OPINION:
The following analysis is part of The Washington Times’ Voter Guide, which outlines the candidates’ positions on the most important policy topics.
Effective Nov. 1, American taxpayers will begin paying routine medical bills for illegal aliens.
A rule adopted by President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris extends benefits under the Affordable Care Act to hundreds of thousands of people who crossed the border illegally by redefining what it means to be “lawfully present” in the country.
The move is being challenged in court by a coalition of 15 state attorneys general who are unhappy about being stuck with bills for people who broke the law to get here. The legal disagreement reflects the fundamental difference in the way the presidential contenders view the government’s role in health care.
As Ms. Harris explained on X earlier this month, “Access to health care should be a right, not just a privilege of those who can afford it.”
In her view, a right must be provided to citizens free of charge. That’s why, when the Democratic nominee represented California in the Senate, she championed the “Medicare for All” legislation introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders, Vermont independent.
That plan would have created a single-payer health system, which means Uncle Sam picks up the tab for everyone’s medical care. The legislation would have outlawed private health insurance, sparing the government from being upstaged by competition.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reviewed the economic impact of the single-payer health coverage concept and concluded that it would cost $3 trillion a year once fully implemented. Federal employees would have the final say on what can be done in an industry that accounts for one-sixth of the economy. In other nations, single-payer setups mean long wait times and a one-size-fits-all approach to care.
Donald Trump’s record as president demonstrated his preference for expanding health care choices. He gave gravely ill people the option of selecting experimental, cutting-edge treatments that haven’t been cleared by the Food and Drug Administration.
“In terms of medical right to try, I got right to try where you could use Space Age [medicines] — things that wouldn’t be approved for another five or 10 years,” he said in a town hall aired on Univision last week. “You were able to use it, and we saved thousands and thousands of lives.”
The addition of former Democrat Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as a surrogate for the Trump campaign elevated these issues to the top of the agenda.
“We will make America wealthy again. We will make America healthy again,” Mr. Trump said at a rally last Saturday in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.
Mr. Kennedy is skeptical of the motives of the major pharmaceutical companies that have used their big profits to encourage adoption of policies that make them even wealthier without necessarily making Americans healthier.
Ms. Harris has echoed the Trump campaign on this point. “As Attorney General of California, Kamala Harris took on insurance companies and Big Pharma and got them to lower prices,” her website states. She also says she helped negotiate lower drug prices through Medicare.
In 2020, the Trump administration established a most favored nation rule that used Medicare reimbursement rates to force pharmaceutical companies to give Americans the same discounts they offer in other countries. The Biden-Harris administration pulled the plug on the policy in 2022.
Instead, the current administration is focused on redefining health care in ways that promote a social agenda. For instance, she supports taxpayer funding for abortion and sex reassignment surgery.
“When I was attorney general, I learned that the California Department of Corrections … was standing in the way of surgeries for prisoners,” she said in a 2019 interview with the National Center for Transgender Equality.
Ms. Harris elaborated: “I worked behind the scenes to not only make sure that a transgender woman got the services she was deserving. I made sure that they changed the policy in the state of California so that every transgender inmate in the prison system would have access to the medical care they desired and need.”
The GOP candidate opposes having the government bankroll these elective procedures for prisoners, illegal aliens and minors.
“Kamala supports states being able to take minor children and perform sex change operation — take them away from their parents, perform sex-change operation and send them back home,” Mr. Trump said at a rally last month in Wisconsin.
He added: “Can you imagine you’re a parent and your son leaves the house, and you say, ‘Jimmy, I love you so much. Go have a good day in school,’ and your son comes back with a brutal operation?”
There is quite a difference between the candidates on the issue of health care, and voters will decide which approach they prefer.
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