Health and the 2024 US Election

Abstract

The outcome of the 2024 US election will undoubtedly affect patient and community health, along with the health care delivery system, in a multitude of ways. In response to a call for articles on August 18, 2023, by the JAMA Network, articles have been published in JAMA and multiple JAMA Network journals addressing many of the health and health care issues at stake in the election. 1 As the November 5, 2024, election date draws near, this Editorial provides a summary of key aspects of the JAMA publications. In their Editorial, Galbraith and Carroll summarized new research published in JAMA Pediatrics on how children are affected by the issues to be addressed in this election. 2 The JAMA Network has also published a website page collecting all of these articles to facilitate access for readers.As a starting point, 4 central health-related issues that will likely be key for voters in the coming election were highlighted by Parekh 3 : prescription drug costs, women's health and reproductive health, COVID-19 and other public health policies, and the opioid overdose epidemic and its implications for border policies. These and other important health issues, including firearm safety and the nation's mental health crisis, have been discussed by the many authors who responded to the JAMA call for articles.As was discussed by Huberfeld and colleagues 4 in their Viewpoint, the proposed federal health care policies of the 2 major political parties appear to rest on fundamentally different foundations. The authors noted that the Democratic Party platform includes dozens of pages of health reform proposals, whereas the Republican Party platform includes a few sentences on health care-related issues.The expertise and lived experience of physicians and other health care professionals providing evidence-based care is a strong foundation for shaping health policies at multiple levels. Behrens and colleagues 5 emphasized the importance of health professional engagement, suggesting that the national election may cause individuals to overlook local politics that affect firearm safety, food and housing assistance, and other health-related policies, illustrating the importance of voting for every election listed on the ballot, from the most local school board election to those for state and federal government. An example of health professional leadership was outlined by Yang and colleagues, 6 in which they described the need to facilitate structural change using an enhanced understanding of immigrants who have experienced scapegoating that the authors call "migration stigma." However, Zhong and colleagues 7 reported that physicians were no more likely than Opinion EDITORIAL