As people finish higher education or just start fresh into adulthood, healthcare expenses remain and are a significant concern for Gen Z. The majority of Gen Z either remain dependent on a guardian’s insurance plan or are reliant on jobs with health insurance plans. Despite the healthcare parent’s coverage plans and jobs that provide health insurance, young people still face crippling medical debt.
The two presidential candidates – Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump – are campaigning on different visions for healthcare in America and their plans will influence young folks.
Trump’s campaign stance is focused on repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) with a different approach by supposedly making it less expensive. Based on his website, he supports price transparency, prescription drug prices and providing lower healthcare premiums.
He aims to continue tax reductions to speed up the depletion of Medicare Part A Trust Fund and also decrease the growing Medicare spending. His stance on healthcare is to propose a great amount of budget cuts to other federal health benefit programs including the CDC to relax the Medicaid management rules. For example, Trump expressed that he would no longer support funding schools that consist of mandates for following COVID-19 safety rules and mask requirements.
On the opposite side, Harris’s stance is to protect the ACA and raise Medicare taxes on higher earners to close tax loopholes. This means that her focus is to expand Social Security and Medicare. Harris’s campaign stance is to continue advocating to eliminate medical debt from being reported on credit reports as she did back in June 2024 for 15 million Americans. She also wants to reinforce new rules for Medicare Advantage insurers through restrictions on marketing practices to help make healthcare more affordable.
The vice president also supports price transparency with no surprise pricing and supports the Inflation Reduction Act that empowers negotiations on prices for prescription drugs with pharmaceutical companies which is a part of uplifting Medicaid. These are some of the outlined healthcare plans Harris has for her presidential campaign.
With the 2024 election looming, healthcare remains a top issue for young people, and being able to distinguish the different visions that Trump and Harris have on this pressing issue can help make an informed decision for who one should vote for in regard to this historical election.
Ashleigh Ewald (she/her/hers) is a Georgia-based journalist who attends Oglethorpe University. Follow her on IG: @ashleighewaldofficial.
Edited by Nykeya Woods