The biggest healthcare issues heading into the 2024 election

The biggest healthcare issues heading into the 2024 election

The 2024 presidential election is weeks away, and healthcare is expected to be a key issue for voters as they head to the ballot box.

The overall cost of healthcare remains a major problem. Healthcare expenditures grew 4.1% in 2022, reaching $4.5 trillion and accounting for 17.3% of US GDP.

The ballooning costs highlight the crux of the US healthcare conundrum: The US spends more on healthcare than any other developed country in the world — an estimated $13,493 per person. Yet it falls behind in overall healthcare performance, access and affordability, administrative efficiency, equity, and health outcomes, according to the Commonwealth Fund.

“The cost of healthcare is always a pocketbook concern for Americans,” Paul Shafer, assistant professor at Boston University’s Department of Health Law, Policy, and Management, told Yahoo Finance.

In recent weeks, the campaigns of both Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have elevated healthcare issues. While Trump’s proposals have been light on details, he has focused on healthcare costs by pledging to tackle insurance premiums, improve price transparency, and reduce surprise bills.

Read more: What the 2024 campaign means for your wallet: The Yahoo Finance guide to the presidential election

Harris, meanwhile, has promised to extend the enhanced subsidies in the Affordable Care Act marketplace, cap insulin costs for all Americans — not just Medicare recipients — cancel medical debt, and expand Medicare to cover long-term care.

Here’s a rundown of some of the healthcare issues facing Americans, which make them relevant to the presidential race, and each campaign’s stances when relevant.

An estimated 20 million Americans collectively owe $220 billion in medical debt, according to the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker.

In June, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced that it would erase medical debt from credit reports using funding from the American Rescue Plan.

Harris has said in her economic plan that her administration would “work with states to help them enter into agreements with hospitals and other health providers to relieve medical debt for more Americans, and help create plans to prevent debt accumulation in the future.”

Trump has not laid out a plan for tackling the issue.

KFF found that among insured adults with medical debt, 35% indicated they did not fill a prescription for medicine due to cost within the last 12 months (compared to 7% of insured adults without medical debt), while 41% didn’t go to a doctor or clinic for a medical problem due to cost (compared with 9% without medical debt).


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