Trump Wants to Shake Up Health Care. Many Americans Don’t Mind

The New York Times ^ | Dec. 2, 2024Updated 9:46 a.m. ET | Jack Healy, Isabelle Taft, Kate Selig

[E. Pluribus Unum]

As a nature-loving physical therapist in Boulder, Colo., Colin O’Banion shops at farmers markets, grows organic squash in his backyard and thought he could never vote for Donald J. Trump.

But during the pandemic, he said, he and his wife became social outcasts when they refused Covid-19 vaccines for themselves and their three sons. Tuning in to alternative health podcasts, he became convinced that the country’s public health establishment was corrupt, and that the only antidote was the upheaval being promised by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as he teamed up with Mr. Trump.

“That’s what brought me on board,” Mr. O’Banion, 49, said, still sounding surprised that he had voted for Mr. Trump, now the president-elect. “We have a real epidemic going on with metabolic disease, diabetes, obesity. How is it possible we have so much money and the most unhealthy people?”

Scientists and public health experts have expressed alarm that Mr. Trump wants to give over the country’s health agencies to people like Mr. Kennedy and Dr. Mehmet Oz, who have spread misinformation about vaccines and Covid treatments and vowed to gut the government agencies that regulate food and medicines.

But to people like Mr. O’Banion, rejecting norms is exactly the point.

Trust in scientists and medical experts has eroded since the pandemic, and voters galvanized by Mr. Kennedy’s pledge to “Make America Healthy Again” as head of the Department of Health and Human Services said that he had given voice to their frustrations with the whole system — from vaccines and Covid rules to hospitals and health insurance.

“I see that man as someone who understands what’s happening and who is trying to help,” said Savannah Fisher, 36, a resident of St. Augustine, Fla., who said she turned to alternative treatments for chronic pain after...

[ClearCase_guy]

Big Insurance is part of the problem. Fix that too.

[lurk]

Remove the Obama insurance mandates.
Allow competition.
Remove government as a provider.

[McGavin999]

I think serious attention needs to be paid to the chemicals and preservatives in our food.

[reasonisfaith]

Find out which individuals connected with industry have plotted to deliberately poison the population.

[Flaming Conservative]

Remove the Obama insurance mandates.

---

Unfortunately, those mandates are codified, so it will take an act of Congress to remove or change them.

[dkGba]

I would be perfectly happy if I could choose my own care and come what may- whether you let me spend what I pay POS CROOKED INSURANCE OR CROOKED MEDICARE- tired of paying into something that does NOT serve me- nor does system encourage the actual VERY EFFECTIVE health CARE that I value

[cyclotic]

My trust of the medical establishment has gone from general ambivalence to visceral distrust.

It really began a few years ago. My son had surgery. While he was in post-op, I went for a cup of coffee and ran into his surgeon in the elevator.

She introduced me to another doctor. A few weeks later we found buried in one of the statements an $800 bill from that dirtbag for a consult with me.

$800 for a handshake and salutations in the elevator. What a jerk.

We successfully challenged the bill.

[Article10]

Yup, make health insurance available across state lines, tie it to your auto and home owners policy, not your employer