Although it's not unreasonable to ask how a Republican victory in the 2016 presidential election would affect health policy, it's important to remember how policy becomes law. Presidents can propose policies — but preferably not in the form of legislative language, as President Bill Clinton did in 1993, when he sent a 1342-page proposal to Congress. Even though Democrats were in control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, Clinton's Health Security Act never came up for a vote — largely because of opposition to the policies it contained, but also because resistance was exacerbated by the way the executive branch had dealt with Congress. Only Congress can pass legislation enacting domestic policy, although as President Barack Obama has shown, substantial change can also be enacted through executive action. Of course, such changes can be undone in the same manner.
So understanding what a party “win” would mean requires not only understanding what a presidential candidate has proposed and what his or her party has included in its platform, but also guessing the outcome of the congressional elections and what the combined outcome of all national races means for health policy.
