U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree stumped for the Harris-Walz campaign on Tuesday by contrasting health care policy differences between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. Pingree appeared in a virtual news conference organized by the Harris campaign, alongside state Rep. Jessica Fay, D-Raymond, and other health advocates. Pingree, D-1st District, said that a second Trump presidency – he was president from 2017-20 – would result in drastic cutbacks to Medicare and Medicaid, more attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act and a potential national abortion ban. “It’s a recipe for disaster,” Pingree said, pointing to the Project 2025 plan that was penned by former Trump advisers but has been recently disavowed by Trump on the campaign trail. Trump has attempted to distance himself from Project 2025, and has also vowed to protect Medicare and Social Security. “I don’t know anything about it,” Trump said at a July rally in Michigan about Project 2025. “I don’t want to know anything about it.” But Democrats, including Pingree, say the proposals contained in Project 2025 closely mirror Trump’s approach to health care policy. “One of our biggest concerns is that if Trump is elected, if he were to also have control of the House and Senate, there would be very likely a national ban on abortion,” Pingree said. Trump has said he’s proud of appointing Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe vs. Wade – a decades-long goal of social conservatives that allowed individual states to set their own restrictions. And he has said he wants to leave the decision to individual states. In a recent interview he seemed to indicate he would vote “yes” on a pro-abortion rights ballot initiative in Florida, where he lives. But after a conservative backlash, Trump’s campaign issued a statement saying Trump would instead vote “no.” Harris is making abortion rights a key component of her campaign. If Harris wins, and Democrats win control of the House and hold the Senate, Pingree said Democrats would aim to codify abortion rights in federal law, expand Medicaid and Medicare, focusing on maintaining and improving services in rural areas of the nation. “We’d go for it all, and try to do it as quickly as possible,” said Pingree, who also is running for reelection to a 9th term in the House of Representatives. Trump campaign officials did not respond to a request for information about Trump’s health care priorities on Tuesday. Trump and congressional Republicans tried numerous times to repeal the Affordable Care Act when Trump was president. But those efforts failed by a slim margin, including in 2017 with Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and the late John McCain of Arizona voting to maintain former President Obama’s signature domestic achievement. In 2023, Trump vowed again to replace the ACA, but this year he has instead vowed to improve the health insurance law. “We’re going to make the ACA much better than it is right now, and much less expensive for you,” Trump said in a video to supporters this spring. Trump has not yet unveiled detailed plans on what he would change about the ACA.
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