View: Democrats plan healthcare votes to goad Trump
Passing popular measures lays groundwork for 2028. It’s healthcare costs, stupid. Washington is still collecting itself after a blue tsunami delivered House and Senate majorities on Tuesday — but Democrats are already gearing up a healthcare agenda to goad President Donald Trump into vetoing policies voters support. Easy initial targets include rolling back Medicaid cuts and restoring Affordable Care Act enhanced tax credits that the GOP allowed to lapse, two policies hitting household budgets as healthcare premiums spike. But lawmakers will need to figure out how to pay for those efforts, and California voters demonstrated this week that even in a blue wave, raising taxes on wealthy Americans is challenging. Other legislative pushes could preview what Democrats run on in 2028. Progressives will inevitably demand a House vote on a Medicare for All bill, even if Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the expected House speaker, would prefer to first have a “ family conversation.” Trump’s propensity to support most-favored-nation drug pricing legislation could mean Democrats could attempt to codify paying what other wealthy nations offer for drugs. “Democrats and President Trump talk similarly about
Passing popular measures lays groundwork for 2028. It’s healthcare costs, stupid. Washington is still collecting itself after a blue tsunami delivered House and Senate majorities on Tuesday — but Democrats are already gearing up a healthcare agenda to goad President Donald Trump into vetoing policies voters support. Easy initial targets include rolling back Medicaid cuts and restoring Affordable Care Act enhanced tax credits that the GOP allowed to lapse, two policies hitting household budgets as healthcare premiums spike.
But lawmakers will need to figure out how to pay for those efforts, and California voters demonstrated this week that even in a blue wave, raising taxes on wealthy Americans is challenging. Other legislative pushes could preview what Democrats run on in 2028. Progressives will inevitably demand a House vote on a Medicare for All bill, even if Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the expected House speaker, would prefer to first have a “ family conversation.” Trump’s propensity to support most-favored-nation drug pricing legislation could mean Democrats could attempt to codify paying what other wealthy nations offer for drugs.
“Democrats and President Trump talk similarly about addressing drug prices, so there may be opportunities for a strange-bedfellows kind of deal,” said Larry Levitt, who will become the CEO of KFF in January. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., will try to use his likely perch atop the Senate Health Committee to add dental, vision, and hearing coverage to Medicare. And expect a fight over whether to reauthorize user fees that fund roughly half the FDA — legislation that pharma considers must-pass and that Sanders has opposed for decades.
Of course there’ll be a contingent of Democratic lawmakers intent on using this moment to drag health insurer and drugmaker executives before Congress and slow-roll Trump nominees in open roles atop the FDA and HHS. But the real opportunity for Democrats is to lay out what they will do if they take control of the presidency. Sign up for Healthcare from Semafor Washington, DC