Presidential candidates do not have to share medical records. Here’s why and how this might change

HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) – With less than a week until Election Day, pressure is mounting on former President Donald Trump to release his medical records proving his mental and physical competency before he possibly regains the presidency.

On October 12, Vice President Kamala Harris posted note from your doctorwhich stated that the vice president was in “excellent health.” The announcement came after Trump questioned whether Harris was fit to lead the country. Since then, not only has Harris called on Trump to prove his health, but others have done the same, including a board of more than 200 doctors.

While applicants are free to provide such records if they choose, there is currently no requirement.

According to Article Two of the United States Constitution, they only exist three requirements to run for president: :

The candidate must be a natural-born U.S. citizen.
The candidate must be at least 35 years old.
Applicant must have lived in the US for at least 14 years.

Given concerns about age and health during this election cycle, starting when President Joe Biden entered the racesome believe that these requirements are not sufficient and medical examinations should be required.

However, this is easier said than done. The medical records of all Americans are sealed and protected under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), with little, if any, room for voters to request them. Although the term “medical records” is not expressly defined in FOIA, the records fall under Exceptions 6 and 7c, which prohibit the release of any records that would “invade another person’s privacy.”

However, given the global importance of the US president, Alan Gernhardt, executive director of the Virginia Freedom of Information Advisory Council, said there may be a gray area.

“You want to make sure they are particularly mentally and physically capable of performing their duties,” Gernhardt said.

While health has been a hot topic this election campaign, Dr. Ben Blankenship, an assistant professor of psychology at James Madison University, questions how much voters care about the candidates’ health.

Blankenship was referring to the 2020 election, when concerns about Biden’s age began. He also reviewed data from the administrations of former presidents Ronald Reagan, Franklin Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower, because each president faced a variety of serious health problems while in office.

Blankenship said no data shows whether these concerns influenced voters one way or another or played a role in public trust in government. Instead, he said, the interest has more to do with political polarization and a desire for transparency.

“It seems that rather than being a problem in itself, it’s a tool that can be used to attack the other candidate,” Blankenship said. “Transparency tends to foster trust in government – public trust… Eisenhower, for example, had a serious heart attack scare, but after these revelations, trust in government quickly recovered because people took comfort in transparency.”

Blankenship admits, however, that the lack of data on the impact of health on trust is partly due to the lack of media access to the candidates.

“It was easier for politicians to hide their diagnoses and the impact on their health when social media was not yet in use and large media infrastructure was not working,” Blankenship said.

Both Blankenship and Gernhardt agree that adding a medical requirement is possible and helpful. Gernhardt compared it to “Declaration of economic interests – requirement for candidacy” in the Code of Virginia.

In Virginia, tax records cannot be released, nor medical records. However, there is an exception for candidates running for office. Gernhardt said the exception was made to make sure candidates don’t use finances to influence or gain votes.

Blankenship said that when it comes to implementing a medical records requirement, it will be a complex task and several important questions need to be answered.

“How do we compare every person’s right to privacy with Americans’ need for transparency?” he asked. “Who would take this exam? Of course, it would have to be a trusted third party to conduct such an exam. If we counted on the candidate’s own doctor, it would quickly become politicized. Finally, if such a policy were to be enforced, I think it would need to be enforced globally. If something like this were to happen, it would have to happen regardless of whether the politician in question is 50 years old and appears to be in good health, or whether he or she is over 70 years old and those concerns could be a problem.”

Even if the answers to these questions are reasonable, Blankenship said timing will be key.

“Ultimately, when we have two candidates… who seem quite healthy and it seems like we wouldn’t normally have these concerns, it would be a good time to reflect on this time and think that this was something that we were concerned about , maybe we should create this new standard or create a new set of requirements and impose it on these candidates in situations where it wouldn’t harm or benefit one of them more than the other,” Blankenship said.

When asked if he thought people would push for a medical requirement after this election, Blankenship replied he didn’t think so, saying the only reason he thought the issue was important was because one party could use it as a a tactic to attack another.

Although Trump has not yet released the doctor’s full report, Trump’s campaign confirmed he was healthy and capable of fulfilling the duties of the President.