Kamala Harris, Democrats put healthcare center stage at convention

Healthcare was hardly an afterthought at the Democratic National Convention this week.

Vice President Kamala Harris pledged to defend the Affordable Care Act and abortion rights as she accepted the Democratic presidential nomination Thursday.

The convention wrapped up Thursday night, with Vice President Kamala Harris accepting the Democratic nomination for president before a packed United Center in Chicago.

Even before Harris took the stage in the Windy City, Democrats repeatedly positioned healthcare as a top priority and a key element in their battle for the White House. It marked a stark contrast from Donald Trump and other leaders at the Republican National Convention, where health policy took a back seat to the economy, crime and immigration.

Harris and key Democratic figures, including running mate Tim Walz, Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, Bernie Sanders, and others, talked about healthcare issues throughout the week.

In her speech accepting the nomination Thursday night, Harris said she won’t allow a return to when Trump “tried to get rid of the Affordable Care Act, when insurance companies could deny people with preexisting conditions.”

Yes, Harris and Democrats will confront thorny challenges in expanding access to healthcare, including paying for it. Still, Democrats made the case that healthcare is atop the list of domestic priorities and recognized that it’s a major concern of many Americans.

‘Reproductive freedom’

As expected, Democrats highlighted abortion rights throughout the convention, repeatedly bringing home the importance of allowing women the right to make their own choices, particularly after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade two years ago.

“When Congress passes a bill to restore reproductive freedom, as President of the United States, I will proudly sign it into law,” Harris vowed.

Of course, it will take Democrats to win both chambers of Congress for such a bill to reach her desk if she is elected. But Harris cited accounts she has heard from women as she has traveled the country in defense of abortion rights.

“Women have told me their stories, husbands and fathers have shared their stories of women miscarrying in a parking lot, developing sepsis, losing the ability to ever again have children, all because doctors are afraid they may go to jail for caring for their patients,” Harris said.

She also decried the idea of barring abortion nationwide or prohibiting access to medication abortion. And she derided extreme proposals to have states report miscarriages and abortions.

“Simply put, they are out of their minds,” Harris said.

In his speech Wednesday, Walz cited his actions as Minnesota governor to protect abortion rights.

“We also protected reproductive freedom, because, in Minnesota, we respect our neighbors and the personal choices they make,” Walz said in his speech Wednesday night. “And even if we wouldn’t make those same choices for ourselves, we’ve got a golden rule: Mind your own damn business.”

Democrats also pointed to state abortion laws that have made it more difficult for doctors to provide care in emergencies. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker pointed to health systems ending labor and delivery services when he spoke at the convention Tuesday night.

“Americans don’t want to be forced to drive 100 miles to deliver a baby because a draconian abortion law shut down the maternity ward,” Pritzker said.

The convention placed a spotlight on Americans affected by state abortion laws.

Amanda Zurawski, of Austin, Texas, spoke Monday about being denied an abortion even when it was clear she would lose her child. After three days of her condition worsening, doctors performed an emergency abortion, but she spent three days in intensive care. She and others have sued the state of Texas over its abortion law.

“Every time I share our story, my heart breaks, for the baby girl we wanted desperately, for the doctors and nurses who couldn’t help me deliver her safely,” she said at the convention Monday.

Kenan Thompson, a longtime cast member of “Saturday Night Live,” mixed some humor as he skewered Project 2025 and its implications for healthcare. He introduced a doctor, named Anita, who said she is an OB-GYN. “She is an OB-GYN that delivers babies. Uh-oh,” Thompson said.

Thompson then pointed to Project 2025 and the prospect of reviving the Comstock Act to outlaw abortion nationwide and jail healthcare providers.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic nominee for vice president, said Kamala Harris will fight to lower healthcare costs.

Healthcare as a right

Beyond reproductive rights, Democrats at the convention also repeated the theme that healthcare is a basic right for all Americans.

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont hammered that idea when he spoke Tuesday night.

He said too many are struggling to get the healthcare they need.

"We need to join the rest of the industrialized world and guarantee healthcare to all people as a human right, not a privilege,” Sanders said.

When Walz spoke at the convention Wednesday night, he used similar language. He talked about working to ensure “health care and housing are human rights.”

Democratic leaders talked about the importance of making healthcare less expensive for Americans. Barack Obama pointed to the need to preserve the Affordable Care Act, one of the enduring accomplishments of his eight years in the White House.

“On healthcare, we should all be proud of the enormous progress that we’ve made through the Affordable Care Act, providing millions of people access to affordable coverage, protecting millions more from unscrupulous insurance practices,” Obama said Tuesday night. “And I’d noticed, by the way, that since it’s become popular, they don’t call it Obamacare no more.”

Affordable Care Act enrollment rose to more than 21 million people enrolling in 2024, a record, and almost double the 11 million people in 2020, according to KFF.

Trump tried unsuccessfully to repeal the Affordable Care Act during his presidency, and he long touted his goal of tossing the law during his first campaign for the White House. Of late, Trump has shifted his language. During his debate with President Biden, Trump said he wanted to make it better. But noting his earlier attempts to abolish the Affordable Care Act, Democrats have pushed that Harris will ensure the law remains in place. And Harris pointedly mentioned that she intends to protect that law.

Prescription drugs

Democrats talked about the high cost of prescription drugs repeatedly at the convention, making that another priority. They also highlighted the Biden administration’s passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which led to Medicare price negotiations on 10 common drugs saving taxpayers billions.

Barack Obama positioned Harris as a champion who will continue the fight to lower the costs of drugs.

“As vice president, she helped take on the drug companies to cap the cost of insulin, lower the cost of healthcare, give families with kids a tax cut,” Obama said. “And she is running for president with real plans to lower costs even more and protect Medicare and Medicaid and sign a law to guarantee every woman’s right to make her own healthcare decisions.”

Sanders also decried drug prices in his time on stage at the convention, speaking about two hours before Obama.

“We need to take on Big Pharma and cut our prescription drug costs in half so that we no longer pay more than other countries,” Sanders said.

Sanders praised the Biden administration’s effort to lower the cost of insulin for those in Medicare, capping prices for seniors at $35 per month. But he said that benefit should be expanded more broadly.

“We need to make sure that reality is true for every American,” Sanders said.

Walz also told Democrats that Harris would be focused on drug prices.

“If you’re getting squeezed by prescription drug prices, Kamala Harris is going to take on Big Pharma,” Walz said Wednesday night.

Fertility treatments

Democrats also vowed to protect IVF and other fertility treatments repeatedly during the convention.

Michelle Obama made that point emphatically, and also mentioned her own experience of going through IVF to become a mother.

“Cutting our health care, taking away our freedom to control our bodies, the freedom to become a mother through IVF, like I did — those things are not going to improve the health outcomes of our wives, mothers and daughters,” she said.

Walz pledged that a Harris administration would ensure access to fertility treatments. He also noted his family’s own experience of using fertility treatments to start their family.

“If you’ve never experienced the hell that is infertility, I guarantee you, you know somebody who has,” Walz said. “I can remember praying each night for a phone call. The pit in your stomach when the phone would ring, and the absolute agony when we heard the treatments hadn’t worked.”

Unlikely journey

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer cited the increasingly common experience of many Americans shortly before Harris took the stage Thursday night.

Whitmer talked about being in the “sandwich generation,” balancing the demands of working, raising kids, and caring for her mother while she was dying of brain cancer. Whitmer noted that Harris also cared for her own mother when she had cancer.

“Kamala Harris knows who she’s fighting for,” Whitmer said.

Harris described her mother’s journey to America, and said she wanted to be the scientist to cure breast cancer. Harris called her “a trailblazer in the fight for women's health.” And she mentioned that early in her speech as she described her unlikely route to becoming the Democratic nominee for president.

Speaking to the delegates, and millions watching on television, Harris said, “I miss her every day, and especially right now.”