After securing a second United States presidential term, Republican Donald Trump has outlined a range of proposed changes to the nation’s health-care system, including giving staunch anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. the freedom to “go wild” on health, medicine and food policy.
Trump secured the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency in the early hours of Wednesday, defeating Vice-President Kamala Harris in a highly contentious campaign.
During the presidential campaign, Trump and Harris highlighted the deep divide between Republican and Democratic views on U.S. health policy.
Harris advocated for expanding access to birth control, capping prescription drug costs and protecting abortion rights. She also strongly defended the Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare), a law that Trump unsuccessfully attempted to dismantle in 2017.
Meanwhile, Trump has been relatively quiet on his health-care policies, choosing instead to focus on issues like immigration and inflation.
However, during the September presidential debate, he stated that he has “concepts of a plan” for health care.
Now that Trump has secured his presidency, here is what he has said about health care.
Letting RFK Jr. ‘go wild’ on health
On Oct. 28, during a campaign rally, Trump proposed allowing Kennedy, a staunch vaccine skeptic, to take charge of the nation’s food and drug agencies.
“Robert F. Kennedy cares more about human beings and health and the environment more than anybody,” Trump said to the crowd. “I’m going to let him go wild on health, I’m going to let him go wild on the food, I am going to let him go wild on medicines.”
Kennedy has said that Trump promised him control over the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the United States Department of Agriculture, according to several media outlets.
However, in an interview with CNN last week, Trump transition co-chair Howard Lutnick said Kennedy is not going to be put in charge of the Department of Health and Human Services, but suggested he could advise on vaccines.
Lutnick did say Kennedy wants access to federal health data so he can show vaccines are unsafe, leading them to be pulled from the market in a second Trump administration.
Over the years Kennedy has promoted unproven theories about the dangers of childhood vaccinations and has long advanced the debunked idea that they cause autism.
The World Health Organization has estimated that global immunization efforts have saved at least 154 million lives in the past 50 years.
A Trump administration will also push for the removal of fluoride from U.S. drinking water on his first day in office, according to Kennedy.
“On Jan. 20, the Trump White House will advise all U.S. 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 stated in his post.
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Trump told NBC News on Sunday that he had not spoken to Kennedy about fluoride yet, “but it sounds OK to me. You know it’s possible.”
‘Concepts’ of a health plan
In his 2016 campaign, Trump repeatedly vowed to repeal Obamacare and following his election, when the House voted to do just that, he welcomed Republican representatives to the White House for a celebration. But the repeal effort died in the Senate in July 2017.
In June 2020, Trump’s administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block the law, but the court dismissed the case.
Since then Trump has flip-flopped on whether he plans to try to repeal it again.
In November 2023, Trump weighed in on the issue on his social media platform, Truth Social.
“The cost of Obamacare is out of control, plus, it’s not good Healthcare. I’m seriously looking at alternatives,” he wrote. “We had a couple of Republican Senators who campaigned for 6 years against it, and then raised their hands not to terminate it. It was a low point for the Republican Party, but we should never give up!”
In March 2024 he wrote on Truth Social that he is “not running to terminate” the Affordable Care Act, but wants to make it “better” and “less expensive.”
When asked about health care in the Sept. 10 televised debate with Harris, he repeated his contention that “Obamacare was lousy health care.”
“It’s not very good today. And what I said that if we come up with something and we are working on things, we’re going to do it and we’re going to replace it,” Trump said.
“I have concepts of a plan. I’m not president right now, but if we come up with something, I would only change it if we come up with something that’s better and less expensive. And there are concepts and options we have to do that, and you’ll be hearing about it in the not-too-distant future.”
Trump has taken credit for appointing the justices who overturned Roe v. Wade.
Since winning the Republican primary earlier this year, however, he said he would not support a national ban on abortions and that individual states should be free to restrict abortion as they choose.
He called for exceptions on any ban to include incidents of rape and incest or to protect the health of the mother. However, Trump said in August he would vote against an amendment in Florida to protect abortion rights that would lift a six-week abortion ban, before many women know they are pregnant.
Trump has wavered on his stance regarding mifepristone, a medication used in medical abortions, and has 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 the abortion pill mifepristone.
“Well, I have an opinion on that, but I’m not going to explain. I’m not gonna say it yet. But I have pretty strong views on that. And I’ll be releasing it probably over the next week,” he stated in the Time interview.
In the first 2024 presidential debate with President Joe Biden in June, Trump stated that he would not restrict access to abortion drugs if elected.
However, Project 2025, the conservative governing blueprint authored by former Trump officials and other close advisers, which he has said he is not involved with, calls for the FDA to withdraw its approval of mifepristone.
In August, Trump said if he wins a second term, he wants to make IVF treatment free for families.
Those remarks have followed a surge in outcry and warnings from doctors who say that the overturning of Roe v. Wade and state restrictions on reproductive health care, as well as legislative efforts to define a fetus as a person, would put IVF in danger since it uses embryos and common reproductive medications.
“I am announcing today that under the Trump administration, your government will pay for, or your insurance company will be mandated to pay for all costs associated with IVF treatment,” he said during a campaign rally.
However, the former president did not detail how he will fund it or how it will work.
Cut funding for schools that require vaccines
During the COVID-19 pandemic, in December 2021, Trump told former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly that he’d received the booster shot.
In an interview with Candace Owens released two days later, Trump pushed back when Owens suggested the shots were not safe.
“Oh no, the vaccine works,” Trump interrupted Owens, who said she was not vaccinated. “The ones that get very sick and go to the hospital are the ones that don’t take the vaccine.”
Although Trump has officially endorsed COVID-19 vaccines and credited his administration with their rapid development, he has also been outspoken in his criticism of vaccines.
In March 2024, Trump promised to cut funding to public schools that require childhood vaccines if he’s reelected in 2024.
“I will not give one penny to any school that has a vaccine mandate or a mask mandate,” Trump declared.
All 50 states require certain vaccinations for school attendance.
— with files from The Associated Press and Reuters