Vice President Kamala Harris attacked Donald Trump’s plans for the future of American health care during an interview on NBC on Wednesday, saying the former president wanted to repeal drug cost protections.

In an interview with NBC NewsHallie Jackson, Harris said Trump wants to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, and remove the cap on prescription drug costs implemented under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA ).

However, as News week found, the evidence behind this claim appears to be based on inferences from Project 2025 and the Trump campaign.

News week has contacted a Kamala Harris media representative for comment.

The complaint

During an interview on NBC on October 22, 2024, Kamala Harris claimed that Donald Trump was considering “removing the $2,000 cap on prescription drugs, the annual cap.”

The facts

The IRA instituted a cap on out-of-pocket prescription drug costs starting in 2025 for millions of Medicare beneficiaries.

There has been speculation that Trump could dismantle parts of the IRA if elected in November. In September, at the Economic Club of New York, Trump attacked plans for the climate change law and said he would “cancel all unspent funds under the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act.” .

Democrats have used claims like these and those made by Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, to signal that the Inflation Reduction Act as a whole is in trouble. An August 2024 press release titled “On Inflation Reduction Act Anniversary, Trump-Vance Ticket Pursues Project 2025 Agenda to Gut Landmark Legislation” listed articles in which Trump and Vance “opposed the Inflation Reduction Act.”

However, most of the cited articles mention Republican interest in undoing the law’s energy and renewable energy plans, not its health care policies.

The press release also mentions how Project 2025 – the policy document produced by the Heritage Foundation considered by many to be a model of what a Trump administration would look like – advocates repealing the IRA.

He says, as part of plans for “Medicare legacy reform,” to “repeal harmful health care policies enacted under the Obama and Biden administrations, such as the Medicare Shared Savings Program and the Payroll Reduction Act.” inflation.”

The 2025 bill’s problem with the health reform law appears primarily to be the power it gives the federal government to negotiate certain prescription drug prices, not the $2,000 price cap. Nonetheless, he calls for the law to be repealed and does not target prescription drug price caps as a protective measure.

“Until the IRA is repealed, an administration that is required to implement it must do so in a manner that is prudent with its authority, minimizing the harmful effects of the law.
policies and avoid even worse unintended consequences,” he says.

Trump has tried to keep his distance from Project 2025, despite a July CNN analysis that found as many as 140 Trump staffers and associates worked on the paper. JD Vance has several connections to its creators, including writing a foreword for Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts’ upcoming book, The first light of dawn: burn Washington to save America, saying he was “delighted” to have done so and that the book contained “a bold new vision for the future of conservatism in America.” The title of the book has since been changed to Dawn’s Early Light: Taking Back Washington to Save America.

Danielle Alvarez, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, added that “only President Trump and the campaign, and NOT any other organization or former staff, represent second-term politics.”

A spokesperson for Donald Trump said News week that Kamala Harris lied about Trump’s plans to “cut taxes, lower overall costs, lower drug prices, and make America affordable again,” but did not say whether Trump would repeal the cap prices.

“There is only one candidate in this race who has successfully lowered drug prices, and that candidate is Donald J. Trump,” said Karoline Leavitt, national press secretary for the Trump campaign. News week.

The decision

Not verified.

This may refer to Trump’s comments about canceling unspent funds from the Inflation Reduction Act, which instituted a $2,000 cap on prescription drugs for many elderly and disabled people benefiting from Medicare who take these drugs starting in 2025.

Running mate JD Vance attacked the legislation and Project 2025 called for the law to be repealed.

However, Republican disagreement with the law has largely focused on climate action and renewable energy, not health policies. Trump spokespeople say the former president’s campaign and policy agenda are not guided by the 2025 plan.

Although it seems unlikely that Trump will announce the reversal of the prescription caps, no one has strongly denied whether this would be sacrificed if the Inflation Reduction Act were repealed.

FACT CHECKING BY Newsweek Fact Check Team