Health in the next Trump administration

to from the campaign it was seen that a Trump victory would be serious for the US health system, which is already inefficient and expensive, as I expressed in my previous article. However, there were signs that health issues could favor Democrats. It didn’t happen like that. The reasons for the triumph are rather glimpsed in the classic It’s the economy, stupidor rather inflation. Added to this is the ideology of triumph – machismo over racism. The males, including the Latinos, against women to such a degree that it is considered that there will be a female president in the United States only when both parties nominate women.

The forcefulness of Trump’s victory in winning the presidency and the majority of the Senate and the House of Representatives gives him almost total control over political decisions in the country and if he fails, he has his appointees in the Supreme Court. This power is expressed among many other things in that high officials in their government do not need to go through a security checkbut the president can appoint whoever he considers. It can be assumed that this is a measure against deep state where, for example, the top brass of the CIA, the DEA and the FBI are located.

It may seem that it will not have major implications for health, but when those so far named and mentioned by Trump for health are reviewed, considerable risks emerge. For example, his chief of staff and former campaign manager, Susie Wiles, is known for lobbying for a tobacco company in Congress. On the other hand, Trump has said that he will include in a prominent health position the anti-vaccine activist and conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who has also promised to withdraw fluoridation of water in the public system. Top positions requiring Senate approval include the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the FDA and the National Institutes of Health. These institutions play an important role not only in the United States, but beyond the borders of this country.

Two other areas where Trump’s election will likely have profound repercussions are on the public insurance system – Medicare and Medicaid – and on women’s health. Medicare, which is aimed at adults over 65, could be handed over to the private sector for management. However, it seems that Trump will maintain the negotiation of drug prices from this institution, which was previously prohibited. The reason for this veto was a concession to an industrial sector that supported the campaigns of both parties with many millions of dollars.

The status of Medicaid under the new Trump administration is uncertain, as its position on this program has been hesitant and ambiguous. First he said he was going to repeal Obamacare, then he was going to make a much better one. Now he presumes that he saved Medicaid, without proving it, but he no longer calls it Obamacare. Several experts think that the number of uninsured in the US could increase by several percentage points, particularly as a result of its threatening immigration policies. Trump, as we already learned, speaks for the poor, but acts for the rich.

The last issue of great impact is women’s health and particularly abortion. As is known, the Supreme Court, with a majority of judges appointed by Trump, repealed in 2022 the right to abortion, guaranteed since 1973 with the ruling Roe vs Wade. Democrats likely won votes by promising to re-guarantee abortion rights, but it was not enough. What’s more, several states where this right was voted on and won are preparing legal defenses. It is still regrettable that a person with multiple convictions for mistreatment of women and bribing a porn star can use maneuvers to assert his contempt for women. Even more serious is that a character with Trump’s characteristics can win across the board. comes to mind Poor Mexico, so far from God and so close to the United States.