Experts confused by the Republicans’ anti-health care push in race’s closing days

After the 2018 midterm elections, Republican leaders came to an important conclusion: Voters tend not to like it when politicians target Americans’ health security. Six years later, as Election Day 2024 approached, much of the GOP apparently forgot the lesson.

The Washington Post reported that the “surreal” circumstances have baffled many experts.

Robert Blendon, a longtime pollster and professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, has spent more than 50 years analyzing presidential campaigns. He said he could not recall a closing message on health policy like the ‘unusual’ one that Republicans have offered in the past week. ‘Independents favor a much more positive health policy message than being presented here by Republicans,’ Blendon wrote in an email.

To be sure, the GOP’s anti-health care push isn’t entirely limited to the last week. Donald Trump, for example, spent much of the year condemning the popular and effective Affordable Care Act. Also within the last year, key Senate Republicans opened the door to undermining Obamacare — including Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance, who talked up an idea that would weaken protections for Americans with pre-existing conditions.

But as Americans collectively approached the electoral finish line, the offensive took an unexpected turn:

• House Speaker Mike Johnson publicly endorsed “massive” changes to federal health care policy, adding, “No Obamacare.”
• Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah published an online item that read, “Kill Obamacare now.”
• Dave McCormick, a Republican U.S. Senate candidate in Pennsylvania, announced his opposition to an ACA provision that allows young adults to stay on their parents’ health insurance plans.
• Trump announced that Robert F. Kennedy would play a prominent health care role in a possible second term, adding that the fringe conspiracy theorist would be empowered to “do anything he wants.” The former president also left open the possibility of bans on vaccines and fluoride.

The Post’s report added, “The statements add up to a surreal final week of campaigning for Republicans in which several of Trump’s top surrogates are introducing unconventional — and generally unpopular — ideas that pit them against the health-policy establishment ahead of Election Day on Tuesday.”

At least Americans who care about health care were warned ahead of time.

This post updates our related earlier coverage.