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GOP War on Health Care: Headlines Across the Nation Reveal Broad Opposition to Republican Scheme to Slash Medicaid

Over the weekend, the Senate passed a budget resolution laying the groundwork to cut almost a trillion dollars from Medicaid to fund tax breaks for the ultrawealthy and big corporations. The House is expected to cement these plans later this week, threatening the health care of over 70 million Americans. At a time when Trump is ripping apart the nation’s public health system and tanking the economy, Americans cannot afford these devastating cuts to Medicaid 

Millions across the country have shouted their outrage during town halls and protests, railing against indiscriminate cuts to Medicaid and vital public health services. Research shows that Republican voters rely on Medicaid for their health care and that cuts are unpopular among Trump voters. New polls also continue to shine a light on the importance of Medicaid in local communities, providing critical coverage to low-income seniors, children, veterans, and people with serious disabilities. From Trump voters opposing Medicaid cuts to opinion pieces written in local media outlets, headlines across the country make it clear just how unpopular their agenda is.

NATIONAL

CBS News: House Speaker Johnson Is Eyeing Big Cuts To Medicaid. In His Louisiana District, It’s A Lifeline.

  • “Last year nearly 290,000 people in Johnson’s district were enrolled in Medicaid, about 38% of the total population, according to data compiled by KFF, the health information nonprofit that includes KFF Health News. About 118,000 of them are in the program thanks to the Affordable Care Act, which allowed states including Louisiana to expand Medicaid to cover low-income adults, many of whom were working in low-paying jobs that don’t provide health insurance. Louisiana ranks second in Medicaid enrollment, at nearly 32% — a reflection of the state’s high poverty rate. As Republicans weigh cuts, their actions could have dramatic consequences for their constituents here. Of the eight GOP-held House districts with the most Medicaid enrollees due to the expansion, four are in Louisiana. Johnson’s largely rural district ranks sixth in expansion enrollees.”
  • “In this heavily Republican district, where Johnson won with 86% of the vote in November, 22% of residents live in poverty. […] Medicaid recipients in Johnson’s district, told about GOP plans to cut the program, said their lives are hard enough in a state where the minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. Without Medicaid, they said, they couldn’t afford health coverage.”

Politico: Trump Pollster Finds Medicaid Cuts Unpopular Among Trump Voters.

  • “A majority of people who voted for Donald Trump oppose potential moves from congressional Republicans to cut Medicaid funding, according to new polling from the firm of Tony Fabrizio, the president’s 2024 campaign pollster.”
  • “‘There’s really not a political appetite out there to go after Medicaid to pay for tax cuts,’ said Bob Ward, partner with Fabrizio Ward, in an interview. ‘Medicaid has touched so many families that people have made up their minds about what they don’t want to see cut.’”

KFF Health News: The House Speaker’s Eyeing Big Cuts to Medicaid. In His Louisiana District, It’s a Lifeline.

  • “KFF Health News spoke with two dozen Medicaid enrollees in Johnson’s district. Most said they were unaware their congressman is leading the Republican charge to upend the program. Those informed of the Republican plan said it scares them.”
  • “Medicaid recipients in Johnson’s district, told about GOP plans to cut the program, said their lives are hard enough in a state where the minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. Without Medicaid, they said, they couldn’t afford health coverage.”

New York Times: The Three States That Are Especially Stuck if Congress Cuts Medicaid.

  • “If Republicans choose to make the projected budget reductions by cutting into Medicaid expansion, the other 37 states (and D.C.) that participate in the expansion could stop covering working-class adults. Nine states have laws explicitly requiring them to stop Medicaid expansion or make significant changes if the federal share of spending drops. But South Dakota, Missouri and Oklahoma can’t do that. They either need to amend their constitutions, a lengthy process that can take years, or figure out how to fill the budget hole, most likely by cutting other services or raising taxes.”

Axios: Senate Sets Up Clash Over Medicaid Cuts.

  • “What they’re saying: Republican senators have made clear their concerns about Medicaid cuts. ‘Tonight I spoke for a good bit with President Trump about Medicaid — he told me the House will NOT cut Medicaid benefits and the Senate will NOT cut Medicaid benefits and he won’t sign any benefit cuts,’ Sen. Josh Hawley wrote on X on Thursday. ‘I hope congressional leadership will get the message.’ Sen. Lisa Murkowski also wrote on X that despite her voting for the budget resolution, it had ‘serious shortcomings.’ These included the adoption of the current policy baseline and that it still had the instruction for finding $880 billion in savings from House Energy and Commerce ‘that would require significant cuts to Medicaid.’ Hawley even joined with Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden on an amendment to strike that Energy and Commerce instruction. It narrowly failed, with Hawley, Murkowski and Sen. Susan Collins the only Republicans to break ranks and vote for it.”

Truthout: Resistance Grows as Proposed Cuts Threaten Health Care for Over 79 Million in US.

  • “‘The need for health care unites us all,’ Smith told Truthout. ‘Right now, I’m terrified of losing Medicaid and being unable to get injections for pain control. They’re the only thing that makes it possible for me to be on my game.’”

The Canary: Trump’s Impending Medicare Cuts Spell Disaster for Severely Chronically Ill People Like Emily.

  • “What’s more, not only will the cuts sever her financial bridge to her daily treatment, but it could stop her getting the surgeries she sorely needs. These are crucial treatments that could improve her long-standing health issues. These would help her regain a quality of life that enables her to not just survive, but live with fewer life-threatening, debilitating symptoms, and she hopes, even pursue her passions.”
  • “To this point, Emily has only been able to access the care and surgeries she has needed due to Medicare and Medicaid.”

IN THE STATES

Public News Service: Federal Budget Cuts to Medicaid Would Significantly Impact New Mexico.

  • “‘Over 780,000 New Mexicans are currently enrolled in Medicaid,’ said Otero, ‘so federal cuts would greatly impact how things operate here in New Mexico.’ She added that cuts in coverage threaten health care services, from the birth of a new child to cancer treatments.”

WSHU: CT Democrats Seek Public Support to Stop GOP Medicaid Cuts.

  • “‘It’s like Sophie’s Choice who gets help here,’ he [Rep. Joe Courtney] said during a visit to Connecticut Children’s Medical Center in Hartford on Friday. ‘There’s no question that every program, particularly children who are such a high percent of the patient population, would be negatively impacted,’ Courtney said.”

Union-Bulletin: Think Proposed Medicaid Cuts Will Affect Only Poor, Elderly in Central WA? Think Again.

  • “It’s not just people like Morgan’s client who need to be concerned about deep cuts to Medicaid that Congress may approve. The program provides free or low-cost medical care to nearly 300,000 in Washington’s 4th Congressional District, which includes the Tri-Cities. The district is the most dependent on Medicaid/Apple Health in the state, with 70% of children and 24% of adults relying on the government program. Covered patients include children, the elderly, those with disabilities, young families and people who don’t have health insurance benefits at their job. Steep reductions to the Washington Medicaid, or Apple Health, would impact services for other residents, according to health care officials. They could mean even busier emergency rooms, the closure of rural hospitals and loss of community doctors, and fewer medical services for everyone as hospitals lose Medicaid revenue.”

KMA Land: Nonprofits Warn Proposed Medicaid Cuts Could Devastate Millions of Missourians.

  • “About 1.3 million Missourians are currently enrolled in Medicaid and nonprofits around the state have warned proposed federal cuts would be devastating. In Missouri, children are the largest group served by Medicaid, with 61% enrolled. States could face more than $800 billion in Medicaid cuts and more than $200 billion in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP or food stamps.”
  • “‘State legislators are going to be forced to — and administrators forced to — find those dollars elsewhere,’ Bryant Macklin pointed out. ‘That elsewhere will be from other key social services that folks are relying upon and that the state has grown accustomed to receiving that federal support.’”

CalMatters: California Has Big Plans for Improving Mental Health. Medicaid Cuts Could Upend Them.

  • “But mental health advocates, health plans, and county officials put it this way: Medicaid funding cuts would result in more sick people going without treatment. That would increase the likelihood of them losing employment or dropping out of school and ending up in need of more acute care, or worse, on the street.”

PennLive: Opinion: Federal Cuts to Medicaid Would Devastate Low-Income Pennsylvanians.

  • “Federal health care programs like Medicaid, Title X, and ACA Marketplace plans are essential for Pennsylvanians, especially people with low incomes, people of color, and the LGBTQ+ community. These programs provide access to birth control, STI testing, cancer screenings, and gender-affirming care—services that keep our communities healthy.”

Kentucky Lantern: Opinion: Affordable Health Care Is at Risk for Many Kentuckians.

  • “Medicaid is also at risk: Politicians are spreading exaggerations and falsehoods, trivializing the successes of Medicaid and working hard to strip affordable health care away from those who need it most. In Congress, it has been widely reported that Republican leaders are weighing enormous cuts to Medicaid to pay for an extension of tax cuts for the wealthy.”

West Virginia Watch: Opinion: West Virginians Have Sent a Clear Message to Lawmakers: Don’t Cut Medicaid.

  • “West Virginians can’t afford state or federal cuts to Medicaid. We need our congressional delegation to fight for a budget that prioritizes people — not the interests of the wealthy few. If they truly represent the interests of their constituents, they will protect Medicaid and ensure that every West Virginian, regardless of income, has access to the health care they need.”

Daily Herald: Opinion: Protecting Medicaid’s Promise for People With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.

  • “In Illinois, one in three people with intellectual and developmental disabilities rely on Medicaid for their long-term care and support needs. These are our neighbors, our family members, our friends — and they deserve to have the support needed to live independently, have careers and thrive in their communities.”
  • “Medicaid cuts won’t save money — they’ll shift costs to states, forcing states to cut services or increase the burden on taxpayers.”

La Crosse Tribune: Wisconsinites Fear Trump Medicaid Cuts; ‘This Time, It Just Feels Different.’

  • “Frederick, like many others in western Wisconsin, harbors deep concerns about the impact of possible Medicaid cuts. The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed a broad budget outline that calls for $880 billion in spending cuts over 10 years. Budget analysts doubt whether that can be achieved without deep cuts to Medicaid, especially if Congress approves another round of tax reductions while keeping programs such s Social Security, Medicare, defense spending, farm subsidies and veterans’ benefits untouched.”

Salt Lake Tribune: Cutting Medicaid Could Be Devastating for Children.

  • “Cutting Medicaid would deny coverage to many of these children. Not only would this show a lack of compassion for innocent children, there would be many other costs to our country. Children who are denied coverage would experience worse health outcomes, including impact to their mental health, which could affect their ability to be productive members of society as adults. The families are also likely to compile medical debt that they are unable to pay, increasing the costs of health care for the country overall.”

Cleveland.com: ‘Cataclysmic Ripple Effect:’ How Medicaid Cuts Could Harm Ohio’s Economy

  • “Patients could lose their health care while in the midst of cancer treatment. The newly uninsured may avoid getting care because they’re afraid of the bill. When they finally do see a physician, these patients will be sicker.”
  • “All hospitals would be impacted by the cuts because they must pay for the cost of care that Medicaid doesn’t cover. But safety-net hospitals, like MetroHealth System, are particularly vulnerable if cuts occur, because they treat a disproportionate share of the region’s lower-income individuals.”

AL.com: Opinion: I Became a Doctor to Save Lives. The State of Alabama Won’t Let Me.

  • “Over the last decade, I have watched, helplessly, as patients succumbed to preventable illnesses because they could not afford medical care. Alabama Medicaid covers health care for children, but once they reach age 19, their care is cut off, denying many sick kids access to care that would allow them to live the lives they wanted. I am not the only doctor who has had patients die because of insurance loss.”
  • “Protecting Medicaid will save lives. Funding cuts would be devastating — not just for patients, but for our entire health care system. People like Carrie and Blake deserve a chance to thrive. And physicians like me deserve a fighting chance to do what we trained to do: heal.”
ashoup
In News

Trump’s War on Health Care: Public Health Watch

“People Will Die” – Kennedy Unleashes Unprecedented Effort To Dismantle America’s Health Care System

Welcome to Public Health Watch, a weekly roundup from Protect Our Care tracking catastrophic activity as part of Donald Trump’s sweeping war on health care. From installing anti-vaccine zealot RFK Jr. as Secretary of HHS to empowering Elon Musk to make indiscriminate cuts to our public health infrastructure, including the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control, Donald Trump is endangering the lives of millions of Americans. Protect Our Care’s Public Health Watch will shine a spotlight on the worst of the Trump/RFK/Musk war on vaccines, science and public health and serve as a resource for the press, public and advocacy groups to hold them accountable. 

What’s Happening In Public Health?

Catastrophic Cuts Are Creating Chaos And Endangering Americans’ Health And Scientific Innovation

Politico: RFK Jr. said HHS would rehire thousands of fired workers. That wasn’t true. When HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Thursday that he planned to rehire 20 percent of the employees he’d just terminated, he insisted such a move was “always the plan.” Turns out, it wasn’t the plan at all. HHS has no intention of reinstating any significant number of the staffers fired as part of a mass reduction-in-force on Tuesday, despite Kennedy’s assertion that some had been mistakenly cut, a person familiar with the department’s plans told POLITICO. The layoffs eliminated roughly 10,000 jobs across HHS, gutting several public health offices and purging prominent senior scientists from the Food and Drug Administration and National Institutes of Health. They came after the department had already jettisoned 10,000 people who took early retirement and voluntary separation offers encouraged by the Trump administration. Kennedy at the time called the cuts necessary to refocus and improve HHS, even as he acknowledged it was a “difficult moment.” Yet on Thursday, he appeared to signal that some of those firings would be walked back. “Personnel that should not have been cut were cut — we’re reinstating them, and that was always the plan,” Kennedy said, indicating that CDC officials focused on monitoring lead exposure levels among children would be among those brought back. “The part of that, DOGE — we talked about this from the beginning — is we’re going to do 80 percent cuts but 20 percent of those are going to have to be reinstalled because we’ll make mistakes.” But contrary to Kennedy’s vow, his team had no expectation of reinstating anywhere near 20 percent of the fired workers.

CBS: RFK Jr. to lay off more NIH employees amid HHS restructuring, officials say More employees at the National Institutes of Health are expected to be laid off in the coming days, multiple federal officials say, less than a week after an initial wave of cuts gutted many offices within the health research agency. The NIH was initially supposed to lose about 1,200 scientists, support staff and other officials as a result of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s restructuring. It is unclear how many additional employees will be targeted for cuts. A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services did not provide a response when asked why the additional cuts were occurring.  In a statement, a department official said that HHS is doing its reorganization “in phases,” following the layoffs of roughly 10,000 employees who were notified Tuesday that they were cut.

Washington Post: How the CDC’s widespread layoffs cut lifesaving health programs Drowning prevention. Hotlines to report school shootings. Contraceptive guidelines. Tips from former smokers on how to quit. Hundreds of employees who worked in these programs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were laid off Tuesday, part of widespread job cuts across the Department of Health and Human Services designed to streamline the federal bureaucracy. The programs have lower profiles than the CDC’s infectious-disease investigations of the ongoing measles outbreak in Texas and New Mexico, or last year’s E. coli illnesses from contaminated onions on McDonald’s Quarter Pounders. But these efforts reflect the ways the CDC’s portfolio has broadened over time to include a wider range of health issues as leading causes of death in the United States have shifted over decades, from infectious disease to accidents, suicides, overdoses and chronic illnesses. Employees who were laid off worked on measures to prevent drowning, gun violence and smoking. Scientists researched asthma, climate change and worker safety.

Stat: Trump administration orders NIH to eliminate $2.6 billion in federal contracts Leaders at the National Institutes of Health have been meeting this week to figure out how to cut $2.6 billion in contracts from the biomedical research agency’s budget, according to three people familiar with the matter and internal emails obtained by STAT.  Early last week, the Trump administration’s federal government-shrinking task force, known as the U.S. DOGE Service, directed the NIH to reduce contract spending across each of its 27 institutes and centers by roughly 35%. The NIH was told to comply by April 8, according to the emails obtained by STAT.  The cuts are likely to further paralyze an agency that on Tuesday lost 1,200 employees, including the directors of five institutes and the heads of several labs, and has had key grantmaking, research training, and science communication functions severely limited since Trump’s return to the White House.

Vox: A catastrophe is unfolding at the top US health agency — and it will put American lives at risk When Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sought to be confirmed as Donald Trump’s secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), he had to overcome a long record of fringe anti-science beliefs. He had indulged in conspiracies about chem trails, questioned whether HIV was the actual cause of AIDS, and, most notably, spread the repeatedly debunked theory that childhood vaccinations could lead to autism. In private meetings with senators and public confirmation hearings, he downplayed that record and claimed he wasn’t anti-vaccine: “I am pro-safety,” Kennedy said in his opening statement at one hearing. “I believe vaccines have a critical role in health care.” He gave assurances to Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, an MD and one of the last Republican holdouts on his nomination, that he would not change federal vaccine guidance But less than two months into his term, Kennedy is blocking the release of pro-vaccine data amid a widening measles outbreak even as he puts into motion long-term projects that seem set to further erode Americans’ wobbly trust in childhood vaccination. Coupled with the massive staff cuts at HHS, a weakened federal health department is being remade in Kennedy’s anti-vax, anti-science image — an overhaul that could have dangerous consequences for Americans’ health for years to come. On Tuesday, the Trump administration began to lay off 10,000 workers across HHS, which includes the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention, and the National Institutes of Health. Combined with workers who had already departed or were laid off earlier, the department’s overall headcount is expected to shrink from 82,000 to 62,000 people.

The Bulwark: ‘People Will Die’—RFK Jr. Guts America’s Health Bureaucracy The Trump Administration just took a sledgehammer to America’s public health infrastructure. On Tuesday morning, the Department of Health and Human Services informed thousands of employees they were losing their jobs. The notices came by email and, in one sense, they were not a surprise. Last Thursday, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced the layoffs were imminent, as part of a broader restructuring designed to shrink the department’s total workforce by 25 percent. But it’s one thing to know those layoffs are coming, quite another to learn about the real people who will no longer have jobs, the real positions that will no longer exist, and the real divisions that will no longer operate as they did before. The sheer breadth of the cuts is staggering: The layoffs affected agencies that exist to fight deadly pathogens, to protect the nation’s drug supply, to finance and carry out cutting-edge research—along with countless other divisions and offices that touch everything from rural health to early childhood care.

CNN: ‘It’s a bloodbath’: Massive wave of job cuts underway at US health agencies A massive wave of job cuts got underway at US health agencies Tuesday, with some employees receiving early-morning emails saying their jobs were eliminated and some unable to access the building when they arrived at work. It was not immediately clear how many employees had received notice Tuesday morning. The US Department of Health and Human Services has not responded to CNN’s request for comment. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said last week that 10,000 full-time employees would be cut on top of thousands who had already left and probationary employees currently on leave. He said the changes would make fighting chronic disease the priority and reduce “bureaucratic sprawl.” Kennedy promised that the department would do more with less. After weeks of worry from agency staffers, job cuts — known as a reduction in force, or RIF — were sweeping across offices at multiple agencies, hitting leadership, longtime staffers, scientists, administrators and communications staff. “It’s a bloodbath,” one US Food and Drug Administration employee said.

Health Impacts:

Local Impacts: 

Chaotic Firings and Re-Hirings:

Cruel and Destructive Policy Changes:

RFK Jr. Is An Extreme MAGA Anti-Vaxxer Who’s Breaking His “Assurances” To Key Republicans To Get Confirmed And Mis-Managing HHS

Stat: ‘Most effective way’ to prevent measles is vaccination, RFK Jr. says, in most direct remarks yet Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Sunday that “the most effective way to prevent the spread of measles is the MMR vaccine,” his most direct statement yet on the issue, following the death of a second child of the condition in the outbreak in West Texas.  Kennedy, who has long described the vaccine as dangerous, has largely avoided endorsing its use since the start of the outbreak, and he stopped short of explicitly saying he “recommended” it in his latest remarks, as public health officials have called on him to do.

  • The Daily Beast: RFK Jr. Touts Bogus Measles Treatment Hours After Burying 8-Year-Old Child Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. touted the work of two controversial “healers” Sunday—just hours after advocating for vaccinations and attending the funeral of a child who died as part of a measles outbreak taking over Texas. Kennedy praised Dr. Richard Bartlett, who, according to CNN, has a history of using unconventional treatments and who was disciplined for “unusual use of risk-filled medications” by the Texas Medical Board in 2003. While none of the patients at the time had measles, the Texas Medical Board found that Bartlett had misdiagnosed his patients and mismanaged their care. He was cleared to return to practice in 2005. Kennedy then touted the work of Dr. Ben Edwards, who, according to The New York Times, is a vocal antivaxxer and who has a “wellness clinic” that dishes out vitamin C supplements and cod liver oil, both as a lemon-flavored drink and unflavored soft gels. In his latest X post, Kennedy was flanked by two families affected by the measles outbreak.
  • Washington Post: Can vitamin A treat measles? RFK Jr. suggests so. Kids are overdosing. Some unvaccinated children hospitalized with measles had signs of vitamin A toxicity, a hospital in West Texas said in a statement last week, adding that patient reports said it was being used “for both treatment and prevention of measles.” And in Gaines County, in West Texas, the center of a measles outbreak, there has been a surge in demand for products rich in vitamin A, such as cod liver oil.

Wall Street Journal: Ousted Vaccine Chief Says RFK Jr.’s Team Sought Data to Justify Anti-Science Stance The top vaccine regulator ousted by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the health secretary’s team has sought nonexistent data to justify antivaccine narratives and pushed to water down regulation of unproven stem-cell treatments. “I can never give allegiance to anyone else other than to follow the science as we see it,” said Dr. Peter Marks, the Food and Drug Administration official. “That does not mean that I can just roll over and take conspiracy theories and justify them.”  Marks, who is leaving his FDA post on Saturday after he was offered the choice to resign or be fired, described Kennedy’s tenure to date as “very scary” in an interview with The Wall Street Journal on Friday.  The outgoing official said he was speaking out to encourage parents to vaccinate their children against measles, as cases mount in Texas and New Mexico. He urged the Trump administration to give a full-throated endorsement of the measles vaccine because it can prevent deaths and recommended a vaccination campaign.

Politico: Top Trump FDA official Brenner hits pause on Novavax Covid-19 vaccine decision A top FDA official directly intervened in an agency review of Novavax’s Covid-19 vaccine, pausing the approval process to ask for more data on the shot, according to four people familiar with the decision granted anonymity to discuss the approval status. Dr. Sara Brenner, FDA’s Principal Deputy Commissioner, took the highly unusual step, cutting against longstanding precedent at the agency designed to shield scientific assessments from political interference. Typically, political FDA appointees follow the advice of career staff tasked with reviewing reams of data on drugs and vaccines seeking approval. The move comes amid HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s decision to force out the top official responsible for reviewing such vaccines, Dr. Peter Marks, and put his deputy Julie Tierney on administrative leave.

New York Times: Kennedy’s Plan to Send Health Officials to ‘Indian Country’ Angers Native Leaders Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made a show on Facebook of his meeting with American Indian and Alaska Native leaders last month, declaring himself “very inspired” and committed to improving the Indian Health Service, which he says has “always been treated as the redheaded stepchild” by his agency. Now Native leaders have some questions for him. Why, they would like to know, did he lay off employees in programs aimed at supporting Native people, like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Healthy Tribes initiative? Why has he shuttered five regional offices of the Department of Health and Human Services that, by the estimate of one advocate for tribes, cover 80 percent of the nation’s Indian population? Why were five senior advisers for tribal issues within the department’s Administration for Children and Families, all of them Indian or Native people, let go? Why are all of these changes being made without consulting tribal leaders, despite centuries-old treaty obligations, as well as presidential executive orders, requiring it? But the final indignity, Native leaders say, came last week, when Mr. Kennedy reassigned high-ranking health officials — including a bioethicist married to Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, a tobacco regulator, a human resources manager and others — to Indian Health Service locations in the American West, when what the chronically understaffed service really needs are doctors and nurses who are familiar with the unique needs of Native people.

NBC: How Kennedy is already weakening America’s childhood vaccine system Last week, Jackie Griffith showed up at her office at the Collin County Health Care Clinic in north Texas ready to start her day — answering emails from local doctors before heading to a nearby high school to go over the latest vaccine record requirements.  Instead, the 60-year-old registered nurse was called into her director’s office and told to pack up her belongings. The federal government had yanked funding, she learned, and her position — supporting vaccination efforts for uninsured children through a network of more than 60 providers — was gone.  Across the country in New Hampshire, Kayla Hogan, 27, was hearing the same. She worked for the state’s Department of Health and Human Services, onboarding clinics and hospitals into a data system that would help them administer free childhood vaccines. Now that project was in jeopardy, threatening the process of getting children vaccinated.   The cuts that ensnared Griffith, Hogan and many others whose work touches vaccines in dozens of states were part of $11.4 billion in funds that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Department of Health and Human Services pulled back from state and community health departments last week, included in the larger slashing of federal government under Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. More than $2 billion was taken from “Immunization and Vaccines for Children” grants, which support the delivery of vaccines to children whose families may not be able to afford them,  according to a list HHS published. 

Mother Jones: During a Past Measles Outbreak, RFK Jr. Dismissed Concern as “Hysteria” In early 2015, the California Department of Public Health identified a case of measles in an 11-year-old who had recently traveled to Disneyland. Within a month, at least 125 US residents were stricken with the disease. About a third of them had visited the Magic Kingdom theme park, many were unvaccinated, and the outbreak spread to Arizona, Colorado, Nebraska, Oregon, Utah, and Washington, as well as Canada and Mexico. This burst of measles prompted much public discussion about vaccine hesitancy. Yet Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dismissed concern about the outbreak as “hysteria.” At the time, several state legislatures were considering measures that would limit vaccine exemptions, in many cases ending the ability of parents to skirt immunization requirements for their children by citing a personal belief (as opposed to a medical reason). As one of the most prominent anti-vaxxers in the nation, Kennedy opposed these bills.

Washington Post: NIH prepares to launch new research into autism causes, a Trump priority The National Institutes of Health is planning a new, multimillion-dollar research program examining the causes of autism and the spike in U.S. diagnoses, according to three people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe in-progress discussions. NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, Principal Deputy Director Matthew J. Memoli and other agency officials have discussed a broad agenda to investigate autism spectrum disorders. The effort could involve launching a public competition intended to jump-start research ideas and interest, or a more traditional approach of awarding research grants, the people said. NIH also may purchase additional data compiled by outside researchers, the people said. NIH did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The research plan, which is still being finalized, would focus on understanding the causes behind the rise of childhood autism diagnoses, which have increased more than fourfold in the past two decades and have emerged as a top public health priority of the Trump administration. It would also delve into an issue that has been complicated by the long-lasting effects of a widely discredited 1998 research study that linked measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccines to autism. While the study was retracted — and more than two dozen other studies into MMR vaccines have shown that the immunizations do not increase the risk of autism — about a quarter of Americans continue to mistakenly believe that there is a connection, and President Donald Trump, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and some vocal advocacy groups have refused to rule it out.

Politico: RFK Jr. drops plan to have Medicare, Medicaid cover weight loss drugs Medicare and Medicaid will not cover blockbuster drugs such as Ozempic to treat obesity, the Trump administration announced on Friday. The Biden administration in November proposed allowing the public insurance programs to expand coverage of the anti-obesity medications but the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services now says that is “not appropriate at this time.” More than 7 million people would have gained coverage to the medicine, CMS said when it proposed the rule. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has criticized the class of weight loss drugs known as GLP-1s, arguing the obesity problem can be solved by improving Americans’ diets and encouraging exercise. Kennedy said in a Fox News interview in October that pharma companies are counting on selling the drugs to Americans because “we’re so stupid and so addicted to drugs.”

Axios: RFK Jr.’s emerging vision for HHS: More centralized power Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says sweeping layoffs and restructuring in the department will bring order to a bureaucracy he claims is in “pandemonium.” But experts say the overhaul also likely gives him far greater control over dozens of federal health agencies. Why it matters: HHS has long functioned like a decentralized behemoth, with key decisions on hiring, grant funding, and public health priorities often in the hands of career staff and scientists. The big picture: Along with cutting more than 10,000 jobs, HHS last week unveiled a plan centralize all human resources, IT, procurement and policy decisions, moving administrative control away from individual divisions. Central to this restructuring is the creation of the Administration for a Healthy America (AHA), a new entity that aims to centralize functions related to public health, addiction services and environmental health under a single umbrella This move is seen by some as an attempt to exert greater political control over public health initiatives, potentially compromising the independence of operating agencies with specialized missions.  Experts warn that folding an agency like the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration into a larger entity could dilute its focus and undermine efforts to combat the nation’s ongoing addiction and mental health crises.

Other MAHA Activities:

Court Battles

New York Times: Trump Is on Shaky Legal Ground With Mass Layoffs at H.H.S., Experts Say A “policy lab” that generates ideas to improve mental health. An office that studies the effects of smoking. A team of scientists and public health experts who focus on birth defects. All three are programs in the Department of Health and Human Services that were created by Congress, which funds them. And all three have been hollowed out by mass layoffs at the agency ordered by President Trump and Elon Musk, the billionaire adviser leading the federal government’s cost-cutting efforts. Since Tuesday, when the layoffs began, lawmakers, medical associations, research universities and state health agencies have scrambled to sort out which jobs were eliminated, and how to respond. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has already admitted that some workers were mistakenly fired alongside nearly 20 percent of the agency’s work force, and has promised that they will be reinstated. The Republican chairman and top Democrat on the Senate health committee asked Mr. Kennedy to testify about the cuts next week, but it is not clear if he has accepted the invitation. One thing is clear: The layoffs and wholesale reorganization of the department are the latest in a series of Trump administration actions ripe for legal challenges. The administration has been on shaky ground, legal experts said, in dissolving agencies created and funded by Congress.

CBS: CBS: Federal judge temporarily blocks $11 billion in Trump administration’s cuts to public health funding A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s move to cut over $11 billion in public health funding to states after 23 states and the District of Columbia sued to keep the funding intact. The coalition of states sued the Health and Human Services Department and Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., arguing that the money is used for many “urgent public health needs,” including tracking diseases, funding access to vaccines and mental health and addiction services, and improving health infrastructures. The attorneys general allege that the funding was “abruptly and arbitrarily terminated” on March 24. The Trump administration has pointed to the easing of the public health threat posed by COVID-19 in justifying its move to cut off the funding, which was first offered to state and local health departments earlier during the public health emergency declared for the virus.

New York Times: Judge Permanently Bars N.I.H. From Limiting Medical Research Funding A federal judge permanently barred the Trump administration on Friday from limiting funding from the National Institutes of Health that supports research at universities and academic medical centers, restoring billions of dollars in grant money but setting up an almost certain appeal. The ruling by Judge Angel Kelley, of the Federal District Court in Massachusetts, made an earlier temporary order by her permanent and was one of the first final decisions in the barrage of lawsuits against the Trump administration. But it came about in an unusual way: The government asked the court to enter that very verdict earlier on Friday so it could move ahead with an appeal. The decision nonetheless was an initial win for a diverse assortment of institutions that conduct medical research. After the Trump administration announced the policy change in February, scores of research hospitals and universities issued dire warnings that the proposal threatened to kneecap American scientific prowess and innovation, estimating that the change could force those institutions to collectively cover a nearly $4 billion shortfall.

New York Times: 16 States Sue to Restore N.I.H. Funding California, Massachusetts and 14 other states sued the Trump administration on Friday for withholding grant funding from public health and medical research institutions, cuts that have forced universities to curtail research and to delay the hiring of new staff. The National Institutes of Health is the world’s leading public funder of biomedical research, supporting studies on aging, substance abuse and other major issues. More than 80 percent of the agency’s $47 billion budget goes to outside researchers — grant funding that in recent weeks has been eliminated, paused or delayed by the Trump administration in a “concerted, and multi-pronged effort to disrupt NIH’s grants,” according to the lawsuit. Cuts and delays to N.I.H. funding have crippled research teams in universities across the country and halted studies midstream, setting back work on diseases like cancer and diabetes and plunging American medical research into crisis. The attorneys general are asking the courts to restore pulled grant funding and to allow pending grant applications to be evaluated and approved fairly.

CNN: Scholars, groups sue Trump administration over canceled NIH research funding 

A public health association and one of the nation’s largest worker unions are suing the Trump administration over the abrupt cancellation of hundreds of research grants, arguing that the moves were arbitrary and capricious and that the federal grant process is supposed to be above politics. The complaint was filed Wednesday in a Massachusetts court by the American Public Health Association, the United Auto Workers, which also represents research scientists, and several scholars against the US Department of Health and Human Services, the National Institutes of Health, NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Disastrous, Dangerous Appointments

USA Today: Mehmet Oz wins Senate confirmation to lead Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Television host and surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz was confirmed on Thursday to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on a 53-45 vote that split the U.S. Senate along party lines with Republicans in support and Democrats in opposition. During his confirmation hearing last month, Oz vowed to empower patients to take charge of their health care and crack down on fraud, waste and abuse to safeguard federal health programs.

  • New York Times: Dr. Oz ‘Disavows’ Support for Transgender Care, Assuaging a Senator’s Concerns Senator Josh Hawley, the Missouri Republican, said on Monday that he had decided to support the nomination of Dr. Mehmet Oz to lead Medicare and Medicaid because Dr. Oz told him that he would no longer support transgender care for minors and was “unequivocally pro-life.” The Senate is expected to vote on Dr. Oz’s nomination to become administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services sometime this month. Mr. Hawley was vocal about withholding his support for Dr. Oz, a cardiothoracic surgeon who became a daytime TV celebrity, over concerns about his previous positions on transgender care and certain state abortion laws. Dr. Oz featured segments on the television show about transgender care and had also previously raised possible objections to proposed state legislation that would prohibit abortion based on fetal heartbeats. In his responses to Mr. Hawley’s written questions, Dr. Oz assured the senator that he “disavows his previous support for trans surgeries & drugs for minor children,” Mr. Hawley posted on X, the social media site. He added that he “also walks back past criticism of state pro-life laws.” Dr. Oz said he would also “work to end funding for abortion providers,” Mr. Hawley said.

Politico: New FDA commissioner agreed to oust top vaccine regulator after private swearing-in Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary signed off on the ouster of top vaccine official Peter Marks shortly after being quietly sworn in as the agency’s new leader late last week, four people familiar with the matter told POLITICO. The forced removal was Makary’s first major act as commissioner and sent a powerful signal to a stunned Washington that was already anxious about the role vaccine skepticism would play under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Health and Human Services Department. Makary and Kennedy had previously agreed to push out Marks, who led the FDA’s vaccine division for more than eight years, as part of a broader overhaul of HHS leadership.

Public Health Threats

NBC: Second measles death reported in Texas Another child with measles in Texas has died, the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed late Saturday night, though the exact cause of death is under investigation. This would be the second pediatric death amid a fast-growing outbreak that’s infected nearly 500 people in Texas alone since January. An adult in New Mexico is also suspected of dying from measles. The deaths are the first from the disease in the United States in a decade.  HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was expected to attend the child’s funeral, which is scheduled for Sunday, according to a person familiar with the plans.

NBC: Texas measles outbreak nears 500 cases as virus spreads among day care kids Six young children at a Lubbock, Texas, day care center have tested positive for measles — a dreaded scenario with the potential to accelerate an already out-of-control outbreak that has spread to at least two other states. More than a dozen other states and Washington, D.C. are dealing with cases of measles unrelated to Texas. On Friday, the Texas Department of State Health Services said the toll rose to 481 confirmed cases, a 14% jump over last week. Fifty-six people have been hospitalized in the area since the disease started spreading in late January.

  • Stat: U.S. may be reverting to a time when measles deaths were not very rare, experts warn The United States recorded three measles deaths in the first 24 years of this century. In just over three months of 2025, it has equaled that number. The most recent patient, an 8-year-old unvaccinated and previously healthy girl in West Texas, died late last week. Infectious disease experts warn that the days when measles deaths in the United States were ultra rare may be over for now.  With vaccination rates falling in parts of the country and a long-term critic of the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — as the country’s leading health official, experts interviewed by STAT warned the country may be on a trajectory where increasingly large measles outbreaks will occur and some of those cases will be fatal.

CNN: Two infants die of whooping cough in Louisiana as cases climb nationally In his 20 years working in pediatric infectious disease, Dr. John Schieffelin has never seen another illness like pertussis. Also known as whooping cough, it’s a contagious respiratory illness that can develop into a painful, full-body cough. The coughing fits can be severe, often accompanied by a whooping sound when the person tries to catch their breath. And it’s continuous, even if a person needs to be placed on a ventilator, says Schieffelin, an associate professor of pediatrics at Tulane University. “For infants, it’s really rather terrifying,” he said. “They’re just coughing so much, they can’t eat, they can’t drink, and they often get a pneumonia, which means we have to put them on a ventilator. … They just never stop coughing.” In Louisiana, two infants have died of pertussis in the past six months, according to the state health department, the first deaths from the disease in the state since 2018. Louisiana has had 110 cases of pertussis reported so far this year, the health department said – already approaching the 154 cases reported for all of 2024. Cases are on the rise nationally, too. There were more than 35,000 cases of whooping cough last year in the US, the highest number in more than a decade, and 10 people died — six of them less than 1 year old.

Public Health Threats Around The World:

Opinion and Commentary

ashoup
In News

FACT SHEET: Republicans Are Coming After Medicaid and Millions of Americans With Disabilities Will Pay the Price

This April marks the eighth annual Medicaid Awareness Month. Medicaid is the largest health insurance program in the country, providing health care for over 70 million Americans. It is a crucial source of quality and affordable care for people with disabilities, including kids, students, and many of the 1 in 4 Americans with some type of disability. Medicaid pays for over half of all long-term care in the United States, which includes essential home- and community-based services for people with disabilities. In 2010, the ACA opened the door for states to expand Medicaid, and the results are clear: Medicaid expansion works. In addition to providing coverage for about 24 million people, expansion has resulted in healthier people, communities, and economies. Study after study shows that Medicaid expansion increases access to care, improves financial security, and leads to better health outcomes for people with disabilities. Protecting access to Medicaid is essential for ensuring that people with disabilities get the care they need. 

Despite providing critical services for millions of Americans, Trump and Republicans in Congress are targeting Medicaid for almost a trillion dollars in cuts in order to give billionaires and big corporations another tax cut, even if it means dismantling the health care American families rely on. The consequences of such severe cuts to Medicaid would touch nearly every household in America. Families would be forced to choose between seeing a doctor, filling a prescription, and putting food on the table. Recent polling found there is broad opposition across party lines to any cuts to Medicaid, with 67 percent saying Congress should increase spending on Medicaid or keep it about the same.

During Medicaid Awareness Month, Protect Our Care is continuing its “Hands Off Medicaid” campaign with theme weeks to underscore the importance of Medicaid across the country. Alongside partners, lawmakers, and other advocates, Protect Our Care is working to defend Medicaid from the Republican-led plan to slash funding to pay for another round of tax cuts for the wealthy and big corporations. 

By The Numbers 

  • Over 1 in 5 Medicaid Enrollees Have A Disability. Over 1 in 5 of Medicaid enrollees report having a disability, and 13 percent of all Medicaid enrollees are people with disabilities.
  • Up To 1 In 4 U.S. Adults Have A Disability. Over 70 million American adults have some type of disability. Medicaid covers 41 percent of nonelderly adults with disabilities, including adults with physical disabilities, developmental disabilities, brain injuries, and mental illnesses.
  • 15 Million Non-Elderly Adults Are Enrolled in Medicaid Due To At Least One Disability. 15 million people under age 65 enrolled in Medicaid qualified as a result of a disability determination. Other individuals with disabilities may qualify for Medicaid due to age, pregnancy, or income.
  • Medicaid Covers More Than Half Of All Long-Term Care. The Medicaid program provides more than half of all long-term care in the United States, which includes essential home- and community-based services for people with disabilities. 61 percent of our nation’s spending on long term care is paid for by Medicaid. 
  • 1 in 4 Americans With Disabilities Face Cost Barriers to Access Care. 1 in 4 adults with disabilities has had an unmet health care need in the past year due to high costs.

People With Disabilities Rely On Medicaid Expansion For Coverage. Two-thirds of people with disabilities who rely on Medicaid do not receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI), meaning that they qualify for Medicaid on another basis (such as income, or as parents in non-expansion states). Medicaid expansion funding is a significant source of health care coverage for these adults, providing critical access to care for serious health conditions.

Medicaid Expansion Helps Adults With Disabilities Gain Access To Affordable Care Without Having To Wait. Medicaid expansion helps adults with disabilities gain quicker access to coverage without waiting for a disability determination, which can take years. Thanks to the ACA, Medicaid expansion has allowed people to gain coverage who previously were not eligible for coverage and otherwise would have been uninsured. 

Medicaid Expansion Has Improved Health Care Services For People With Disabilities. According to a 2022 study, Medicaid expansion often improves the care people with disabilities receive. Having Medicaid coverage for a full year has been associated with increased primary care visits, increased vaccinations, and decreases in out-of-pocket spending. People with disabilities see these improvements at higher rates than those without a disability. 

Medicaid Expansion Reduces Out-of-Pocket Health Care Spending, Which Is Especially Important For People With Disabilities Who Often Have Limited Incomes. 1 in 4 working-age adults with a disability has income that is below the federal poverty line (FPL) ($14,880 for an individual, and $23,280 for a family of three on average in 2022). In 2022, CMS adopted rules to lower maximum out-of-pocket costs by $400.

Medicaid Is One Of The Most Effective Anti-Poverty Programs, Particularly For People With Disabilities. Medicaid reduces poverty by limiting out-of-pocket spending and expanding state-level Medicaid programs.  The average out-of-pocket spending decreased in states that expanded Medicaid. The poverty-reducing effects were greatest for adults with disabilities, seniors, children, and racial and ethnic minorities.

Medicaid Expansion Has Increased Employment For People With Disabilities. According to a 2021 study, individuals with disabilities living in Medicaid expansion states are more likely to be employed than those living in states that have not expanded the program. In expansion states, people with disabilities have seen increased health coverage and employment rates compared to non-expansion states. Medicaid also provides services that assist people with medical needs in finding employment.

Hundreds of Thousands of Americans With Disabilities Are Stuck Without Coverage In States That Have Refused to Expand Medicaid. 10 states have refused to expand Medicaid under the ACA, stranding many low-income adults in the Medicaid coverage gap. As a result, over 265,000 Americans with disabilities with incomes below the federal poverty level are ineligible for Medicaid or ACA marketplace assistance in these states. Over half of these individuals reside in Texas or Florida, and adults with disabilities form at least 20 percent of those in the Medicaid coverage gap in Alabama, South Carolina, Kansas, Tennessee, and Wyoming. 

Medicaid Helps People With Disabilities Access Comprehensive, Consistent Long-Term Care. People with disabilities who rely on Medicaid comprise 95 percent of the fees for service of long-term care services, while making up less than 25 percent of the people who are enrolled in the program. 

Medicaid Is Critical For Children With Disabilities. Medicaid provides critical funding for schools to get equipment, services, and personnel that students with Individualized Education Plans require to succeed, from speech therapy to personal aides to the technology that helps blind and deaf students communicate. Medicaid funding ensures schools can provide the wide range of services needed to educate students with disabilities and allows them to comply with Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requirements despite their strained budgets. Families with children with disabilities are also more likely to fall into financial hardship, and Medicaid provides a safety net through its cost-sharing protections to help children with disabilities get the care they need without putting additional stress on their family to pay for their doctor visits, medication, or therapy.

Sean England
In News, Statement

BREAKING: Senate Republicans Pave the Way for Devastating Medicaid Cuts

Senate Includes $880 Billion in Cuts To Medicaid While Giving Tax Breaks to Wealthy Few

Washington, D.C.— Senate Republicans passed a bill that paves the way for severe cuts to Medicaid, threatening the health care of over 70 million Americans. By endorsing the funding cuts laid out in House Republicans’ budget plan, Senate Republicans are greenlighting massive cuts to Medicaid, which will rip health care away from millions of Americans just to fund tax breaks for the rich and big corporations. 

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

“Republicans bulldozed their budget through the Senate, delivering a major blow to American families in order to hand out tax breaks for Trump and Musk’s billionaire buddies. Medicaid is a pillar of the American health care system, providing access to health care for over 70 million, keeping families healthy, supporting rural hospitals and community health centers, and bolstering local and state economies. Pay no attention to the countless lies Republicans are peddling, this budget will gut Medicaid, destroying the security of a healthy life for millions of seniors, kids, people with disabilities, working people, and more. Trump and his wealthiest billionaire friends are rejoicing as the rest of us are bracing for impact.” 

April is Medicaid Awareness Month, and Protect Our Care is leading the charge to defend Medicaid and the care that Americans count on. Throughout the month of April, Protect Our Care will release reports, publish fact sheets, host events around the country, and continue its “Hands Off Medicaid” campaign, demanding Republicans abandon their cuts to Medicaid. 

Background:

The Republican Budget Takes Health Care Away From Working People, Seniors, Veterans, And Children To Give Tax Breaks To The Rich. As the Georgetown Center for Children and Families found, Republicans’ math does not add up. The CBO confirmed that Republicans cannot make their proposed $880 billion in cuts without drastically cutting Medicaid and throwing millions of hardworking families off their coverage, closing rural hospitals, and kicking seniors out of nursing homes. 

Medicaid Is Extremely Popular, And Voters Will Hold Republicans Accountable For Ripping It Away From Their Loved Ones and Neighbors. Recent polling found that 71 percent of voters who backed Trump say cutting Medicaid would be unacceptable. Republicans are making a grave mistake by assuming the voters who supported them, many of whom rely on Medicaid, are not smart enough to see through their lies.

ashoup
In News

ROUND UP: ‘I Weep for Our Nation’: The Devastating Health Impacts Of Trump, Musk, and RFK Jr.’s Disastrous HHS Cuts

Experts, advocates and former officials continue to sound the alarm as the Trump administration slashes vital public health officials and communicators from their positions within HHS. The latest announcement included firing 10,000 employees who have been responding to infectious disease outbreaks, approving new life-saving drugs, administering critical programs like Medicare and Medicaid, and more. This comes at a time when America is facing its largest measles outbreak in decades, in addition to other public health threats. As one epidemiologist put it: “this is the darkest day that I’ve had in 50 years of public health.” In response, Protect Our Care President Brad Woodhouse issued the following statement: 

“These cuts at HHS threaten the health and safety of every American.  This is all part of the devastating war on health care the Republicans have been carrying out for years. From halting life-saving research to scrapping the departments that keep us all safe, RFK Jr., Musk, and Trump get exactly what they want while Americans will suffer, get sick, and die.”

COMMENTARY

Marisa Kabas, independent journalist: “As news of Reductions in Force (RIFs) rapidly rolled in Tuesday, it was apparent that after the initial dust settled, it would be impossible to clearly see just how thorough the Trump administration’s gutting had been without having requisite information. This wasn’t just trimming the fat—they were killing the whole animal and stripping it for parts.” [The Handbasket, 4/2/25]

Dr. Eric Topol, Director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute: “It’s like a Fauci fixation. So many of these people are just dedicated, they really want to do good and now they’re losing their jobs senselessly.” [Politico, 4/2/25]

Peter Staley, HIV/AIDS activist: “It seems especially targeted against HIV, and also vaccines again. [Kennedy’s] anti-vax views, his AIDS denialism, his fingerprints are all over this. And I weep for our nation’s ability to fight infectious diseases.” [Politico, 4/2/25]

Adriane Fugh-Berman, Professor of Pharmacology at Georgetown University Medical Center: “Drug companies must love the defanging of the F.D.A. The Trump administration is destroying an agency crucial to public health.” [The New York Times, 4/3/25]

Michael Osterholm, an Epidemiologist and Director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy: “This is the darkest day that I’ve had in 50 years of public health. [It’s] almost a way of punishing them for what they have done. I can’t find anything in that effort that makes us better prepared.” [Politico, 4/2/25]

Gillian SteelFisher, Principal Research Scientist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health: “[The layoffs are] a profound loss for public health, and for the public’s health.” “Good public health is a partnership with the public. It’s about helping people make decisions and take actions that protect them and their loved ones, and to do that, fundamentally, you have to be able to talk to people.” [The New York Times, 4/2/25]

Chanapa Tantibanchachai, Former F.D.A. Spokeswoman: “It’s doing a disservice to the public. It’s not in service of ‘radical transparency’ like Secretary Kennedy says. It’s the complete opposite.” [The New York Times, 4/2/25]

Dustin Hays, Former Chief of Science Communications at the National Eye Institute: “I think this is an egregious misstep by the government, and I don’t think they’re even realizing how long it takes to build an enterprise like N.I.H.” [The New York Times, 4/2/25]

Katherine Eban, Special Correspondent at Vanity Fair: “The slashing was so wide and deep that it can be hard to get a handle on just how much public health expertise was lost yesterday. The affected offices at the FDA may not be household names, but they perform critical work that protects every American and helps shape the regulatory decisions of manufacturers and foreign health agencies around the world, which rely on the FDA’s expertise.” [Vanity Fair, 4/2/25]

Peter Marks, Former FDA Vaccine Official: “It has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies.” [Vanity Fair, 4/2/25]

Anonymous FDA Employee: “The people making these decisions, they are clueless about what the FDA does.” [Vanity Fair, 4/2/25]

Robert Otto Valdez, Former Director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ): “The cuts were largely in areas that are, quite honestly, catastrophic for the American health care system. My heart is very heavy with what this means for the American public, for the health of our neighbors, our children, our grandchildren, our parents.” [STAT, 4/2/25]

Robert Otto Valdez, Former Director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ): “The lack of transparency is extraordinary and that raises many, many concerns because lots of damage can be done behind closed doors when the public and the press can’t see what’s going on. That’s exactly what authoritarian regimes do.” [STAT, 4/2/25]

Anonymous Former Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Grant Reviewer: “In a broader sense, if we lose this work, we’re losing, as a country, the ability to be able to effectively say that our health care system is safe, that it is top quality, that it is affordable.” [STAT, 4/2/25]

Anonymous Former ASPE Employee: “The people who decided on this kind of reorganization — they either don’t know what ASPE does, or they do know and this is very intentional. They don’t want researchers with this much independence answering questions and poking around with data. They want, I’m guessing, an organization that’s going to be more willing to fall in line with the priorities of HHS and the administration.” [STAT, 4/2/25]

Former Member of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Assisted Reproductive Technology Surveillance Team:  “It’s surprising to me. President Trump said he was the fertility president. How does cutting this program support that?” [NBC News, 4/2/25]

Micah Hill, President of the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology: “The depth of expertise held by CDC personnel will be difficult to replace. In many ways, the American public health system has been the global leader, and we are now in danger of throwing that away and doing so in a manner that may be very difficult to recover from.” [NBC News, 4/2/25]

Senior Official, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ): “To gut a 300-member, $500 million agency for no other reason than to placate a need to see blood seems really shortsighted.” [KFF, 4/3/25]

Hardeep Singh at Baylor College of Medicine: “We need safety research to protect our patients from harms in health care. No organization in the world does more for that than AHRQ.” [KFF, 4/3/25]

Stephen Parente, Finance Professor at the University of Minnesota: “[W]e’re going to lose a culture of research that is measured, thoughtful, and provides a channel for young investigators to make their marks.” [KFF, 4/3/25]

Mitch Zeller, Former Director of the FDA’s Tobacco Center: “Regardless of one’s views on the performance of the center, I think anybody should be concerned that this is going to make what was already a challenging job for the center much more difficult. This is destroying prevention efforts when it comes to the leading cause of preventable disease and death. […] There now is no expertise left at the center to do forward-looking policy, whether it takes the form of regulations or guidance documents.” [STAT, 4/3/25]

Yolanda C. Richardson, Head of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids: “It is inexplicable and especially harmful that these cuts are coming at a time when the FDA should be redoubling its enforcement efforts against the many illegal, flavored e-cigarette products that have flooded our country from overseas and put kids at risk.” [STAT, 4/3/25]

Kathleen Sebelius, Former HHS Secretary: “HHS deals with Americans from birth to death. There is absolutely no way you can lose 25% of the workforce without directly affecting Americans across this country…[This includes] research and science at NIH, which is the gold standard of the world.” [CBS News, 4/2/25]

Anjee Davis, CEO of Fight Colorectal Cancer: “We’re scared that these blanket mandates could erase decades of progress fighting cancer. This isn’t about politics. It’s about protecting the progress we’ve fought so hard to achieve in cancer care and research over the past two decades.” [CBS News, 4/2/25]

Dr. Kimryn Rathmell, Former Director of the National Cancer Institute: “Discoveries are going to be delayed, if they ever happen.” [CBS News, 4/2/25]

Dr. Céline Gounder, Editor-at-Large at KFF Health News: “We’ve already seen China and European countries trying to recruit our scientists, because scientists here are concerned about their job opportunities. I just heard of a few from Yale who just left for Toronto…You have students who are worried about going into research, because they don’t know that there will be jobs. […] [These cuts are] very concerning, both in terms of the immediate impacts on health care, public health, and the longer term impacts on whether we will maintain our leadership in the health space.” [CBS News, 4/2/25]

Michael Totoraitis, Milwaukee Health Commissioner: “[Lead contamination] is just another example of how quickly federal policy can affect local on the ground work. I think, for a lot of our city residents who are following the lead crisis here in our schools, when we continue to update everybody, this is yet another complication to the work that we’re doing.” [CNN, 4/3/25]

Lori Tremmel Freeman, CEO of the National Association of County and City Health Officials: “If you’re cutting off one leg off a three-legged stool at its knees, the stool is going to fall over. It’s going to cripple and fall down. And I’m worried about our governmental public health system overall, when we are losing positions in key health agencies that support really crucial functions all day, every day, to keep people safe and healthy in counties and cities across this country.” [CNN, 4/3/25]

CDC Employee, Lead Poisoning Prevention and Surveillance Branch: “We no longer have lead experts…So we won’t be able to provide that service at this time.” [CNN, 4/3/25]

Ernest Hopkins, Senior Strategist & Adviser for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation: “San Francisco and the region generally are about to be hit pretty seriously by the process that the HHS reorganization has unleashed…In a place like San Francisco that has been on the cutting edge, to have this kind of disruption — where the federal government, your partner, abruptly steps away — it completely puts everything at risk. San Francisco has done a very good job over the years of backfilling cuts at the federal level for HIV programs. But we’ve never experienced anything of this magnitude.” [San Francisco Chronicle, 4/2/25]

Carl Schmid, Founder of the HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute: “HIV has been a disease of disparities. And so you’ve got to prevent where the virus is, and you’ve got to treat the people who have it, no matter who they are.” [San Francisco Chronicle, 4/2/25]

Chuan Teng, Chief Executive of PRC (Formerly Known As the Positive Resource Center): “It’s a little bit difficult to draw the clear connection of what is being cut and how it will impact services, because it’s all happening real time right now. Part of the challenge is just the chaos. I don’t know if that’s by design but it feels like it. Just the level of uncertainty alone is causing a lot of issues.” [San Francisco Chronicle, 4/2/25]

Jorge Reyes Salinas, Equality California: “The progress that we’ve made is still very fragile, and these cuts really put at serious risk these efforts. In cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco, agencies are already working with very limited resources and any reduction in funding could mean catastrophe. […] The path to ending the HIV epidemic isn’t automatic. It’s been a long process that we’ve been fighting for years. We’re talking about dismantling all of these efforts quickly and reducing decades of hard-won gains.” [San Francisco Chronicle, 4/2/25]

Dr. Philip Huang, Director & Health Authority for the Dallas County Health and Human Services Department: “I just had to tell our commissioners this morning that we’ve had to cancel over 50 different clinics in our community. […] That’s very short-sighted and not understanding of the way public health works. Being prepared for Covid helps build our capacity to be able to respond to other issues.” [NBC News, 4/1/25]

Dr. David Kessler, Former FDA Commissioner and White House Adviser on Pandemic Response under President Biden: “I think it’s [the latest round of layoffs] devastating, haphazard, thoughtless and chaotic. I think they need to be rescinded.” [The New York Times, 4/3/25]

ashoup
In News

ROUND UP: ‘People Will Die’: The Devastating Health Impacts Of Trump, Musk, and RFK Jr.’s Disastrous HHS Cuts

Over the last few weeks, the Trump administration has slashed vital health programs that the American people rely on. The latest announcement included firing 10,000 employees who have been responding to infectious disease outbreaks, approving new life-saving drugs, administering critical programs like Medicare and Medicaid, and more. This comes at a time when America is facing its largest measles outbreak in decades, in addition to other public health threats. Experts have made it clear these cuts will have devastating impacts across the country. In response, Protect Our Care President Brad Woodhouse issued the following statement: 

“Donald Trump is doing everything he can to sabotage American health care and rip away lifesaving benefits from millions of Americans. From halting life-saving research to limiting the ability of critical departments to do their jobs, the effects of these draconian cuts are already being felt across the country. As a result, more Americans will get sick and more will die.”

COMMENTARY

Dr. Robert Califf, Former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner: “The FDA as we’ve known it is finished, with most of the leaders with institutional knowledge and a deep understanding of product development and safety no longer employed. I believe that history will see this a huge mistake.” [LinkedIn, 4/1/25]

Robert Califf: “If we let down our guard and don’t do a good job reviewing, we’re going to unleash some things that are really dangerous into the population. Unless there’s some super plan, there’s going to be an effect on safety, because it takes whole teams of people to monitor safety of products, and the timetables for product review will probably be delayed.” [CNN, 4/1/25] 

Peggy Hamburg, Former FDA Commissioner: “Obviously this is horrifying, thoughtless and very short-sighted. … These cuts/RIFS will be devastating to an agency that is regarded as the gold standard around the world.” [STAT, 4/1/25] 

Former CDC Director Dr. Mandy Cohen: “These cuts to agency experts and programs leave our country less safe, less prepared and without the necessary talent and resources to respond to health threats.” [CNN, 4/1/25] 

Don Berwick, Former Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services: “While funding levels have ebbed and flowed in the past, the Trump administration cuts [are] entirely unprecedented and vicious beyond any precedent. … We’re injuring the future severely. … This is taking down the research structure of America.” [The Boston Globe, 4/1/25]

Tom Frieden, Former Director of the CDC and President and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives: “The CDC cuts announced Tuesday threaten America’s health, safety, and economy. Despite claims of efficiency, these cuts target proven programs that prevent disease and save lives — and as a result, Americans will be sicker and face increased health care costs. The government’s goal should not be to hit an arbitrary number of jobs eliminated, but to focus on the number of illnesses and premature deaths prevented.” [STAT, 4/1/25] 

Mitch Zeller, Former FDA Tobacco Chief: “If you make it virtually impossible to create and draft policy, then you are eviscerating the role of the center. … From a public health perspective it makes absolutely no sense.” [Associated Press, 4/1/25] 

Former Administration for Community Living Employee Matt Cutler: “I think people need to ask themselves, did the money that’s going to their communities arrive sooner and more accurately as a result of this? And if not, they need to start asking questions and holding people accountable.” [Roll Call, 4/1/25]

Alison Barkoff, Former Director for Administration on Community Living and Director of Health Law Program at George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health: “The programs that ACL implements improve the lives of literally tens of millions of older adults, people with disabilities and their families and caregivers. … There’s no way to have these RIFs and not impact the programs and the people who rely on them.“ [NPR, 4/1/25] 

Sam Bagenstos, Former General Counsel of HHS and Professor of Law at the University of Michigan: “It’s really hard to comprehend the effect on so many people who have worked so hard to ensure public health and have suffered for it. … It’s just going to be absolutely terrible for public health.” [STAT, 4/1/25] 

Emily Erbelding, Director of the Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases: “Everybody has been waiting for the other shoe to drop, so I just thought, ‘well, this is the shoe.’ […] It’s going to hurt science for a whole generation.” [STAT, 4/1/25] 

Andrew Germain, Director of Fiscal Operations and Accountability for the Administration for Children and Families: “For the communities that need the funding and need the support of the federal office, they’re going to be without those resources. … You’re talking about individuals who rely on crisis assistance from the LIHEAP program to keep the power on, whether it be for a medical reason or some other potentially life-threatening purpose.” [NBC News, 4/1/25] 

Walter Koroshetz, National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System Director: “To get rid of 11 of our senior PIs … we’re hoping that’s a mistake, because we can’t figure out why they would want to do that. … The labs affected by the layoffs include those involved in clinical trials as well as preclinical studies. It is unclear, NIH staff said, what the plans are for the data they’ve accumulated or what will happen to patients involved in ongoing trials.” [WIRED, 4/1/25]  

Dr. Michelle Tarver, Director of the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health: “Your work has been critical to advancing medical device innovation, ensuring patient safety, and upholding the public trust in what we do. … You will be deeply missed in the impact of your absence will be felt far and wide.” [STAT, 4/1/25] 

Alex Saint, Health Communications Specialist at the FDA: “People need to know the action that they need to take to keep themselves safe and healthy, and if you don’t have any way to communicate that to the public, people are on their own,” [STAT, 4/1/25] 

Indian Health Service Employee: “I find it insulting. … The way it’s presented as an option to folks makes an IHS job seem even more undesirable.” [STAT, 4/1/25] 

FDA Official: “The food compliance officers and animal drug reviewers survived, but they have no one at the comms office to put out a safety alert, no admin staff to pay external labs to test products.” [CBS News, 4/1/25] 

Former CDC Employee: “It’s so chaotic. The amount of knowledge that is being purged today at CDC is just tragic. … They are firing whole organizational units. These are people that have 30 years of service, people with children, veterans, there was no thought put into trying to retain people that have institutional knowledge. […] Most of the money at CDC does not fund staff, it funds money going out to states, cities, tribes, public health departments, community organizations. So when you’re shutting down the lead program, you’re shutting down funding that supports tracking whether lead is in the water or not. Programs that have been around for decades [are] just gone.” [Rolling Stone, 4/2/25] 

Former Reproductive Health Division Staffer: “You don’t expect your whole program to be wiped out. … Without CDC’s contraception guidelines, more women will die as pregnancy is the most dangerous thing a 20 or 30 year old will do in the U.S.” [Rolling Stone, 4/2/25] 

Former CDC Staffer: “Shitshow is an understatement for what just happened at the CDC. … What’s especially concerning is that the entire CDC FOIA office has been fired. Without a FOIA team now the American people have significantly less transparency into what the CDC is doing and puts the agency at significant legal risk for not complying with FOIA requests for information.” [Rolling Stone, 4/2/25]

Michael T. Osterholm, Director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy: “Today was simply a tragedy. … There is so much intellectual capital that literally got swept under the rug today in this country, and we are going to pay a price for this for years to come.” [The New York Times, 4/1/25] 

Wendy Armstrong, Director of Infectious Diseases at the University of Colorado: “We’ve had a lot of devastating days, but this really is unfathomable. … It’s astounding, it will affect patients with all kinds of different kinds of infections, and Americans will suffer, and people will die, and that’s a horrible thing to see coming.” [The Bulwark, 4/1/25] 

Jade Pagkas-Bather, Infectious Disease Doctor at the University of Chicago: “We’re going to have patients die…Unnecessary, preventable death. […] This is not just something that impacts people in the ivory tower. This is not just something that impacts people who are physicians, or scientists, or academics. This is coming for you.” [WIRED, 4/1/25] 

Joseph Cherabie, Physician & Assistant Professor at Washington University in St. Louis: “It will be catastrophic. We’re still seeing young people coming in with new HIV diagnoses, sometimes advanced HIV. Our efforts are largely dependent on these federal grants. … We use them to make sure that we are able to distribute HIV testing equipment. We use them to make sure that we can get information and data on how much PrEP is being distributed, how many HIV diagnoses we have, how many HIV tests we’re giving out. If we lose that, then we’re moving around in the dark.” [WIRED, 4/1/25] 

Katy Kozhimannil, Health Policy Researcher at the University of Minnesota: “I am truly concerned about the potential impacts. With the loss of staff that support PRAMS, we risk a longer delay or loss of this important data resource for studying maternal health.” [STAT, 4/1/25] 

Marian Jarlenski, Professor of Health Policy at the University of Pittsburgh: “I don’t know how else to say it, this data system is needed. It’s not an option. It’s part of having a functional public health system.” [STAT, 4/1/25] 

Ezekiel Emanuel, Oncologist and Bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania: “It has fueled many of the breakthroughs from discovering the DNA code for each amino acid to the hepatitis C virus. … Dismantling it will not make America great but undercut our position as the world’s leader in science. Americans will suffer. … Diseases will not be cured and treatments will not be found.” [The Bulwark, 4/1/25] 

Dr. Duane Wesemann, Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School and Associate Physician at Brigham and Women’s: “We’ve been hit by a wave. … The impact is devastating.” [The Boston Globe, 4/1/25]

Dr. Bruce Fischl, Professor of Radiology at Harvard Medical School: “We are all terrified. … Every morning when I wake up, I check to see whether our grants have been affected.” [The Boston Globe, 4/1/25]

Ariel Beccia, Instructor at the LGBTQ Health Center of Excellence at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health: “I was shocked and devastated,” said Ariel Beccia. “If this continues, we are going to lose a generation of scientists.” [The Boston Globe, 4/1/25]

Sharon Gilmartin, Executive Director of Safe States Alliance: “Our Indian Health Service is a really important part of our public health infrastructure, but it shouldn’t be used as a pawn when actually you should place people into the Indian Health Service that actually are meant to work with tribal nations and are confident to do so.” [STAT, 4/1/25] 

Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America Spokesperson Alex Schriver: “We recognize the need to find efficiencies, but it’s critical the FDA has the expertise and capacity it needs to maintain its gold standard regulatory review. … The rapid and substantial changes at FDA this week raise questions about the agency’s ability to fulfill its mission to bring new innovative medicines to patients.” [Politico, 4/1/25]

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In News

HEADLINES: HHS Cuts Are Devastating American Health Care, Wreaking Havoc Across The Country

Last week, HHS Secretary RFK Jr. announced plans to dismantle critical health care services for the American people by gutting his own department. The latest plan includes firing 10,000 employees who have been responding to infectious disease outbreaks, approving new life-saving drugs, administering critical programs like Medicare and Medicaid, and more. This comes after thousands of employees have already left HHS due to DOGE efforts to slash the federal workforce to the bone and cut the programs the American people rely on. These drastic cuts will undermine disease prevention, food inspection, and drug safety, raising the danger Americans face. 

HEADLINES

CNN: ‘It’s a Bloodbath’: Massive Wave of Job Cuts Underway at US Health Agencies.

  • “Cuts at the CDC slashed divisions that work on workplace health and safety, HIV, injury prevention, reproductive health, smoking and violence prevention, among others.”

Forbes: How The Layoff Of 10,000 Health Workers From HHS Could Affect Your Health. 

  • “Employees at the CDC are tasked with responding to infectious disease threats like measles, implementing prevention programs for potential outbreaks like bird flu and communicating effective messages to the public so Americans can stay safe. With thousands fewer employees staffing the center, the ability to monitor and contain diseases effectively could be hindered… The Food and Drug Administration, which sets safety standards for medical devices, drugs and food, will see a reduction of 3,500 workers. This degree of downsizing may slow the approval process for many lifesaving drugs and delay inspection of food processing facilities… Institutions of higher learning are already potentially facing enormous funding cuts with a cap of indirect costs to federal research grants to 15%, which translates to hundreds of millions of dollars that will not be granted to many universities.”

STAT: At CDC, Trump Administration’s Job Cuts Wipe Out Wide Array of Specialists. 

  • “In all, the CDC is expected to lose roughly 2,400 employees, or about 18% of its staff, as part of the broader cuts playing out across the Department of Health and Human Services… The Trump administration has argued the CDC’s mission had become too broad, and that it should focus squarely on infectious disease concerns… ‘We are weaker,’ said one CDC employee who did not receive a termination notice but asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals. The individual noted that the CDC is the country’s rapid response force, deployed when there are new disease threats or bioterror attacks. ‘If there was an outbreak, I would not know who is deployment-ready to get on a plane in the next 24 hours,’ this person wrote. ‘I would not know who is still left to GET people deployment-ready if they are not already up-to-date.’”

The Washington Post: Widespread Layoffs, Purge of Leadership Underway at U.S. Health Agencies. 

  • “Senior leaders across the Department of Health and Human Services were put on leave and countless other employees lost their jobs Tuesday as the Trump administration began a sweeping purge of the agencies that oversee government health programs… At the CDC, entire branches and divisions were eliminated or significantly reduced, employees said. In the Immunization Services Division, staff members who worked on vaccination education and outreach to under-vaccinated communities were among those who received notices, including one person working on the ongoing measles outbreak in Texas and New Mexico, according to two staff members who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.” 

Bloomberg: Top US Drug, Tobacco Regulators Cut as RFK Jr. Reshapes Health Agency. 

  • “The sweeping cuts also allow Kennedy to reshape the country’s health policy and communications, providing a road map for where the new health chief is directing his focus. Among the 10,000 people cut on Tuesday, some entire divisions were gutted including groups working on sexually transmitted diseases, environmental health, global health and birth defects, according to people familiar with the matter. Big swaths of the agency’s communications and federal records teams were also laid off.”

Newsweek: Here’s How RFK Jr.’s HHS Cuts Could Impact Americans. 

  • “HHS administers health insurance programs that affect nearly half the U.S. population, including Medicare and Medicaid, and regulates medical products and food. Critics warn that the scale of the cuts could jeopardize disease response capacity, scientific research, and regulatory oversight. ‘They may as well be renaming it the Department of Disease because their plan is putting lives in serious jeopardy,’ Senator Patty Murray, a Democrat from Washington, said on Friday.” 

NBC News: Widespread Job Cuts Begin at Health Agencies. 

  • “The administration made deep and wide-ranging cuts to divisions responsible for tackling HIV, improving minority health and preventing injury, such as gun violence. Jobs were eliminated at offices overseeing the approval of new drugs, providing health insurance and responding to infectious disease outbreaks. A number of lesser-known divisions — including several focused on the safety of mining workers — were cut entirely.”

Politico: Thousands Laid off as Kennedy and Musk Take Aim at Health Agencies. 

  • “Driving the cuts is Kennedy’s desire to reorient HHS to combat chronic diseases, rather than infectious ones, and root out conflicts of interest he claims have led it to approve dangerous drugs. A longtime critic of vaccination, Kennedy has accused HHS of downplaying vaccine side effects — in defiance of public health consensus that vaccines are safe.”

EXPERTS

Dr. Robert Califf, Former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner: “The FDA as we’ve known it is finished, with most of the leaders with institutional knowledge and a deep understanding of product development and safety no longer employed. I believe that history will see this a huge mistake.” [LinkedIn, 04/01/25]

Dr. Scott Gottlieb, Former Trump Food and Drug Administration Commissioner: “Through a generation of congressional actions, investments in expertise and hiring, and careful policymaking, we built the FDA into the most efficient, forward-leaning drug regulatory agency in the world—and established the U.S. as the global center of biopharmaceutical innovation. Today, the cumulative  barrage on that drug-discovery enterprise, threatens to swiftly bring back those frustrating delays for American consumers, particularly affecting rare diseases and areas of significant unmet medical need.” [X, 04/01/25]

Dr. Mandy Cohen, Former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director: “These cuts to agency experts and programs leave our country less safe, less prepared and without the necessary talent and resources to respond to health threats.” [NBC, 04/01/25]

Dr. Ashish Jha, Dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, Former Biden Administration COVID-19 Coordinator: “We’ve never seen anything like this before. We rely on our CDC for things like tracking down disease outbreaks. We rely on NIH for research into new treatments and tests and vaccines. At this moment, whether those will continue to be effective has really been put into question. We don’t know what the implications of all of this will be. I’m worried that what we’re going to see is more people getting sick, more disease outbreaks and infrastructure that is going to be less and less capable of responding to those threats.” [NPR, 04/01/25]

Jeremy Berg, Former Director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences at the NIH: “The level of cuts at NIH I am hearing about today is truly mind-boggling. I try not to be hyperbolic but this seems to be a massacre. … I honestly don’t know where this leads.” [NPR, 04/01/25]

Dr. Tom Frieden, Former Commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene: “If we look at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are discussions of reducing our global work that’s really dangerous. It means that instead of finding and stopping threats where they emerge, which is less expensive, safer and more efficient, we’ll have to fight them here within the United States at greater risk and greater expense. … These are changes which not only will make the U.S. less safe, less healthy, and with higher healthcare costs, but unless these changes are reversed, they will literally cause millions of deaths around the world.” [PBS, 03/29/25]

Larry Levitt, KFF Executive Vice President for Health Policy: “The general public likely won’t feel the results of these HHS layoffs immediately. But eventually, these layoffs will affect the health information available to people, access to care and prevention, and oversight of health and social services.” [X, 04/01/25]

Dr. Craig Spencer: “Thousands of the best experts at FDA, NIH, and all across HHS are being terminated right now. These are the people who make sure the medications you and your children take are safe. These are the people who perform and oversee research on cancer, infant health, and so so so much more. These are the people who make sure new devices that physicians and patients use are effective. These are the people who keep workers safe on the job and help prevent devastating injuries for workers all around the country. These are the people who track what drugs and medications are experiencing shortages so we can adapt. These are the people who help tackle HIV and other infectious diseases, asthma, lead poisoning, and everything else that makes many Americans sick. And now, thousands of them are gone. There is no way this makes Americans healthier. We will regret this.” [X, 04/01/25]

Dr. Richard Besser, President and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: “HHS has a mission to improve and protect Americans’ health and wellbeing. Its leadership should be working nonstop to ensure health is no longer a privilege but a right. Instead, they are systematically and cruelly dismantling our nation’s public health system and workforce, which threatens the health and wellbeing of everyone in America. … These are reckless, thoughtless cuts that will only make American communities less healthy and less safe. They represent an abdication of the department’s essential responsibility to promote and protect health.” [Press Release, 04/01/25]

Barbara Collura, President of RESOLVE: “It is vital that the CDC, our nation’s public health agency, employs doctors and scientists who understand infertility, a disease that impacts one in six people worldwide. Following today’s layoffs at the CDC, there will be no experts on infertility who will be able to inform public policy, brief members of Congress, publish articles and reports, and advance public awareness on the causes and treatments for infertility. RESOLVE is deeply concerned by this development and what it means for those who struggle to build their family.” [X, 04/01/25]

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In News

New Navigator Polling Shows Medicaid is “Deeply and Broadly Popular” as Republicans Try to Rip it Away

As Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) holds the Senate floor to defend Medicaid from Republican budget cuts amid Medicaid Awareness Month, new Navigator polling confirms Medicaid is “deeply” popular across the board and there is broad opposition across party lines to any cuts to Medicaid. Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress are pursuing nearly $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid so they can give billionaires another tax cut. If they get their way, millions could lose their health care. Poll after poll confirms this is completely out of step with the American people. Here’s the latest:

Medicaid is Widely Popular. While Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress are trying to slash hundreds of billions from the country’s largest health insurance program, 77 percent of voters view Medicaid favorably, including 70 percent of Republicans. 

Americans Overwhelmingly Oppose Cuts to Medicaid. 75 percent of Americans are strongly or somewhat opposed to cuts to Medicaid. 59 percent of Americans, or nearly every three in five, strongly oppose any cuts. And 60 percent of voters, or three in five, know someone who relies on Medicaid for health care coverage, underscoring the fact that the consequences of Republican cuts to Medicaid would touch nearly every household in America.

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In News

FACT SHEET: Seniors and Their Families Count On Medicaid, But Republicans Want to Slash It to Give Tax Breaks to the Rich

Week One of Medicaid Awareness Month Focuses on the Importance of Medicaid to Older Adults As Republicans Pursue Draconian Cuts 

This April marks the eighth annual Medicaid Awareness Month. Medicaid is the largest health insurance program in the country, providing health care for over 70 million Americans, including 7.2 million seniors. It provides essential coverage for expenses like long-term care, medical equipment, hospitalization, and prescription drugs. As the single largest payer to long-term care services in the country, middle-class families depend on Medicaid to help take care of their loved ones. Six in 10 nursing home residents count on Medicaid for the long-term care they need – that’s 5.6 million older Americans.

But Trump and Republicans in Congress are determined to gut Medicaid in order to give billionaires another tax cut, even if it means dismantling the health care American families rely on. The GOP budget paves the way for slashing $880 billion from Medicaid, putting the health care of tens of millions of Americans at risk. For seniors, who often live on fixed incomes and face high medical expenses, losing their health care coverage would be catastrophic. The consequences of such severe cuts to Medicaid would touch nearly every household in America. Families would be forced to choose between seeing a doctor, filling a prescription, or putting food on the table. Without Medicaid, millions may be forced to leave a job to provide full-time care for an aging parent who can no longer afford their nursing home. Recent polling found there is broad opposition across party lines to any cuts to Medicaid, with 67 percent saying Congress should increase spending on Medicaid or keep it about the same.

During Medicaid Awareness Month, Protect Our Care is continuing its “Hands Off Medicaid” campaign with theme weeks to underscore the importance of Medicaid across the country. Alongside partners, lawmakers, and other advocates, Protect Our Care is working to defend Medicaid from the Republican-led plan to slash funding to pay for another round of tax cuts for the wealthy and big corporations. 

By The Numbers

  • Millions of Seniors & Older Americans Rely On Medicaid Coverage. 7.2 million Americans over 65 are enrolled in Medicaid and more than 11 million Americans ages 50 to 64 have health coverage through Medicaid – many thanks to the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion.
  • 6 to 8 Million Older Adults Live Below The Federal Poverty Level. For millions of seniors and older Americans on fixed incomes, Medicaid is a lifeline.
  • Medicaid Is the Single Largest Payer To Long-Term Care Services Nationwide. As seniors age, long-term care services become more essential. Medicaid serves about 70 percent of seniors who will need some form of long-term care in their lives.
  • 2.7 Million People Would Gain Coverage If Remaining States Expanded Medicaid. This includes 1.4 million people who are in the Medicaid coverage gap and an additional 1.3 million uninsured people with incomes between 100 and 138 percent of the federal poverty line who are eligible, but not enrolled in Marketplace plans. 17 percent, approximately 238,000, of the uninsured in the coverage gap are people aged 55-64 who face increased health care needs.
  • Medicaid Pays For 62 Percent Of Long-Term Care Residents In Nursing Homes. Medicaid covers nursing home bills for over 60 percent of residents in nursing homes. In 2019, this totaled over $50 billion. The median private nursing home room cost over $100,000 yearly in 2025.
  • 12 Million Medicare Beneficiaries Also Have Medicaid Coverage. Nearly 8 million of the dual eligible Medicare-Medicaid beneficiaries are “full benefit” Medicaid enrollees who have access to a range of Medicaid benefits, not otherwise covered by Medicare.

Seniors And Older Adults Depend On Medicaid For Affordable, Comprehensive Care. As of 2023, approximately 2.98 million older adults are uninsured. Older Americans often have more complex health issues, requiring additional medical attention that is costly, pushing care out of reach. For seniors on Medicare, Medicaid helps fill many of the gaps in Medicare coverage, such as transportation to medical appointments and medical equipment. 

Middle Class Families Rely on Medicaid for Peace of Mind and Financial Security. Millions of middle class families across the country depend on Medicaid, whether it’s for an aging parent, a disabled child needing special care, or a child who can’t be covered under their parent’s health plans but doesn’t make enough yet to afford insurance on their own. Studies show increased Medicaid access leads to middle class families having an increased amount of money in their savings and retirement accounts and are significantly more likely to never miss a mortgage payment. Without Medicaid, middle class families would be more likely to drain their savings, lose their homes, and not save for retirement. 

Medicaid Supplements Medicare Coverage For Millions Of Seniors. 12 million seniors are eligible Medicare-Medicaid dual beneficiaries. Nearly 8 million are “full benefit” Medicaid enrollees who have access to a range of Medicaid benefits, not otherwise covered by Medicare. Nearly half of dual enrollees are seniors of color and over half of dual enrollees suffer from long-term disabilities. 

Medicaid Helps Seniors And Older Americans Stay Retired And Out Of Poverty. Many seniors and older Americans survive on low incomes or have chronic health conditions that prohibit them from working. Medicaid allows individuals living on fixed incomes or who have chronic health problems to continue getting the care they need by filling the gaps in their Medicare coverage without having to worry about choosing between food and housing or their health. Medicaid has long been considered one of the most effective anti-poverty programs in the nation, and its expansion has significantly improved health outcomes for seniors and older adults. In a nation where 4 in 10 adults report having medical debt, Medicaid serves as a lifeline not only for health care, but for economic stability as Americans age. A January 2021 study from Health Affairs found that the ACA helped reduce income inequality across the board, but much more dramatically in Medicaid expansion states.

Low-Income Seniors With Medicare Depend On Medicaid For Long-Term Care. It is estimated that 70 percent of seniors will need long-term care at some point and 62 percent of nursing facility residents utilize Medicaid to receive their care. Medicaid is a critical provider of home- and community-based care that are essential to keep loved ones at home with their families and neighbors. Without Medicaid, many seniors would not be able to afford these needed services with Medicare alone. 80 percent of individuals in nursing facilities covered by Medicaid were dually eligible, with Medicaid covering costs once Medicare benefits have been depleted. 

Hundreds of Thousands of Seniors Are Stuck In The Medicaid Coverage Gap. 10 states have refused to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), stranding many seniors with low incomes in the Medicaid coverage gap. As a result, over 407,000 older Americans with incomes below the federal poverty level are ineligible for Medicaid or ACA marketplace assistance in these states. Over half of these individuals reside in Texas or Florida, and seniors from at least 25 percent of those in the Medicaid coverage gap in Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida. 

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This Medicaid Awareness Month, We’re Exposing the Republican Scheme to Slash Medicaid to Fund Tax Breaks for Billionaires

Protect Our Care Will Continue Its “Hands Off Medicaid” Campaign With Events and Activities Throughout the Month 

Washington, D.C. – Tuesday, April 1 kicks off the eighth annual Medicaid Awareness Month, and Protect Our Care is leading the charge to defend Medicaid and the care that Americans count on. Medicaid is under fire like never before as Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress pursue close to a trillion dollars in cuts. Their efforts jeopardize the health care that one in five Americans rely on in order to fund massive tax breaks for the wealthy and large corporations. If Trump and MAGA Republicans get their way, millions will lose their health care.

Medicaid provides health care to over 70 million Americans, including seniors who need long-term care, children who make up nearly half of Medicaid enrollees, new moms, rural Americans, people with disabilities, and working families. Medicaid benefits just about every household and community in the country, but the Republican health care agenda isn’t about families or everyday Americans — it’s about implementing Trump’s tax cuts for the wealthy, no matter how many people are left to pay the price. 

To mark the start of Medicaid Awareness Month, Protect Our Care President Brad Woodhouse released the following statement: “Trump and his yes-men in Congress are plotting the largest Medicaid cuts in history, all so the rich can get richer. This Republican budget proposal is an assault on hardworking Americans who count on Medicaid. This Medicaid Awareness Month, we’re calling out Donald Trump’s shameless war on health care and making it clear that Medicaid cuts mean tearing away health care from millions of Americans, including seniors, kids with disabilities, and low-income working people. Trump and his Republican allies are focused on lining the pockets of the wealthy, even if it means trampling on the needs of everyone else.” 

Throughout the month of April, Protect Our Care will release reports, publish fact sheets, host events around the country, and continue its “Hands Off Medicaid” campaign, demanding Republicans abandon their cuts to Medicaid. These activities will highlight Medicaid’s importance to middle- and low-income Americans, underscore what needs to be done to protect the program, and make clear the dire consequences of the Republican agenda. 

The month will include the following themes each week:

  • March 31 – April 4: Seniors: Over 8 million seniors across America rely on Medicaid for affordable and essential health care. It helps seniors age with dignity and independence and lightens the load of working families struggling to get by.
  • April 7 – 11: People with Disabilities: Medicaid covers 45 percent of non-elderly adults with disabilities, including adults with physical disabilities, developmental disabilities, and brain injuries.
  • April 14 – 18: Communities of Color: Over 60 percent of those covered by Medicaid are people of color. Altogether, Medicaid provides coverage for 36.9 million non-elderly Americans of color across the nation.
  • April 21 – 25: Opioid Crisis & Mental Health: Medicaid is the single largest payer for mental health services in America, serving 26 percent of all adults living with a serious mental health condition. Medicaid is crucial to building a system of comprehensive substance use disorder treatment. These interventions have been vital and life-saving.
  • April 28 – May 2: Moms and Kids: Medicaid provides the care for over 40 percent of births and other maternal care such as prenatal visits, ultrasounds, and screenings. It also covers nearly half of all American children, including children with special needs, foster youth, and children of color.

Background:

As one of the largest health insurers in the country, Medicaid is an indispensable pillar of our economy and health care system. Medicaid is a lifeline for children who make up almost half of Medicaid recipients, seniors in nursing homes, mothers, people with disabilities, rural Americans, and working families. It covers more than 40 percent of all births in the U.S. and is the single largest payer to community clinics, long-term care services, and mental health and substance use disorder care in the country. Medicaid keeps hospitals open in rural communities, helps children do better in school and earn better jobs in adulthood, shields families from overwhelming medical debt, allows seniors to age with dignity and the care they need, and so much more. 

By The Numbers

  • Republican threats to Medicaid put health care at risk for over 70 million (21 percent of) Americans, including:
  •  Republicans will create a $50 billion hole in state Medicaid budgets to pay for tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations. 
  • If Republicans decrease federal funding for people in the Medicaid expansion population, it would immediately rip health care away from 4 million Americans across twelve states and jeopardize health care for about 21 million people.
  • Republicans threaten care for 18.5 million people on Medicaid by imposing lifetime caps.
  • Republicans could deny coverage to 36 million Americans through burdensome bureaucratic reporting requirements.
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