Elected officials and healthcare advocates gather by a "Care Force One" bus outside of Diversity Richmond on Oct. 7, 2024 to discuss healthcare policy amid the 2024 elections. (Charlotte Rene Woods /Virginia Mercury)
“The Affordable Care Act saved my life,” said Laura Packard, a Virginia resident, Stage 4 Hodgkin’s Lymphoma survivor and health advocate who joined other advocates and state and federal Democratic lawmakers on Monday as part of a national bus tour highlighting Democrat-led efforts to expand health care access.
Dubbed “Care Force One,” the bus is making stops around Virginia and 16 other states over the next few weeks featuring speakers from Congress and state legislatures, alongside people sharing stories of how they benefited from the Affordable Care Act and the Inflation Reduction Act.
A hallmark of Democratic President Barack Obama’s administration, the ACA established a public insurance marketplace and prevented insurance companies from denying coverage based on preexisting conditions. Currently, over 20 million people utilize it nationwide and nearly 400,000 Virginians could pay more for health insurance if it were repealed. Amid this year’s congressional and presidential election where Trump hopes to win a second term in the White House, Democrats caution he will again seek to undo the ACA.
Around the time of Packard’s 2017 diagnosis, Republicans in the U.S. Congress and then-President Donald Trump were celebrating steps towards repealing the now 14-year-old federal policy.
Trump’s campaign hasn’t formally rolled out plans for healthcare policy if re-elected. But speakers at Monday’s event pointed to his past actions — like his budget proposals to cut Medicaid funding — along with statements his running made made in recent media interviews and statements Trump made during his debate with Vice President Kamala Harris as clues to his intentions.
During his debate with Harris in early September, Trump said that there are “concepts and options” for a cheaper system than the ACA that he will outline in the “not-too-distant future.”
In recent interviews vice presidential candidate Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance indicated the administration would end federal funding to organizations like Planned Parenthood and suggested a plan to separate patients into different health insurance pools based on individual risks.
“We are not going to let their ‘concepts of a plan’ happen where insurance companies get to pick and choose who they want to cover,” Packard said.
For Democratic 1st Congressional District candidate Leslie Mehta, Medicaid helped her family cover additional expenses for her disabled daughter Brooke.
Before her death, Brooke lived with a rare neurological disorder called Rhett’s Syndrome that severely limits motor skills and language. Mehta said Monday that initially, she was denied Medicaid coverage for her daughter’s condition.
Once covered, the family was able to get a device that helped them communicate with her.
“Medicaid allowed me to be able to hear the words ‘I love you’ from my oldest daughter,” Mehta said. “When we talk about Medicaid, and we talk about the ability to have it for so many in our country, this is what it means.”
In a statement last week, Trump’s campaign said that more concrete outlines are forthcoming with a goal of reducing health care costs by other methods.
“He will release more details, but his overall position on healthcare remains the same: bring down costs and increase the quality of care by improving competition in the marketplace,” national campaign secretary Karolina Leavitt said in a statement sent to The Mercury.
U.S. Rep. Jennifer McClellan, D-Richmond, noted how Democrats in Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022 — which included price caps on insulin and the ability to negotiate the prices of other popular prescription medications. At the state level and prior to being elected to congress, McClellan helped pass a bill to create Virginia’s state healthcare exchange. And in 2018, a few Virginian Republicans backed Democrat-led efforts to expand Medicaid eligibility.
Speakers, including McClellan, also pointed to the “Project 2025” policy guidebook from conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation as a reason for caution. Trump has distanced himself from the blueprint, which outlines cuts to Medicaid, despite his ties to several of its authors and the organization having praised him for tapping into previous their proposals in his first term .
“Donald Trump, J.D. Vance, and Project 2025 are coming for our healthcare,” McClellan said. “We have a lot of work to do to build on the progress we have already made.”
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