June 2024

If President Trump is known for one thing, it’s stretching the truth (also known as lying), and his health care record is no exception. Trump’s record is defined by one act of sabotage after another but he hopes Americans believe his outrageous lies like how he “saved” protections for pre-existing conditions. In reality, Trump’s agenda has been all about ripping health care away and putting insurance and drug companies back in charge to hike costs on Americans. From trying to eliminate protections for pre-existing conditions, to gutting funding for Medicaid and his allegiance to drug companies over patients, here are the top five lies about health care that you will hear from Donald Trump at Thursday’s debate: 

1. LIE: Trump Lowered Drug Prices Trump will claim that, “Low INSULIN PRICING was gotten for millions of Americans by me, and the Trump Administration, not by Crooked Joe Biden”  or that he “lowered drug costs by “80 or 90 percent” and that insulin was “as cheap as water.”
   
   REALITY:  Trump had four years to take action on drug prices, but instead, he did nothing and now he’ll lie and say anything to cover up his failures. In reality, drug prices soared under Trump. During his first year in office, the list prices of 20 of the top 25 drugs covered by Medicare Part D increased between three and nine times the rate of inflation, according to KFF. AARP found that annual drug costs for the drugs most commonly used by seniors rose 5.8 percent in 2018, more than twice the rate of inflation. Likewise, drug prices increased an average of 21 percent in 2019 and rose faster than inflation in 2020. Further, Trump put profits over people and gave billions in tax breaks to drug and health insurance companies and executives, signing a $1.5 trillion tax bill disproportionately benefiting the wealthy and reducing the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent.
2. LIE:  Trump has a “phenomenal” health care plan.  Trump will say that he’s going to be introducing a ​​“terrific,” “phenomenal” and “fantastic” new health care plan to replace the Affordable Care Act – and it will be ready in “two weeks.”
   
   REALITY: Trump has been promising this “phenomenal” new health plan in “two weeks” for nearly eight years now, but his record on ripping away Americans’ health care is clear.  Census data revealed the uninsured rate rose during Trump’s tenure for the first time since the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. The rate increased from 7.9 percent in 2017 to 8.5 percent in 2018, or by approximately 2 million people.  During his first term, Trump notoriously tried and failed multiple times to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA). All of the repeal bills that went through Congress would have caused millions of Americans to lose their health coverage and raised premiums for millions more. Trump’s repeal efforts would have ended Medicaid as we know it, putting the health care of children, seniors, working families, and people with disabilities at risk. During his 2024 campaign Trump has repeatedly reignited his calls to “terminate” the Affordable Care Act, which he claims is a “disaster,” and his MAGA allies in Congress are seeking to dismantle the Inflation Reduction Act and its provisions making prescription drugs and health care premiums more affordable for tens of millions of Americans.
3. LIE: Trump will protect Medicaid. For years Trump has lied and promised that he will “protect your Medicare and your Medicaid.”
   
   REALITY:  Under Trump’s first term, more than one million children lost Medicaid coverage between 2017 and 2019.  A second Trump term will see a renewed war on Medicaid laid out in the “Project 2025” agenda released by Trump’s allies at the Heritage Foundation, which includes onerous paperwork requirements and block grants that would force radical cuts to Medicaid. These tried and failed policies are designed to throw people off of their coverage. Between encouraging states to impose red tape and paperwork requirements masquerading as work requirements, the first Trump administration worked tirelessly to dismantle Medicaid. After Arkansas imposed the nation’s first so-called “work requirements” program, more than 18,000 residents lost Medicaid coverage. Although state efforts were blocked by a federal judge several times, the Trump administration fought relentlessly to impose work reporting requirements in Medicaid and red state governors are already preparing draconian cuts and onerous requirements for Medicaid recipients should Trump take office again.
4. LIE: Trump will never cut a single penny from Medicare. Trump has vowed dozens of times never to cut Medicare and last year posted a video claiming that, “Under no circumstances should Republicans vote to cut a single penny from Medicare or Social Security.”
   
   REALITY:  Trump’s budgets included cuts to Medicare and Social Security every single year that he was in office and as recently as March of 2024 he proposed “entitlements” reform that could put the health and financial security of millions of American seniors at risk. For example, Trump’s proposed federal budget in 2019 alone would have cut funding for Medicare by more than $800 billion and repealed the ACA.
5. LIE: Everyone is happy with overturning Roe v. Wade and the GOP is the “party of fertilization.”  Trump will tie himself in knots on abortion rights and reproductive care, claiming that “all legal scholars, both sides” wanted Roe v. Wade overturned and now “we have abortion where everybody wanted it from a legal standpoint.”  He’ll lie and say that abortion is “not that big of an issue” and even that the GOP is the “party of fertilization.”REALITY:  Donald Trump is responsible for the repeal of Roe v. Wade and the devastating consequences for reproductive health. Trump boasts that his appointees to the Supreme Court “broke Roe v. Wade” and the consequences for women’s health have been catastrophic, from cruel and archaic abortion bans to devastating uncertainty about access to IVF and other reproductive care.  A second term would see more extreme judicial appointments and an all out push to use the Comstock Act to create a de facto national ban on abortions and sharply limit access to medications like mifepristone.

***MEDIA ADVISORY FOR MONDAY JUNE 24 – THURSDAY JUNE 27***

This week, Protect Our Care will host events in 10 states ahead of the first presidential debate of 2024 to call out Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans for their escalating attacks on health care for people across America. As Donald Trump intensifies his threats to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Republican lawmakers and their allies are attempting to dismantle reproductive care, hike premiums, slash Medicare and Medicaid, reverse recent coverage gains, and raise prescription drug costs for tens of millions of Americans. The first presidential debate takes place this Thursday, June 27. 

Thanks to the policies championed by President Biden and congressional Democrats, this year a record 21.3 million people nationwide signed up for coverage under the ACA marketplaces, seniors are saving on insulin and vaccine costs, and Medicare is negotiating lower prices for some of the costliest drugs on the market. While extremist Republicans work on ripping away health care from families across the nation, President Biden and Congressional Democrats are committed to protecting and strengthening health care by making lower ACA premiums permanent, extending prescription drug savings to everyone, protecting people with pre-existing conditions, and expanding Medicaid.

MONDAY, JUNE 24

MICHIGAN

WHO:
State Rep. Laurie Pohutsky (D-17)
Dr. Farhan Bhatti, Physician, CEO of Care Free Medical
Eric Schneidewind, former AARP national president

WHAT: Virtual Press Conference

WHEN: Monday, June 24, at 11 AM ET

WHERE: Register here (Registration required)

PENNSYLVANIA

WHO:
Lieutenant Governor Austin Davis
State Rep. Carol Hill-Evans (D-95)
York County Commissioner Doug Hoke
York Mayor Michael Helfrich
Michael Berman, Protect Our Care Pennsylvania 

WHAT: Press Conference

WHEN: Monday, June 24, at 11 AM ET

WHERE: White Rose Senior Center, 27 S. Broad St. York, PA 17403

TUESDAY, JUNE 25

NORTH CAROLINA

WHO:
State Sen. Natalie Murdock (D-20)
Dr. Jenna Beckham, OB/GYN
Vanessa Watson, Protect Our Care North Carolina

WHAT: Virtual Press Conference

WHEN: Tuesday, June 25 at 11:30 AM ET

WHERE: Register here (Registration required)

NEW YORK

WHO:
State Senator Lea Webb, Women’s Issues Committee Chair (D-52)
Mary Clark, Regional Director of Citizen Action of New York
Lori Wahila, Co-Lead of Indivisible Binghamton

WHAT: Press Conference

WHEN: Tuesday, June 25th, at 12:00 PM ET

WHERE: Peacemakers Stage, 7 Court St, Binghamton, NY 13901

WISCONSIN

WHO:
Secretary of State Sarah Godlewski
Kiersten, healthcare storyteller
Advocates

WHAT: Virtual Press Conference

WHEN: Tuesday, June 25 at 3:00 PM CT // 4 PM ET

WHERE: Register here (Registration required)

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26

OHIO

WHO:
State Rep. Anita Somani (OH-11)
Lucas County Commissioner Lisa Sobeski
Franklin County Commissioner Erika Crawley
Leonard Stovall, healthcare storyteller
Brodie Musser, healthcare storyteller
Daniel Van Hoogstraten, Protect Our Care Ohio

WHAT: Virtual Press Conference

WHEN: Wednesday, June 26 at 11:30 AM ET 

WHERE: Register here (Registration required)

CALIFORNIA

WHO:
Speakers TBA

WHAT: Virtual Press Conference

WHEN: Wednesday, June 26 at 10 AM PT // 1 PM ET

WHERE: Register here (Registration required)

NEVADA

WHO:
State Senator Dina Neal (D-04)
State Rep. Selena Torres, Assembly Majority Whip (D-03)
State Rep. Elaine Marzola (D-21)

WHAT: Virtual Press Conference

WHEN: ​​Wednesday, June 26 at 11 AM PT // 2 PM ET

WHERE: Register here (Registration required)

THURSDAY, JUNE 27

GEORGIA

WHO:
Senator Rev. Raphael Warnock (D-GA)
State Rep. Dr. Michelle Au (D-50)
Teresa Acosta, ACA storyteller

WHAT: Press Conference

WHEN: Thursday, June 27 at 10:30 AM ET

WHERE: TBA

VIRGINIA

WHO:
State Senate Health Committee Chair Ghazala Hashmi
Katie Baker, Protect Our Care Virginia

WHAT: Virtual Press Conference

WHEN: Thursday, June 27 at 10 AM ET

WHERE: Register here (Registration required)

PREVIOUS

NEW YORK

WHO:
Congressman Pat Ryan
Dr. Dara Kass, Former HHS Regional Director
Susan Chodkowski, 1199 SEIU Member
Mark Hannay, Director of Metro NY Health Care for All

WHEN: Thursday, June 27 at 10 AM ET

WHERE: Watch the event here, Read the release here

Two Years After Overturning Roe v. Wade, MAGA Republicans Continue To Attack Reproductive Health Care Access

Two years ago today, the MAGA Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, ending nearly half a century of constitutionally protected abortion rights. Ever since, attacks on reproductive health care from MAGA Republicans have skyrocketed, imperiling access to reproductive care for millions of Americans across the country. Despite the Supreme Court’s recent ruling rejecting a challenge to the abortion medication mifepristone, access to reproductive care is still under threat from the MAGA court. They will soon decide whether politicians can deny emergency medical care to pregnant people under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), while MAGA Republicans elsewhere are pushing hard to limit access to contraception, pass a national abortion ban, undermine the Affordable Care Act, and even ban in vitro fertilization (IVF).

Republicans have done nothing but push to limit access to essential reproductive care. On the anniversary of Roe being overturned, we must continue to hold them accountable for waging war on reproductive freedom. Here’s how reproductive care is still under threat:

1. Abortion Access Remains Under Threat. Two years ago, Donald Trump’s appointees to the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and the consequences for women’s health have been catastrophic, with cruel and archaic abortion bans spreading across the country. Even though the MAGA court just rejected a challenge to abortion drug mifepristone, the case will return to the MAGA-packed Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals for further review. Republicans will not be deterred by the SCOTUS ruling, which rejected the challenge only on standing, paving the way for a future challenge to succeed on the merits of the case. At least 67 Republican members of Congress and 22 Republican attorneys general supported the push to ban mifepristone, and if MAGA Republicans get their way there will be even more extreme judicial appointments and an all-out push to use the Comstock Act to create a de facto national ban on abortions and sharply limit access to medications.
2. Emergency Reproductive Care Is On The Chopping Block. The Supreme Court still has a case in front of them awaiting a decision, Idaho and Moyle, et al. v. United States, that challenges the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) and threatens to jail doctors for providing critical care to save pregnant patients. This case, brought by extreme right-wing politicians, seeks to deny pregnant patients who are experiencing a medical crisis the emergency abortion care they may need to prevent serious health consequences, including death.
3. Republicans and Red State Judges Are Threatening Fertility Treatments Like IVF Through Extreme, Anti-Choice Policies. Earlier this year, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos should be considered children, putting the future of in vitro fertilization (IVF) in jeopardy. Republicans have made it clear that they have no intention to protect reproductive health care in the post-Roe landscape, and Republicans in other states like Idaho are joining in, pushing anti-choice policies that create extreme uncertainty for reproductive health care access. Senate Republicans have moved to block legislation to protect IVF and other fertility treatments multiple times, with all but two Senate Republicans voting against codifying federal protections just last week.
4. Trump And His Closest Allies Are Pushing To Restrict Access To Contraception. Trump and his MAGA allies are developing a blueprint for a second Trump administration to restrict birth control through a series of executive actions, and Trump recently said he was “looking at” imposing new policy restrictions on contraception. The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 plan includes numerous proposals that would require coverage of so-called “natural planning” contraceptive strategies and remove requirements that insurance cover certain forms of emergency contraception.
   • The Trump Administration Already Made It Harder To Access Reproductive Health Care. The Trump administration took multiple steps to make it harder for women, people of color, and LGBTQI+ Americans to access reproductive health care. As President, Trump allowed more employers to opt out of birth control coverage in their workers’ health insurance. For example, in August 2019, the Trump administration began enforcing a rule that bars certain federally-funded clinics from referring women for abortions. As a result, the nation’s largest recipient of Title X funds, Planned Parenthood, was forced to exit the program, losing $60 million in funding previously used to provide birth control and reproductive health care services for low-income women.
5. MAGA Republicans Are Targeting The Affordable Care Act, Which Provides Free Contraception. The Affordable Care Act’s contraception coverage requirement has drastically improved health care access and affordability for tens of millions of Americans. The benefits have reached far and wide — improving health outcomes and sharply cutting out-of-pocket costs. Despite the overwhelming success of the ACA’s contraception coverage, Republicans have attempted to eliminate this essential care year after year through legislation and litigation. Republicans have spent years taking dozens of failed votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act. They have also taken their fight to overturn the ACA to the Supreme Court and failed all three times. This year extremists are still challenging a provision of the ACA that requires insurers to cover lifesaving preventive services for free. The case, known as Braidwood v. Becerra, is set to be decided by a panel of judges at the MAGA-packed Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. During his first term, Donald Trump notoriously tried and failed multiple times to repeal the ACA and throughout his 2024 campaign Trump has repeatedly reignited his calls to “terminate” the Affordable Care Act, which he claims is a “disaster.” By taking these actions, Republicans are fighting to strip protections that provide access to reproductive care. 
   • The ACA Made Access To Birth Control Free For Over 60 Million Americans. The ACA guarantees that private health plans cover 18 methods of contraception and make them available to 58 million patients with no out-of-pocket costs. More than 99 percent of sexually active women have used contraceptives at some point in their lifetimes, and approximately 60 percent of women of reproductive age currently use at least one birth control method. In addition to increasing access to this essential treatment, this ACA provision has saved money for women and their families: women saved $1.4 billion on birth control pills alone in 2013.
6. Republicans Are Waging a War on Medicaid, Which Covers Reproductive Health Care For Millions of Americans. Medicaid, which covers tens of millions of Americans, is an essential source of reproductive health care. Republicans in Congress and Donald Trump are itching for a renewed war on Medicaid. The latest proposals from the Republican Study Committee and the Trump team in-waiting at the Heritage Foundation would throw millions of people off their coverage through block granting and burdensome work reporting requirements. Almost two-thirds, or 62 percent, of those who would lose their Medicaid coverage as a result of work requirements, are women and disproportionately women of color.

MAGA Fifth Circuit Upholds Nationwide Protections But Rules Extremist Plaintiffs Not Required to Cover Preventive Care

Washington, DC — Today, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld nationwide coverage of the critical benefits endorsed by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force in Braidwood Management v. Becerra, protecting free preventive care for more than 150 million Americans. The court also ruled that the employers who brought the case do not have to cover these preventive services through their health plans, and sent back to the district court the questions of whether employers must continue to cover preventive services recommended by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). The decision leaves free preventive services at risk as the case proceeds through the legal system and opens the door to further litigation.

This case – brought by extremist, longtime foes of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), abortion rights and reproductive freedom, marriage equality, vaccination mandates, and diversity policies – aimed to invalidate critical benefits endorsed by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, including lifesaving lung, breast, and colorectal cancer screenings, anxiety and depression screenings for children and adults, heart disease screenings, intimate partner violence screenings, and access to PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis), which can reduce the chance of contracting HIV.

In response, Protect Our Care Chair Leslie Dach issued the following statement: 

“Thankfully this decision today by the Fifth Circuit didn’t take access to preventive care away from the more than 150 million Americans who rely on it, but unfortunately this lifesaving care is still under threat from MAGA Republicans. Millions of Americans can breathe a sigh of relief knowing they can continue to access free lifesaving services, such as routine screenings for cancer, diabetes, mental health, and heart disease, recommended vaccinations, contraception and pregnancy-related care, and more. But the MAGA agenda is clear: rip away health care from millions of families, hike costs, and put insurance and drug companies back in charge. The MAGA Republican ‘Project 2025’ blueprint calls for repealing the ACA completely. Families across the nation deserve access to lifesaving care at little to no cost so they will not be forced to choose between going to the doctor and paying for other essentials like groceries and rent.” 

Background

Braidwood v. Becerra Appeal Aims To Rip Away Guaranteed Free Preventive and Reproductive Health Services From More Than 150 Million Americans

***MEDIA ADVISORY FOR THURSDAY JUNE 20th AT 2:30 PM ET***

Advocates will Highlight How President Biden and Congressional Democrats Lowered Health Care and Rx Drug Costs, While Trump and MAGA Republicans Are Escalating Their Health Care Attacks 

New York, NY  – On June 20, at 2:30 PM ET, Congressman Pat Ryan, 1199 SEIU, former HHS Regional Director Dr. Dara Kass, and storytellers will join Protect Our Care New York ahead of the first 2024 presidential debate to call out Donald Trump and Rep. Nick LaLota (NY-01), Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (NY-04), Rep. Mike Lawler (NY-17), Rep. Marc Molinaro (NY-19) and Rep. Brandon Williams (NY-22) for their escalating attacks on the ability of New Yorkers and all Americans to access affordable health care. As Trump intensifies his threats to repeal the Affordable Care Act, New York’s Republican lawmakers–including Reps. Anthony D’Esposito (NY-4), Mike Lawler (NY-17), Marc Molinaro (NY-19), and Brandon Williams (NY-22)–and their allies are attempting to raise prescription drug costs for tens of millions of Americans, reverse coverage expansion under the ACA and Inflation Reduction Act, and slash Medicare and Medicaid. This year’s first Presidential Debate will take place on June 27 in Atlanta, GA.

While extremist Republicans work to rip away health care from New Yorkers, speakers will highlight how President Biden and Congressional Democrats are committed to protecting and strengthening health care by reducing prescription drug costs for all Americans, permanently lowering ACA premiums to keep plans affordable for the thousands of New Yorkers enrolled, protecting people with pre-existing conditions, and expanding Medicaid. 

WHO:
Congressman Pat Ryan
Dr. Dara Kass, Former HHS Regional Director
Susan Chodkowski, 1199 SEIU Member
Mark Hannay, Director of Metro NY Health Care for All

WHAT: Virtual Press Conference

WHEN: Thursday, June 20th at 2:30 PM ET 

WHERE: Register to join the Zoom event (Registration required)