In regards to health care in the United States, the results of the 2016 election are disastrous. Donald Trump has said all throughout his campaign that he was determined to repeal the Affordable Care Act, “Repeal and Replace”. Given the Republican attitude about Obama- care, as it is widely known, it would appear that the first order of business for the new president and legislators will be to get rid of the ACA, without any specific plans to replace it. That will mean millions of people who had insurance after the Act was passed stand to lose coverage. The Affordable Care Act has never been very popular to begin with, and it seems like every other week the Republican Congress voted on repealing it. As long as President Obama has been in office it has been impossible for them to succeed in eliminating it. Now that the Republican takeover will set the agenda for the new Congress, led by Trump, the fate of the ACA is extremely worrisome.
During the campaign, Donald Trump embraced standard Republican orthodoxy regarding Obamacare, i.e. intending to call a special Congressional session as soon as possible to repeal it (McDonough, 2016.) The domination of Republicans in all three branches of government is a frightening vision. Certainly, this will result in more threats to women’s reproductive health care. Many people in the United States would be happy if there was universal healthcare, a single-payer system, but under Republican domination, that will never happen. As long as the Democrats are participating in the Senate, Congress or the presidency, there has been some check on the ability for lawmakers to pass extremist measures, but without the president in office to veto the most outrageous ones, I fear that the people in the United States will pay a steep price. All of the protests that are occurring currently in major cities in response to the presidential election may be a reaction, in part, to the fact that people anticipate that human services are very likely to fall by the wayside for the next four years at least.
- McDonough, J. (2016, November 7). The 2016 election reveals the differences in health care are deeper than ever. Retrieved from Health Affairs.org: http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2016/11/07/the-2016-election-reveals-the-differences-on-health-care-are-deeper-than-ever/
