about rolling back spending and the size and scope of government.

Unfortunately, I don’t have high expectations of our political leaders in Washington from either party. Few seem to have the courage to embrace the spending cuts we need and meaningfully reduce the size and scope of government.

That said, there are meaningful differences between the two major party candidates for President.

Here’s a look at some of the top healthcare issues facing the country today, and where each candidate comes down on them. 

Health Insurance

Vice President Harris has historically supported universal healthcare initiatives. As a candidate in 2019, she promoted “Medicare for All.” As a Senator, she also co-sponsored Senator Bernie Sanders’s Medicare For All bill.

However, her recent positioning indicates she no longer supports Medicare for All, and instead supports more limited reforms. She also supports extending the enhanced subsidies for lower-income individuals and families who buy insurance on the individual market. These subsidies are due to expire in 2025, unless Congress takes action to extend them.

Former President Trump prefers private industry solutions, and opposes Medicare-for-all.

Former President Trump has also supported the “repeal and replacing” of the controversial Affordable Care Act.

Medicare

Medicare is facing a massive cash crunch. 

Current projections are that Medicare will run out of cash in 2036. At that time, Congress will either have to find more money to pay benefits, or they will have to reduce benefits, or some combination of both.

Neither candidate is adequately addressing the problem.

Health Sharing

Neither candidate has taken a firm stand for or against health sharing. 

However, Republicans tend to be more supportive of health care sharing ministries at the federal and state levels. For example, Democrats are less likely to support making health sharing contributions tax deductible, bringing them into parity with the tax treatment of individual health insurance premiums.

Vaccine Mandates and Healthcare Freedom

The Biden Administration imposed a controversial vaccine mandate on private employers doing business with the U.S. government––which the courts ruled illegal, forcing the Administration to withdraw the requirement.

The Biden Administration also discharged thousands of military service members who refused the Covid vaccine. To date, Harris has not repudiated the Administration’s position.

Trump generally opposes vaccine mandates, and has proposed allowing military members discharged because of vaccine non-compliance back in, with back pay.

Right-to-Try

The term “right to try” refers to the right of patients with life-threatening illnesses who have exhausted standard treatment options to try experimental treatments that may lengthen their lives, though not yet approved by the FDA. This is an important element of healthcare freedom. 

President Trump already signed a “right to try” bill into law in 2018. But some advocates are promoting an a newer initiative, informally dubbed “Right to Try 2.0,” which would expand the concept to modern investigational, individualized treatments based on the analysis of the patient’s individual genomic sequence, chromosomes, deoxyribonucleic acid, ribonucleic acid, genes, gene products (such as enzymes and other types of proteins), or metabolites.

While neither candidate has specifically addressed Right to Try 2.0 to our knowledge, the concept enjoys bipartisan support, and has already easily passed at the state level. 

Abortion

Vice President Harris advocates nearly unlimited access to abortion, even late-term abortion. 

Former President Trump is likely to leave it to the states to work out. Senator Vance, Trump’s running mate, recently signaled that Trump will not sign a federal abortion ban.

 Final Thoughts

While both sides have some good ideas, fiscal realities and a lack of political willpower mean it will be very difficult to find a lasting solution to our most pressing healthcare problems.

This means they’ll probably kick the can down the road, paper over our very real policy challenges with short-term funding packages and continuing resolutions, and allow the problems to compound over time.

Which is par for the course in Washington. 

Here’s to your health and wealth,

Wiley P. Long, III
President – MediGap Advisors

Comfort at Life’s End: A Medicare Hospice Guide