Impact of Swing State Politics on Healthcare Policy in 2024

By: Valeria Orta

The 2024 elections have brought up numerous concerns for debate between candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. One of the important ones, especially one that 67% of American adults believe needs to be discussed more, is healthcare (Fioroni, 2024). This raises concerns among voters, who often rely on Social Security and Medicare systems to keep them insured. Let’s explore the policies each of the candidates has laid out and how the battle for the swing states will affect the outcome of their respective policies.

First, we’ll start with the healthcare policies that Former President Donald Trump, the Republican candidate, is proposing for the 2024 election. In his debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, he mentioned that he had concepts of a healthcare plan which would replace the current Affordable Care Act (ACA), also called Obamacare (Kekatos, 2024). Trump stated that he would want to replace it with something more affordable and cheaper, but still hasn’t presented a solid idea to voters.

On the other hand, Kamala Harris does not wish to repeal the ACA but wishes to grow and strengthen it. She has recommended policies such as expanding the 35-dollar cap on insulin, and the 2,000-dollar cap on out-of-pocket prescriptions to senior citizens (Kekatos, 2024). Her vote on the Inflation Reduction Act has also provided Medicare with the access to go head-to-head with Big Pharma to reduce the price of prescription drugs, something she is hoping to get more of if she wins the 2024 elections (Harris-Waltz, n.d.). She also wants to cancel the medical debt that currently burdens nearly 8% of American citizens (Faris, 2024).

But where do swing states come into play in all of this? What do the American citizens want from their candidates in terms of Healthcare? First, most swing states want to have the subsidies that the ACA brought to lower and middle-income houses as something permanent. The subsidies are predicted to be removed by 2026, yet most swing state citizens want it to stay, with an average of 67% of swing state citizens wanting the permanent subsidies (Fulcrum, 2024). This means that if Trump and Harris want to appeal to a certain state, then it wouldn’t be a bad idea to implement these changes. It would also go in line with their policies, especially Trump’s idea of wanting to have something more affordable than the ACA, while it would be a part of it, the cost of the ACA would be significantly less burdening. It would also help Harris’ initiative of wanting to lower medical debt, since it’s not a terrible idea to lower the amount being paid, which causes debt to be less likely, helping Harris in her conquest of winning the states over the idea of having lower amounts of debt. 

Another healthcare policy that swings state voters is price transparency between healthcare services and healthcare products. 84% of Georgians believe that it is crucial to acknowledge the transparency between these products (Fulcrum, 2024). While both the Biden and Trump administrations have applied executive orders to companies concerning their transparency, there is still a large demand for them. It’s not just companies either–it’s the services that the government is offering, like Medicare and Medicaid that need to be transparent with their consumers too. It would be hypocritical if these services do not showcase their potential costs when the government is mandating other companies to have them too. This service would be crucial to middle and low-income families who can’t afford out-of-pocket medical expenses, and who need to know how much they need to save in case they ever need the money for it. It’s crazy to see that the healthcare system has become so expensive, that there are citizens who need to plan in case something ever happens. 

To conclude, it is crucial to acknowledge that neither candidate places the needed importance on healthcare in this election. Accessibility to healthcare should be a right that everybody is entitled to. It wouldn’t be fair to call America a first-world country if people refuse to call for ambulances in life-threatening situations. Both Harris and Trump need to bring more attention to the issues that swing state voters want if they want to have a better chance at securing their votes. They need to give the people what they want, because isn’t that what a president should do, aid their people?