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With Donald Trump as the official GOP presidential nominee, health care is once again on the chopping block. Donald Trump has renewed calls to “terminate” the Affordable Care Act (ACA).  MAGA allies at the Heritage Foundation released Project 2025, a dangerous policy roadmap designed to give more tax breaks to big corporations and the wealthiest Americans by decimating the middle class and stripping away our health care. The GOP plan for health care is clear: repeal the Inflation Reduction Act and ACA, slash Medicaid and Medicare funding, repeal protections for pre-existing conditions, raise prescription drug and premium costs, and strip away health care from millions of Americans all while giving tax breaks to billionaires, CEOs, and corporations. If Trump and MAGA Republicans get their way, it would be disastrous for tens of millions across the nation. Here is a quick look at the health care policies proposed in Project 2025:

Hike Health Care Costs and Rip Away Protections For Pre-Existing Conditions

Project 2025 calls for repealing the Inflation Reduction Act. This means it would end enhanced premium tax credits that lower insurance costs for Americans purchasing coverage on their own through the ACA. Getting rid of these premium tax credits would make health care more expensive, threatening coverage and well being for millions of Americans. 

In addition, a core piece of the Project 2025 plan would codify rules put forth by the Trump administration that expanded junk health insurance plans known as association health plans. These plans charge people who have pre-existing conditions more and deny coverage for essential services like prescription drugs and maternity care, leaving people with unexpected medical bills. 

If Project 2025’s proposals are enacted:

• GONE: Lower health care premiums for the over 20 million who buy their own coverage through the Marketplace. Ending the tax credits would mean a typical 60-year-old couple making $80,000 per year would see their premiums triple to over $24,000 per year and premiums for a family of four making $125,000 would increase by $7,676.
• GONE: Protections against catastrophic surprise hospital bills through total repeal of the No Surprises Act. Nearly 9 million people avoided surprise bills in 2022 alone. 
• GONE: The Medicaid Drug Rebate Program which gives low income Americans lower costs and allows states to expand drug coverage while maintaining savings. 

Increase Prescription Drug Costs

Project 2025’s plan to fully repeal the Inflation Reduction Act would eliminate the lifesaving insulin cost cap and Medicare’s power to negotiate lower drug prices. As a result, health care costs will skyrocket for families while drug and insurance companies and their CEOs are allowed to charge Americans whatever they want and get billions in tax breaks. 

If Project 2025’s proposals are enacted:

• GONE: $35 cap on monthly insulin costs for people with Medicare 
• GONE: Medicare’s power to negotiate lower prices for the most popular and expensive prescription drugs. Nearly 9 million people take the first ten drugs that were selected for Medicare negotiation, which account for 20 percent of Medicare Part D yearly spending. 
• GONE: Prescription drug savings for people on Medicare, including a new $2,000 annual out-of-pocket cap and protections from drug company price hikes through inflation rebates. Nearly 19 million American seniors are expected to save an average of $400 per year.
• GONE: Free vaccines for 52 million people on Medicare, including for shingles and pneumonia. 
• GONE: Prescription drug savings for 4 million low-income seniors through the Medicare Part D Extra Help program.

Changing and Cutting Medicare

Project 2025 proposes stripping Medicare coverage from seniors, increasing prescription drug prices, increasing fraud throughout the system, and forcing seniors to pay more for their health care. This plan puts essential coverage for our nation’s seniors in jeopardy.

If Project 2025’s proposals are enacted:

• GONE: The Medicare Shared Savings Program which saves CMS over $2.5 billion annually and impacts nearly 11 million people with Medicare.
• GONE: Rural hospitals as Medicare Advantage plans continue to systemically underpay rural providers and deny coverage to rural Americans.
• GONE: Medicare’s inflation rebate which has lowered costs for 203 drugs, 64 of which just this past quarter were subject to the rebate, used by around hundreds of thousands of Medicare beneficiaries annually since the program began.
• GONE: The Medicare plans for 33 million seniors who would be forced over into a Medicare Advantage plan.

Slashing Medicaid

Project 2025 repeatedly refers to Medicaid and its expansion under the ACA to low-income adults as “failing” and too expensive to maintain. Project 2025 proposes overhauling Medicaid expansion and imposing onerous work requirements, time limits, and lifetime caps, eliminating mandatory benefits, and funneling Medicaid funding toward vouchers for private insurance, whose plans will be far less affordable and provide fewer benefits. Their plan for Medicaid is simple: throw people off of their coverage and raise health care costs across the board. 

If Project 2025’s proposals are enacted:

• GONE: Coverage for 21 million people because of the GOP’s onerous work reporting requirements. 
• GONE: Protections and health care for up to half of the 38 million children currently covered through Medicaid and CHIP.
• GONE: Essential federal funding for states like Mississippi, whose population makes less than the federal average income, to support their Medicaid programs so that working-class Americans can continue to receive quality and affordable health care.
• GONE: Federal funding for Medicaid expansion, putting coverage for about 24 million Americans at risk. 
• GONE: Billions in state funding for Medicaid, as Republicans plan to eliminate provider taxes to cut taxes for the rich at the expense of Americans’ health care.

Restricting Reproductive Rights

Project 2025 calls for a national abortion ban and a reverse of the FDA’s approval of Mifepristone; the safe, effective, and most common medication prescribed for an abortion regimen. Project 2025 would also limit access to contraception and IVF for millions of Americans.

If Project 2025’s proposals are enacted:

• GONE: Access to abortion care if a state wants to maintain federal funding for its Medicaid programs.
• GONE: The ACA’s requirements that employers cover contraceptives, potentially increasing a woman’s out-of-pocket costs for contraception by more than $584 annually.
• GONE: The ability to seek a life-saving abortion at a Medicare-funded hospital as doctors could face up to 5 years in prison.
• GONE: All funding to Planned Parenthood which in just 2023 had over 2 million patients and performed nearly 10 million services including cancer screenings, STI tests, etc.
• GONE: No-cost emergency contraception currently available to 47.8 million Americans.

Washington, DC — On this day, 59 years ago, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed Medicare and Medicaid into law, improving the well-being of millions of Americans and saving countless lives along the way. While the Biden-Harris administration and Democrats in Congress have delivered lower health care costs and strengthened Medicare through the Inflation Reduction Act, MAGA Republicans continue to escalate their war on American health care. They released Project 2025, a dangerous policy roadmap designed to give more tax breaks to big corporations and the wealthiest Americans by decimating the middle class and stripping away our health care. 

Project 2025 would fully repeal the Inflation Reduction Act – including its lifesaving insulin cost cap and the power for Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices. Project 2025 also proposes overhauling Medicaid expansion and imposing onerous work requirements, time limits, and lifetime caps, eliminating mandatory benefits, and funneling Medicaid funding toward vouchers for private insurance, whose plans are far less affordable while providing fewer benefits. As a result, millions of people would lose their health care and costs would go up across the board. 

To mark the anniversary, Protect Our Care Chair Leslie Dach issued the following statement:

“Nothing better exemplifies the GOP war on health care than their relentless attacks on Medicare and Medicaid. MAGA Republicans have laid bare their plans for American health care: they are going to fight tooth and nail to reverse all of the progress made by Democrats and the Biden-Harris administration, raise costs, deny coverage to millions of people, and slash funding for these critical programs. The Republican position on Medicare and Medicaid is clear – cut it all and let American families suffer the consequences. As a result, families will lose the care they need to stay healthy, the ability to age with dignity, and control over their financial future. There could not be more at stake.”

Background: 

FACT SHEET: Trump and MAGA Republicans’ Vision To Slash Medicare and Medicaid

Hiking Costs for Seniors

While President Biden and Democrats delivered lower prices, Trump wants to put drug companies back in charge and slash tens of billions from Medicare in order to pay for tax breaks for the wealthy. The MAGA GOP plan hikes costs on premiums and prescription drug costs for seniors. Trump and his MAGA allies’ plan, Project 2025, would fully repeal the Inflation Reduction Act – including its prescription drug provisions like capping insulin costs and lowering drug prices for seniors. They also want to ban Medicare from being able to negotiate lower prices for prescription drugs, allowing drug companies to charge as much as they want. Worst of all, Trump wants to slash tens of billions from Medicare in order to pay for tax breaks for the wealthy, deregulating the program and pushing seniors towards private plans with limited coverage networks. 

If Trump and His MAGA Allies Got Their Way:

• GONE: Tens of billions in Medicare funding to pay for tax breaks for the wealthy.
• GONE: Medicare’s power to negotiate lower prices for the most popular and expensive prescription drugs.
• GONE: People on Medicare’s prescription drug savings, including a $2,000 annual out-of-pocket cap and protections from Big Pharma’s price gouges. Nearly 19 million American seniors are expected to save an average of $400 per year.
• GONE: Protections for people on Medicare from drug company price hikes through inflation rebates.
• GONE: Free vaccines for people on Medicare, including for shingles and pneumonia. 
• GONE: $35 monthly insulin cap for 4 million people on Medicare.
• GONE: Expanded eligibility for Medicare’s Extra Help program, putting affordable prescription drug coverage further out of reach for millions of seniors.

Kicking Millions of Seniors, Children, and Low-Income Workers Off Medicaid

MAGA Republicans in Congress and Donald Trump are fully committed to their plan to slash Medicaid funding and rip away care from millions. One in four Americans count on Medicaid for access to health care, and the program serves people from all backgrounds, including children, mothers, people of color, working families, people with disabilities, rural Americans, and seniors. 

During his first term, Donald Trump waged war on Medicaid. Trump-era Medicaid policies included failed paperwork requirements for people who count on Medicaid, and proposing to arbitrarily change the poverty line to throw more people off of coverage. Project 2025 calls for radically restructuring Medicaid, cutting funding by over 50 percent long-term. Project 2025 proposes to kick people off Medicaid by tying Medicaid funding to state abortion bans, imposing onerous work requirements, and allowing states to redirect Medicaid funding toward private insurance.

Other GOP proposals, such as the Republican Study Committee budget, proposes cutting Medicaid spending by over 54 percent in the next decade and ripping coverage away from tens of millions of children, seniors, and people with disabilities. House Republicans have also introduced multiple pieces of legislation over the past year that would deny Medicaid coverage to certain low-income working adults if they do not meet strict work reporting requirements riddled with paperwork and faulty websites, a move that could rip coverage away from as many as tens of million people. The Republican position on Medicaid is clear: cut it all and let Americans suffer the consequences. 

The GOP Plan for Medicaid: 

• GONE: Billions in state funding for Medicaid, cutting funding by over 50 percent long-term as Republicans plan to eliminate provider taxes in order to cut taxes for the rich at the expense of Americans’ health care.
• GONE: Federal funding for Medicaid expansion, putting coverage for around 24 million Americans at risk. 
• GONE: Coverage for 21 million people because of the GOP’s onerous work reporting requirements. 
• GONE: Free recommended vaccines for people with Medicaid and CHIP coverage.
• GONE: Protections and health care for up to half of the 38 million children currently covered through Medicaid/CHIP if Project 2025 plans are implemented
• GONE: Essential federal funding for states like Mississippi, whose population makes less than the federal average income, to support their Medicaid programs so that working-class Americans can continue to receive quality and affordable health care.

Trump and MAGA Republicans Continue To Attack Reproductive Health Care Access As 22nd State Abortion Ban Takes Effect 

This week, Iowa became the 22nd state with an active abortion ban. Ever since the MAGA Trump-appointed Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and ended nearly half a century of constitutionally protected abortion rights, attacks on reproductive health care from MAGA Republicans have skyrocketed, imperiling access to care for millions of Americans across the country. Donald Trump himself says that he is the one responsible for “killing Roe v. Wade.” He is responsible for the devastating consequences for women’s health and would push an extreme agenda taking away access to contraception and even in vitro fertilization (IVF). 

Just like Trump, Republicans have done nothing but push to limit access to essential reproductive care and they are pushing just as hard to limit access to contraception and IVF, pass a national abortion ban, undermine the Affordable Care Act, and gut Medicaid. Here are five ways Trump and MAGA Republicans are threatening reproductive care:

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. Since then, abortion extremists backed by Trump’s MAGA allies went to court to take the abortion medication mifepristone off the market entirely. At least 67 Republican members of Congress and 22 Republican attorneys general supported the push to ban mifepristone. Even though the MAGA SCOTUS just rejected their challenge, 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. 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.
   • State-Level MAGA Republicans Are Working To Punish Out-of-State Abortions. MAGA Republicans in states with draconian abortion bans have been finding ways to punish people seeking abortions out-of-state. Idaho passed a so-called “abortion trafficking” ban that was temporarily placed on hold by courts, and Alabama’s MAGA attorney general is attempting to use existing law to prosecute those who help others obtain abortions out-of-state. Texas Republicans are pushing for public lists of anyone pursuing an abortion as well as any family members who assisted or facilitated the effort.
2. 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.
3. 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. 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.”Earlier this summer, the MAGA-dominated Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals also heard a challenge to a provision of the ACA that requires insurers to cover lifesaving preventive services for free. They 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 right-wing 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. 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.
   • The Trump Administration Already Made It Harder To Access Reproductive Health Care. The Trump administration took multiple steps to make it harder to access reproductive health care, including by allowing insurance providers to “opt out” of ACA-mandated coverage for contraception and barring federal funding for abortions. As President, Trump allowed more employers to opt out of birth control coverage in their workers’ health insurance. In August 2019, the Trump administration also began enforcing a rule that barred 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.
   • Project 2025 Maps Out Broad Exemptions To ACA-Mandated Free Contraception. Project 2025 pushes for a set of “exemptions” to certain preventive care mandates for ACA-compliant coverage – including no-cost contraceptive coverage. This policy would reinstitute broad Trump-era exemptions that could increase every woman’s out-of-pocket costs for contraception by more than $584 annually while also allowing non-profit and for-profit employers to restrict their health coverage without notice.
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. Project 2025 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.
5. 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, who authored Project 2025, 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.
   • Project 2025 Lays Out MAGA Plans To Tie Medicaid Funding to State Abortion Bans. Project 2025 would tie federal Medicaid funding to the adoption of new requirements for abortion surveillance. These new requirements would mandate that every state provides the CDC with the state of residence for any person seeking an abortion in the state, the medical reason for an abortion, the gestational age of a fetus, and the method of abortion.

Seven Years Since John McCain’s “Thumbs Down” Vote, The Affordable Care Act Is Still Under Attack By MAGA Republicans

Washington, D.C. — Seven years ago today, Senators John McCain, Lisa Murkowski, and Susan Collins joined Democrats, to block Donald Trump’s efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA). To this day, Republicans haven’t given up on their war on health care and still want to destroy the ACA and all of its protections for over 100 million people with pre-existing conditions. Donald Trump sabotaged affordable health care and pre-existing condition protections while he was in office, and has renewed his call to terminate the ACA.

The ACA has survived countless repeal attempts, and now it’s stronger than ever. Thanks to the tireless work of President Biden, Vice President Harris, and Democrats in Congress, the 2024 open enrollment period was the most successful in history — a record-breaking 21.4 million Americans signed up for coverage. Coupled with the health law’s expansion of Medicaid, protections for people with pre-existing conditions, and cost-saving measures, the ACA has touched the lives of nearly every person in the nation.

In response, Protect Our Care Executive Director Brad Woodhouse issued the following statement: 

“Time and time again, Republicans show us their true colors by committing to repeal the ACA and other measures to achieve affordable health care. Trump’s allies in Congress have been trying to destroy the Affordable Care Act and its protections for 135 million Americans with pre-existing conditions for more than a decade. With only 100 days until the election to go, it is apparent that this is a health care election and the contrast could not be clearer. While Democrats deliver lower costs and better care, Republicans reignite their war on health care. Some things never change: Republicans want to gut health care, raising costs, denying and throwing the entire health care system into chaos.”

***MEDIA ADVISORY FOR WEDNESDAY, JULY 24, AT 11 A.M.***

Protect Our Care Released New Report on the Threats to Health Care by Donald Trump, Project 2025, and MAGA Republicans

Lansing, Michigan– On Wednesday, July 24, at 11 a.m., U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow and Michigan health care advocates will join Protect Our Care Michigan to highlight how the MAGA Republican Party, led by Donald Trump, is escalating their attacks on American health care and doubling down on their plan to deny tens of millions of Americans affordable, lifesaving health care. Speakers will discuss how MAGA Republican lawmakers and their allies continue to threaten to repeal the Affordable Care Act, while also working to dismantle reproductive care, hike premiums, slash Medicare and Medicaid, reverse recent coverage gains, and raise prescription drug costs on Michiganders. On the other hand, the Biden-Harris administration and Congressional Democrats are committed to protecting and strengthening health care by lowering premium costs, extending prescription drug savings to everyone, protecting people with pre-existing conditions, and expanding Medicaid. 

Recent polling from Protect Our Care demonstrates how health care remains a top issue to voters. A large majority – 80 percent of voters – said that the issue of health care will be important to them in voting this year, and the survey revealed overwhelming support for Democrats’ plan to extend the Inflation Reduction Act’s drug pricing reforms. The poll also found that 59 percent of voters agree more with the Biden-Harris Administration and Democrats in Congress on protecting and strengthening the ACA, while fewer voters agree with MAGA Republicans’ efforts to repeal the ACA. 

PRESS CALL:

WHO:
U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow
Michigan Rep. Julie Rogers
Erica Shekell, Michigan Planned Parenthood Votes communications director
Linda Vail, former Ingham County health officer
Eric Schneidewind, senior on Medicare and past AARP national president

WHAT: Virtual Press Conference

WHEN: Wednesday, July 24, at 11 a.m.

WHERE: Register for the Zoom event here (Registration required)

Washington, D.C. — Yesterday, President Joe Biden ended his reelection campaign, endorsing his Vice President, Kamala Harris, for the Democratic Presidential nomination. 

Over the last four years, President Biden has cemented his legacy as a true health care president. Alongside his Vice President Kamala Harris, President Biden capped the cost of insulin at $35 a month for seniors, lowered prescription drug prices, and reduced premiums for people who purchase coverage through the Affordable Care Act. Thanks to their leadership, more people are covered than ever before. The Biden-Harris administration also beat Big Pharma and gave Medicare the power to negotiate lower prices for some of the most expensive drugs on the market, while also protecting Medicaid and Medicare from Republican attacks and strengthening health care for new moms and kids. In addition, President Biden reignited the Cancer Moonshot program to accelerate progress in cancer research and improve the lives of those affected with new programs, policies, and resources.

Both Protect Our Care Executive Director Brad Woodhouse and Chair Leslie Dach issued the following statements: 

“Joe Biden is a health care president,” said Protect Our Care Chair Leslie Dach. “By building on the success of the Affordable Care Act and standing up to greedy drug companies, people across the country now have peace of mind knowing they can afford the lifesaving health care they need. Passing historic legislation like the Inflation Reduction Act made a world of difference for our nation’s seniors, people of color, people with disabilities, rural communities, and countless others. History will remember him as one of the most effective presidents and Protect Our Care will continue to carry on his legacy to ensure everyone, regardless of income, has the health care they need.”

“Joe Biden’s health care legacy is a BFD,” said Protect Our Care Executive Director Brad Woodhouse. “He entered office in the midst of a health care crisis inherited from Donald Trump. From day one, the Biden-Harris administration has been a champion for the middle class, fighting tooth and nail to reverse Trump’s health care sabotage and make affordable health care a reality for seniors and families across the nation. In the face of so many attacks on health care from across the aisle, President Biden doubled down on his efforts to lower drug prices, keep premium costs low, expand Medicaid, and put the health and well-being of families first. Millions of people receive better care at a lower cost thanks to President Biden.”