Donalds says GOP must campaign on new healthcare policy in 2028

Florida Gov.-elect Byron Donalds (R) on Sunday said the Republican Party will have to campaign with its own crafted healthcare policy items going into the 2028 election.

Donalds told Fox News’s interim host of “Sunday Morning Futures” Larry Kudlow that Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill are having “many debates” about taking on healthcare, adding that Republican leaders “did not want to take healthcare on.”

“We need market-centered healthcare policy that will stabilize prices in healthcare and drive down costs in healthcare,” he said. “And Republicans, I think, for ’28 and beyond, we need to step into that breach and say, ‘Here’s how you actually get it done on healthcare.’ Because if we continue under Democrat policy, it’s going to continue to price out hardworking families all across America.”

He noted reporting from the New York Times about ObamaCare premiums increasing by an average of 13 percent in 2027, adding that the U.S. has been “under Democrat policy and healthcare” for the past 15 years.

“The premiums are out of control, the deductibles are out of control, the costs are out of control. And now you have Bernie Sanders and the left –– they’re talking about Medicare for All,” Donalds said, referring to the independent Vermont senator and his core policy issue of single-payer healthcare.

Voters offered a strong rebuke of the GOP health agenda after Democrats made healthcare affordability a major issue on the campaign trail. They campaigned on restoring the enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies and on delaying or rolling back the Medicaid cuts passed under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

The sweeping wins were also a rebuke of the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) agenda, touted by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the Trump administration’s health policies.

Tuesday’s victories also pushed forward more talk about a future where “Medicare for All” can be discussed, with victories of candidates like Sen.-elect Abdul El-Sayed (D-Mich.) and other progressives in the House and Senate who are expected to make a significant push for single-payer healthcare.

As many adults and families struggle to afford health costs, the popularity of Medicare for All is growing. A KFF poll in September showed two-thirds of Americans favored a “single government plan.”

President Trump entered office having told voters that he had the “framework of a plan” for healthcare, after his previous healthcare plan was defeated during his first term.

With the president’s last two years of his second term in focus, El-Sayed told ABC’s Jonathan Karl on “ This Week ” that he would work with him on affordable healthcare despite the two taking sharp jabs at each other during this past election cycle.

“I’ve said this: if he wants to pass Trump Care for All, which will guarantee health care to everyone, and put his name on it, like he’s putting his name on everything, I’m game,” El-Sayed said.