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Trump’s War on Health Care: Public Health Watch

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.  

Upcoming Events

March 10: RFK Jr. will meet with executives at major food companies, including Pepsi and General Mills
March 13:  Confirmation hearing for Dave Weldon’s nomination to lead the CDC.  Committee votes on the leadership for NIH and FDA.
March 14:  Confirmation hearing for Dr. Oz’s nomination to lead CMS.
March 14:  Government funding expires at midnight. 

What’s Happening In Public Health?

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

Associated Press: Federal judge blocks drastic funding cuts to medical research A federal judge on Wednesday blocked the Trump administration from drastically cutting medical research funding that many scientists say will endanger patients and cost jobs. The new National Institutes of Health policy would strip research groups of hundreds of millions of dollars to cover so-called indirect expenses of studying Alzheimer’s, cancer, heart disease and a host of other illnesses — anything from clinical trials of new treatments to basic lab research that is the foundation for discoveries. Separate lawsuits filed by a group of 22 states plus organizations representing universities, hospitals and research institutions nationwide sued to stop the cuts, saying they would cause “irreparable harm.”

  • Boston Globe: NIH abruptly terminates millions in research grants, defying court orders In an unprecedented move, the National Institutes of Health is abruptly terminating millions of dollars in research awards to scientists in Massachusetts and around the country, citing the Trump administration’s new restrictions on funding anything related to diversity, equity, and inclusion, transgender issues, or research that could potentially benefit universities in China. The sweeping actions would appear to violate court rulings from federal judges in Rhode Island and Washington, D.C., that block the Trump administration from freezing or ending billions of dollars in government spending, said David Super, a constitutional law expert at Georgetown Law, who reviewed some of the termination letters at the Globe’s request.

NBC: HHS sends all employees a $25,000 voluntary buyout offer Health and Human Services employees were offered voluntary buyouts to resign from their jobs on Friday night, according to a person who received the email and an administration official. The agency’s approximately 80,000 employees received an unsigned email Friday night offering them a “voluntary separation incentive payment,” with a deadline to respond set for Friday, March 14. The White House and the Department of Health and Human Services didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Stat: NIH has paused patenting of discoveries, slowing their use in developing treatments Clampdowns on external communications and new contracts at the National Institutes of Health by President Trump’s administration — which have effectively slowed the flow of grant funding to a trickle — are also blocking the agency from sharing research materials with collaborators and taking crucial steps to ensure the discoveries its own scientists are making can later be used in the development of drugs and vaccines. For the past five weeks, employees at NIH technology transfer offices have been barred from filing new patent applications and been restricted from licensing existing ones, according to emails obtained by STAT and interviews with current and former NIH employees.

Washington Post: NIH reels with fear, uncertainty about future of scientific research In just six weeks, the Trump administration overturned NIH’s leadership, slowed its main mission of identifying the best new science to fund and silenced personnel at the biggest sponsor of biomedical research in the world — a nearly $48 billion enterprise that supports the work of some 300,000 external scientists. “It’s terrible. It’s awful. People are afraid to open their emails,” one NIH senior scientist said.

Wired: Trump’s FDA Cuts Are Putting Drug Development at Risk Budget and staffing cuts at the Food and Drug Administration orchestrated by President Donald Trump could prevent new drugs “from being developed, approved, or commercialized in a timely manner, or at all,” according to dozens of annual reports sent by pharmaceutical companies to the Securities and Exchange Commission in late February. “The Trump Administration has enacted several executive actions that could impose significant burdens on, or otherwise materially delay, the FDA’s ability to engage in routine regulatory and oversight activities,” says one filing from Xenon Pharmaceuticals, a company based in Canada that researches treatments for epilepsy. “If these executive actions impose constraints on the FDA’s ability to engage in oversight and implementation activities in the normal course, our business may be negatively affected.”

CNN: CDC firings undermine public health work far beyond Washington The Trump administration’s sudden firing of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention employees gutted training programs across the nation whose participants bolstered the workforce of state and local public health departments that for decades have been starved of resources. The programs are designed to cultivate a new generation of public health leaders, many of whom have gone on to work at the CDC. That was far from its only purpose. Local and state officials said the departures threaten to undermine the nation’s constant effort to identify and control infectious disease outbreaks. The terminated CDC employees helped prevent and respond to outbreaks such as dengue fever and the flu. They worked with local officials to quickly test for viruses and ensure that testing in public health labs complies with federal regulations. Others monitored potential cases of tuberculosis or provided health education to adolescents to prevent sexually transmitted infections, according to interviews with fired workers and local public health officials.

KFF Health News: Trump Vowed To End Surprise Medical Bills. The Office Working on That Just Got Slashed. As President Donald Trump wrapped up his first term in 2020, he signed legislation to protect Americans from surprise medical bills. “This must end,” Trump said. “We’re going to hold insurance companies and hospitals totally accountable.” But the president’s wide-ranging push to slash government spending, led by billionaire Elon Musk, is weakening the federal office charged with implementing the No Surprises Act. Some 15% of those working at the federal Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, or CCIIO, were fired two weeks ago, according to the agency’s former deputy director in charge of operations, Jeff Grant. And while the full impact of the cutbacks is still coming into focus, the retrenchment is threatening work at an agency already laboring to run an overstretched system for resolving sometimes very large bills from out-of-network medical providers.

NOTUS: The Trump Administration Shut Down Two Food Safety Committees The Trump administration disbanded two independent food safety committees without warning this week, ending ongoing research into an outbreak of bacteria in powdered infant formula and an upcoming investigation into the spread of listeria in deli meats. The Department of Agriculture ordered the members of the two advisory committees — the National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods and the National Advisory Committee on Meat and Poultry Inspection — to immediately stop all work on Thursday.

Chaotic Firings and Re-Hirings:

Cruel and Destructive Policy Changes:

RFK Jr. Is An Extreme Anti-Vaxxer Who’s Already Breaking His “Assurances” To Key Republicans To Get Confirmed

New York Times: As Measles Spreads, Kennedy Embraces Remedies Like Cod Liver Oil As a measles outbreak expands in West Texas, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health and human services secretary, on Tuesday cheered several unconventional treatments, including cod liver oil, but again did not urge Americans to get vaccinated. In a prerecorded interview that aired on Fox News, Mr. Kennedy said that the federal government was shipping doses of vitamin A to Gaines County, the epicenter of the outbreak, and helping to arrange ambulance rides. H.H.S. officials previously said they were shipping doses of the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine to Texas, but Mr. Kennedy did not discuss vaccination. Texas doctors had seen “very, very good results,” Mr. Kennedy claimed, by treating measles cases with a steroid, budesonide; an antibiotic called clarithromycin; and cod liver oil, which he said had high levels of vitamin A and vitamin D. While physicians sometimes administer doses of vitamin A to treat children with severe measles cases, cod liver oil is “by no means” an evidence-based treatment, said Dr. Sean O’Leary, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Infectious Diseases.

  • Mother Jones: RFK Jr. Reportedly Had a Call With Texans Helping Distribute Unproven Measles Remedies The measles outbreak underway across West Texas and New Mexico has intensified, sickening 228 people, and killing two, a child and an adult. Amid the worsening public health emergency, a local historian in Seminole, Texas, Tina Siemens, has been helping a holistic medicine clinic raise money to distribute unproven remedies to families affected by the outbreak. The same activist told Mother Jones that she had a phone call last week with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to understand the unique health challenges in the Mennonite community. Siemens said she had been working with a clinic called Veritas Wellness in Lubbock, Texas, to distribute medications, including Vitamin C, cod liver oil, and the inhaled steroid budesonide. Last week, an online fundraiser appeared to collect donations that it says will be “used to defray the cost of essential vitamins, supplements, and medicines necessary to treat children enduring complications from the measles virus and other illnesses.” The fundraiser’s website says the funds will go to Tina Siemens and it lists its creator as Brian Hooker, a biologist and the chief scientific officer of Children’s Health Defense, the anti-vaccine advocacy group that Kennedy helmed until he ran for president
  • Washington Post: RFK Jr.’s focus on vitamin A for measles worries health experts Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s focus on vitamin A use to combat a growing measles outbreak in Texas is raising concerns among public health experts, who fear he is sending the wrong message about preventing the highly contagious disease and distracting from the critical importance of vaccination. Kennedy, who in his years as an anti-vaccine activist criticized measles shots and boosted vitamin A as a treatment, is now using his government position to tout the vitamin’s accepted benefits. The Department of Health and Human Services has directed the nation’s top public health agency to add similar language to its guidance for caring for measles patients.

Politico: ‘He needs to do much more’: RFK Jr.’s measles response under scrutiny As a deadly measles outbreak spread across Texas, the nation’s top health official took to Instagram on Sunday to blast out a message to his nearly 5 million followers. “Afternoon mountaineering above Coachella Valley,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wrote in a caption alongside photos of himself hiking in California. The post quickly ricocheted around the department, dismaying officials working overtime to track and contain the highly contagious disease, according to two people close to the response effort granted anonymity to describe a sensitive situation. Measles had infected more than 140 people in west Texas in a matter of weeks, killing a child and fueling fears more outbreaks would soon emerge throughout the country. To his critics and even some increasingly concerned allies, the episode epitomized the worryingly casual attitude that Kennedy has taken in public toward managing the first major health crisis on his watch, according to a half-dozen current and former administration officials, outside advisers and other public health officials, most of whom were granted anonymity to speak candidly.

Reuters: Exclusive: U.S. CDC plans study into vaccines and autism, sources say The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is planning a large study into potential connections between vaccines and autism, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, despite extensive scientific research that has disproven or failed to find evidence of such links. It is unclear whether U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who has long promoted anti-vaccine views, is involved in the planned CDC study or how it would be carried out. The CDC and the Department of Health and Human Services were not immediately available for comment.

CBS: RFK Jr. warns vaccinating poultry for bird flu could backfire Federal health agencies oppose the use of bird flu vaccines in poultry right now, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said, weighing in publicly on it for the first time in his new role. The Trump administration has been considering poultry vaccination as it seeks to combat the outbreak that is fueling a record surge in egg prices. U.S. Department of Agriculture officials said last month that they were ramping up planning on potentially deploying a vaccine for poultry, with the hopes of putting a draft of the plan before trading partners “as quickly as possible,” since it could affect billions of dollars in exports. “There’s no indication that those vaccines actually provide sterilizing immunity and all three of my health agencies, NIH, CDC, and FDA, the acting heads of those agencies have all recommended against the use of the bird flu vaccine,” Kennedy said in an interview on Fox News published this week.  Sterilizing immunity means vaccine protection that completely stops infections and spread. Vaccines are rarely able to offer this kind of effectiveness, though the USDA said last month it would step up investments in “potential new generation vaccines” with better protection.

Wall Street Journal: Secrecy and Turmoil Dominate RFK Jr.’s First Weeks as Health Secretary Soon after taking over as President Trump’s health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. marked a small victory for his food agenda, congratulating burger chain Steak ’n Shake “for being the first national fast-food chain to begin the transition away from seed oils.” Later that same day, the social-media post was quietly deleted, after it sparked internal consternation over whether the post showed too much favoritism to one company and stole the thunder of a bigger push on seed oils, people familiar with the matter said. The moment was an early sign of the tension that has marked the first three weeks of Kennedy’s tenure at the Department of Health and Human Services, where secrecy and turmoil have curbed many initiatives.

Politico: Top HHS spokesperson quits after clashing with RFK Jr. The top spokesperson at the Health and Human Services Department has abruptly quit after clashing with Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his close aides over their management of the agency amid a growing measles outbreak, two people familiar with the matter told POLITICO. Thomas Corry announced on Monday that he had resigned “effective immediately,” just two weeks after joining the department as its assistant secretary for public affairs. “I want to announce to my friends and colleagues that last Friday I announced my resignation effective immediately,” he wrote in a post to his LinkedIn page. “To my colleagues at HHS, I wish you the best and great success.” The sudden departure was prompted by growing disagreement with Kennedy and his principal deputy chief of staff, Stefanie Spear, over their management of the health department, said the two people, who were granted anonymity to speak candidly. Corry had also grown uneasy with Kennedy’s muted response to the intensifying outbreak of measles in Texas, the people said. The outbreak has infected at least 146 people and resulted in the nation’s first death from the disease in a decade.

Axios: Kennedy’s early warning signs on vaccine policy In nearly three weeks as Health and Human Services secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. certainly hasn’t allayed concerns that he’ll bring his vaccine criticism — most if not all of it unfounded — into his role as the nation’s top health care official. Why it matters: Several of Kennedy’s vaccine-related actions have stoked fears that the anti-vaccine movement has gained a powerful foothold within the federal government in the midst of a worsening measles outbreak in Texas, one of the worst flu seasons in more than a decade and a circulating bird flu virus that has pandemic potential.

Stat: RFK Jr.’s muting of public comment in HHS rules draws pushback Nearly one week after health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. moved to cut the public out of his agency’s decisionmaking process, the Department of Health and Human Services has offered little clarity on the change. Patient groups and lawmakers are pushing back as the private sector girds itself for impact.  On Thursday, a coalition of nearly two dozen patient advocacy groups made public a letter asking HHS to revoke its decision and include public participation the same way it has since 1971 — the year the little-known Richardson Waiver was adopted. The waiver made it HHS practice to issue public notices and solicit feedback on proposals that were previously excluded from such a process under the Administrative Procedure Act. Basically, HHS was choosing to involve the public more often than it had to under the law, experts say.

Mediaite: RFK Jr. Announces HHS Mission to End… Anti-Semitism? U.S. Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr. raised eyebrows on Monday after he announced a Health Department mission to “end anti-semitic harassment on college campuses.” “Anti-Semitism – like racism – is a spiritual and moral malady that sickens societies and kills people with lethalities comparable to history’s most deadly plagues,” wrote Kennedy in an announcement on Monday evening, adding: In recent years, the censorship and false narratives of woke cancel culture have transformed our great universities into greenhouses for this deadly and virulent pestilence. Making America healthy means building communities of trust and mutual respect, based on speech freedom and open debate. Kennedy then linked to a press release announcing a joint-effort by the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Education, and the General Services Administration to “end anti-semitic harassment on college campuses,” beginning with a “comprehensive review of Columbia University’s federal contracts and grants in light of ongoing investigations for potential violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.”

Reuters: Exclusive: US Marshals providing security to health secretary Kennedy, email shows The U.S. Marshals Service is providing security to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an email seen by Reuters on Wednesday showed, in what sources described as an unusual arrangement. The arrangement was disclosed in a February 12 email, in which the HHS Office of the Inspector General said it was winding down its protective services operations. The email said Attorney General Pam Bondi would arrange security for Kennedy going forward.

Disastrous, Dangerous Appointments

Bloomberg: Key Republican Disagrees With Trump CDC Pick’s Vaccine Views Maine Senator Susan Collins said she has “areas of disagreement” with President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, making the moderate Republican’s position key to the vote’s outcome. Collins expressed concern about physician Dave Weldon’s views on childhood vaccines. In his days as a former congressman, Weldon promoted the idea that a mercury-containing vaccine preservative caused children to become autistic. That runs counter to CDC’s stance that there is no link between the preservative and autism. “There are some areas of disagreement, and I look forward to the public hearing when I will be able to question him in public and in more depth on issues like vaccine recommendations,” Collins said in a brief interview with Bloomberg at the US Capitol on Wednesday. The position of CDC director will be Senate-confirmed for the first time this year. A hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee has been scheduled for March 13.

Stat: NIH nominee is ‘convinced’ vaccines don’t cause autism, but won’t rule out more studies on the issue Jay Bhattacharya, President Trump’s nominee to lead the National Institutes of Health, stated during his confirmation hearing Wednesday that he’s “convinced” by the data showing there is no link between the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism, but nevertheless left the door open to funding further studies investigating the question, clearly frustrating a key Republican senator.  That the presumptive leader of the NIH would endorse that autism isn’t linked to vaccines would not normally be notable. But Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime vaccine critic and now the country’s health secretary, refused to say as much during his own confirmation hearing in January. If Bhattacharya is confirmed, he would work under RFK Jr.

  • Politico: Democrats press Trump’s pick to lead health research to push back on DOGE Dr. Jay Bhattacharya deflected Democratic questions about whether he’d reverse the Trump administration’s slowdown in grantmaking and the firing of more than 1,000 staffers directed by Elon Musk if senators confirm him to lead the National Institutes of Health. Democrats on the Senate panel considering his nomination, with an assist from Maine Republican Susan Collins, repeatedly pressed Bhattacharya, the Stanford Medical School professor that President Donald Trump named to the job in November, to say he’d restore the pre-Trump status quo. Bhattacharya repeatedly responded that he wasn’t involved in the administration’s early moves and that he’d revisit them, follow the law and ensure NIH researchers get the money they need. But he also said it made sense for the NIH to audit how it uses its resources to restore flagging trust in public health.

New York Times: Senators Press Makary on Abortion Pills and Vaccines At a confirmation hearing for Dr. Marty Makary on Thursday, senators focused heavily on the safety of the abortion pill, with Republican lawmakers urging him to restrict access and Democratic lawmakers demanding that he maintain its current availability. Dr. Makary, President Trump’s nominee to lead the Food and Drug Administration, signaled that he shared Republicans’ concerns about the current policy, issued during the Biden administration, which expanded access by allowing people to obtain the pills without an in-person medical appointment. Several Democrats pointed to volumes of studies showing that the drugs are safe. Dr. Makary told members of the Senate health committee, which held the hearing, that he would review the pill’s safety and the policy at issue.

Mother Jones: Trump’s NIH Pick Advised South African Group That Claimed There Was No Covid Pandemic Jay Bhattacharya, the Stanford professor of medicine and economics who President Donald Trump has tapped to lead the National Institutes of Health, became prominent during the Covid pandemic as a contrarian. He was a fierce foe of the restrictive measures advocated by public health officials for combatting the deadly virus. As one of the three authors of the Great Barrington Declaration, which was developed at an October 2020 meeting of a libertarian think tank, he recommended the United States strive for Covid herd immunity through mass infection instead of fighting the disease with lockdowns, masking, and other countermeasures—a position widely opposed by medical experts as dangerous. And at the outset of Covid, he lowballed the severity of the pandemic, saying it was “likely” that the outbreak would be of a “limited scale” and cause 20,000 to 40,000 deaths, not the million or more predicted by public health officials. (Covid deaths have so far totaled 1.2 million.) During the Covid crisis, Bhattacharya’s controversial and much-criticized views became well-known. Not as public was his role advising a group in South Africa that has claimed there was no Covid pandemic and that has pushed the conspiracy theory that Covid and climate change are “fabricated global crises” orchestrated to implement “centralized control.”

New York Times: He Fought Claims of Harm From Infant Formula. Now He Regulates It. The new head of the Food and Drug Administration division that regulates infant formula was in recent months a corporate lawyer defending a top formula maker from claims that its product gave rise to debilitating harm to premature babies. Kyle A. Diamantas joined the F.D.A. last month to lead the food division, leaving the law firm Jones Day, which has served as a pipeline of talent to both Trump administrations. As a partner in Jones Day’s Miami office, Mr. Diamantas’s recent work included defending Abbott Laboratories in a lawsuit accusing the company of failing to adequately warn parents that its specialized formula for premature infants was associated with an elevated risk of a deadly bowel condition.

E&E News: Can Trump ‘Make America Healthy Again’ with this EPA?  Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took the helm of the nation’s health agency this month with a promise to “Make America Healthy Again” by purging the Department of Health and Human Services of industry influence while reducing kids’ exposure to toxic chemicals. But it’s a different story at EPA, the agency tasked with regulating environmental and industrial chemicals. Political appointees who spent much of President Donald Trump’s first term rolling back regulations that prevent chemical exposure and other forms of pollution are back at the agency, in some cases bringing with them more ties to industry than they had the first time around. The appointments highlight an underlying tension inherent in Trump’s partnership with Kennedy. While Trump has vowed that EPA will enact “fair and swift deregulatory decisions,” Kennedy, a former environmental attorney turned anti-vaccine advocate, staked much of his own presidential campaign on promises to root out corporate influence across the federal government and reduce chronic diseases, in part, by reducing chemicals exposure.

Public Health Threats

Washington Post: Second death reported in growing measles outbreak An unvaccinated New Mexico adult who tested positive for measles has died, the second death in a growing measles outbreak centered along the West Texas-New Mexico border, officials said Thursday. The individual did not seek medical care before death, New Mexico health department officials said. The official cause of death is still under investigation by New Mexico’s Office of the Medical Investigator. However, the state health department scientific laboratory has confirmed the presence of the measles virus in the person, the state health department said.

New York Times: As Measles Continues to Spread in Texas, Cases Jump in New Mexico A raging measles outbreak in West Texas, which has so far killed one child, has not abated and may have taken root in New Mexico, state health officials reported on Friday. The outbreak has sickened nearly 200 people — roughly 40 more cases than were reported on Tuesday — and has left 23 hospitalized in West Texas. Local health officials say even that number may be an undercount. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health and human services secretary, has faced criticism for his handling of the worsening outbreak. A prominent vaccine skeptic, Mr. Kennedy has offered muted support for vaccination and has emphasized untested treatments for measles, like cod liver oil. The outbreak has largely spread within a community of Mennonites in Gaines County, Texas, who historically have had lower vaccination rates and often avoid interacting with the health care system. Last year, roughly 82 percent of the county’s kindergarten population had received the measles vaccine. Experts say that vaccination rates must reach at least 95 percent to stave off outbreaks in a community. In a news release on Friday, Texas health officials wrote that more cases are “likely to occur,” because of the contagiousness of the virus. Health officials in Lea County, N.M. — which borders Gaines County — reported 30 measles cases on Friday, a substantial jump from the nine cases reported on Tuesday.

Axios: States push fight against mRNA vaccines The mRNA vaccines that helped to end the COVID pandemic — and stoked a considerable amount of vaccine skepticism and misinformation — are now a target of legislators in some conservative-led states. Why it matters: The efforts risk further politicizing science and illustrate how the pandemic experience we all want to put in the rearview continues to drive policymaking. Driving the news: No state has enacted a ban on mRNA so far. But Iowa, Montana and Idaho have all introduced legislation this year aimed at cutting the use of mRNA vaccine technology. In Iowa this week, a bill advanced out of a legislative subcommittee that would penalize providers with fines of as much as $500 for each shot of mRNA-based vaccine they provide. After pushback, state Sen. Doug Campbell, who introduced the bill, backtracked and reworked it to instead require mRNA vaccine makers to waive federal liability protections in order to distribute within the state.

Scientific American: Why This Year’s Flu Season Is the Worst in More Than a Decade It’s been a brutal flu season. Rates of hospitalizations and outpatient visits for influenza are at a 15-year high, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The season got off to a typical, relatively late start, but the CDC has now classified it as “high severity.” And as measured by outpatient visits for flulike symptoms, the level of illness in the U.S. has been comparable to that of the 2009 H1N1 (swine flu) pandemic. Kids have been hit especially hard: as of February 22, 98 children—most of them unvaccinated—have died from flu in the U.S. this season. There has also been an increase in severe neurological complications in kids, including seizures, hallucinations and other symptoms. And amid these high rates of illness, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently canceled an advisory committee meeting to determine the flu vaccine strain to be used later this year, ahead of the next influenza season. (The Food and Drug Administration was allowed to participate in a World Health Organization meeting to determine the vaccine’s composition despite President Donald Trump’s ban on government employees working with the agency.)

Public Health Threats Around The World:  

Opinion and Commentary

Stat: Former chairs of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices on the panel’s role The recent postponement of a key federal advisory committee meeting is deeply alarming and signals that it may no longer be able to provide independent scientific guidance to federal agencies. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), has served the American people since 1964. ACIP advises the director of the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention on how to use vaccines in the U.S. population to prevent the spread of infections, such as measles, influenza, whooping cough, and polio, and how to prevent serious complications from infections such as hearing loss, cancer, or death. But the ACIP meeting planned for three days in late February was recently delayed, reportedly to allow for public comment. But we remain worried. Since the delay, an unvaccinated child in Texas died from measles, highlighting the vacuum that has been created in scientific leadership and communication. As past chairs of the ACIP, we want to share why this committee matters to the health care profession, and to all Americans.

ashoup
In News

STATEMENT: RFK Infests CDC With Anti-Vaccine Rhetoric, Launches Sham Vaccine and Autism Study

Washington, D.C. – Today, new reporting revealed that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is starting a new “study” into connections between vaccinations and autism, despite the fact that it is already settled science that vaccines do not cause autism. This announcement comes ahead of next week’s confirmation hearing for extreme anti-vaxxer Dave Weldon to head the CDC and amid persistent rumors that the administration plans to deeply slash the critical public health agency or even eliminate it altogether. In response Protect Our Care President Brad Woodhouse issued a statement:

“Despite multiple fraudulent assurances to senators, RFK Jr.’s anti-vaccine agenda is being implemented at the CDC. While two people have died from a measles outbreak in the southwestern United States – the first deaths from measles since 2015 – he is continuing his highly dangerous crusade through the CDC that will only lead to more outbreaks and more deaths. In recent weeks, RFK Jr. has also fired hundreds of workers from the CDC, leaving the organization understaffed. This new ‘study’ is a completely unnecessary investigation that only feeds the kind of dangerous vaccine skepticism the likes of Senators Cassidy and Collins hoped to avoid. They got clearly played and god only knows how many people will pay the price.” 

ashoup
In News

FACT SHEET: 31 Million American Children Rely On Medicaid For Their Health And Academic Success

Medicaid is a lifeline for the health and academic success of American children. Children have the highest poverty rate of any age group and Medicaid covers nearly half of all American children. GOP cuts to Medicaid would jeopardize the physical, mental, and academic well-being of vulnerable children including children with special needs, foster youth, and children of color. Without Medicaid, millions of children will be more likely to suffer from bad health, unable to get the help they need in school, trapped in a cycle of poverty, and denied the American dream.

Credit: Georgetown CCF

  • Nearly Half of American Children Are Enrolled In Medicaid. Approximately 31.5 million children in the United States are enrolled in Medicaid. In school districts across the country, as many as 9 in 10 children are covered by Medicaid. See here for more information on the percentage of children in your school district covered by Medicaid.
  • Medicaid Covers The Tools Children Need To Succeed In School. Medicaid’s Early Periodic Screening Diagnostic and Treatment (EPSDT) benefit gives children under 21 years old access to comprehensive and preventive health services, such as yearly physicals, hearing, vision, and dental screenings, and physical, mental, and developmental disability treatments. The benefit also helps students gain access to medical supplies, such as hearing aids, glasses, and assistive technology, to help them succeed in school.
  • Medicaid Is Crucial For Students 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.
  • Medicaid Is Essential To Combat America’s Youth Mental Health Crisis. Nearly 1 in 5 children in the United States struggle with a mental, emotional, developmental, or behavioral disorder. Medicaid provides 31 million children with the help that they need by requiring states to cover mental health screenings as part of the EPSDT benefit. When asked why they missed class, 16 percent of high school students cited anxiety, and another 12 percent listed sadness and depression, according to a fall 2023 survey. Medicaid is supporting efforts to provide mental health support and helping them show up to school feeling their best.
  • Medicaid Sets Children Up For Success. Children who are eligible for Medicaid do better in school, miss fewer school days, and are more likely to finish high school, attend college, and graduate from college. Medicaid for children also has a positive impact on employment and earnings later in life. According to a 2021 NBER analysis, for each additional year of Medicaid eligibility as a child, adults by age 28 had higher earnings and made $533 additional cumulative tax payments due to their higher incomes.
  • Medicaid Is A Lifeline For Rural Children. Children in rural areas rely on Medicaid for school-based care when hospitals or doctors’ offices may be far away. Medicaid allows rural schools to provide on-site nurses, access to mental health therapists, and other telehealth options. Children are more than six times more likely to access health care at school.
ashoup
In News

“Families Lose and Billionaires Win”: Sens. Schumer, Wyden, and Other Senate Leaders Join Protect Our Care and SEIU For Virtual Medicaid Rally

Senators Jeff Merkley (OR), Tammy Baldwin (WI), Chris Van Hollen (MD), Maggie Hassan (NH), Raphael Warnock (GA), and Peter Welch (VT) Also Joined 

Watch the Full Event Here.

Washington, D.C. – Yesterday, Senators Chuck Schumer (NY), Ron Wyden (OR), Jeff Merkley (OR), Tammy Baldwin (WI), Chris Van Hollen (MD), Maggie Hassan (NH), Raphael Warnock (GA), and Peter Welch (VT) joined health care advocates, Protect Our Care and SEIU for a virtual rally to underscore the importance of Medicaid across the country. Right now, President Trump and his Republican allies in Congress are working to kick millions of children, seniors, and people with disabilities off their Medicaid coverage and spike the cost of health care for the middle class, all to line the pockets of billionaires and large corporations with tax breaks.

“Everything Donald Trump and the Republican Party does these days has one goal: tax cuts for the richest of America, but they have to find a way to fund them,” said Senator Chuck Schumer. “$880 billion in cuts is unfathomable and would be the largest health care cuts in American history. But Democrats are united in the fight to protect Medicaid. It is our number one priority.” 

“Republicans know what they’re doing is unpopular,” said Senator Ron Wyden. “That’s why they’re canceling town hall meetings or using gimmicky messaging to dodge tough questions. They’re hiding what they’re doing behind the curtain. Our job is to put Republicans on notice and communicate the harm that these cuts will produce. It is unconscionable to consider cuts for kids and seniors and people with disabilities to finance a tax cut that will disproportionately benefit the people at the top.”

“The Republican plan is very straightforward: families lose and billionaires win,” said Senator Jeff Merkley. “Health care should be a right, not a privilege of a job that has benefits, and that’s why we created the Medicaid program to begin with. Republicans need to take Medicaid off the table for the health and welfare of so many millions of Americans – a third of Americans who want to be able to be healthy, stand on their feet, thrive, and have their families thrive.”

“Republicans are coming after your health care so that the ultra-wealthy will never have to pay their fair share,” said Senator Tammy Baldwin. “We’re talking about Americans who rely on Medicaid for life-saving care, children who need Medicaid to see a doctor, rural hospitals that would have to close their doors, and we’re talking about people like my own mother. My mother relied on Medicaid towards the end of her life to help pay for skilled nursing care, and she was just like six out of every 10 residents in nursing homes who do count on Medicaid to make sure that they can get the care that they need.” 

“What we’re witnessing in real-time is the great betrayal,” said Senator Chris Van Hollen. “Donald Trump, on the campaign trail, said he was going to focus on lowering prices and costs for Americans around the country. What he is cutting is not prices, but health programs that are important to Americans across the country in order to pay for and finance tax cuts for the very wealthy.”

“President Trump and Congressional Republicans are pushing a budget that would pay for tax breaks for billionaires at the expense of the people on Medicaid,” said Senator Maggie Hassan. “If they are successful, it’s going to be devastating to our people, communities, and economy. Medicaid is essential for people to get the health care they need and participate fully in their communities and in the workplace. If this budget passes, it will be the end of Medicaid as we know it.”

“A budget is a moral document – show me your budget, and I’ll show you your priorities,” said Senator Raphael Warnock. “The Republican budget gives tax cuts to the wealthiest of the wealthy at the expense of struggling, hard-working families. I think it’s wrong that in the richest country on Earth, we don’t want to lower the cost of health care for hard-working people.”

“Republicans are willing to just follow the party line because that’s what Trump is demanding,” said Senator Peter Welch. “And of course what he is demanding is that we’ve got to cut the taxes for the billionaire class. The way they’re going to pay for it is to eviscerate the health care that is so essential to the well-being of people. This is a level of cruelty that I’ve never seen.”

“Medicaid saved my family and is the reason that my daughter is thriving,” said Elena Hung, Executive Director and Co-Founder, Little Lobbyists. “There’s not a single thing that I would change about my daughter, but there are a million things that I would change about this world so that it would be worthy of her, and the first thing that I would change is to ensure that all children have the health care that they need to survive and thrive. We can do that by protecting Medicaid, fighting tooth and nail, to defend it.”

“There is no way to get to the scale of cuts proposed without taking away essential care that Medicaid provides for millions of families at every stage of life,” said Jaimie Worker, Director of Public Policy, Caring Across Generations. “Every proposal to cut, cap, or make other harmful changes to Medicaid is a threat to the health and well-being of our communities. Medicaid is not a piggy bank.”

“I fell in love with giving our most vulnerable, forgotten-about groups their independence, freedoms, and dignity that they could not have without home care back to them,” said Jessica Bolmer, home care worker and member of SEIU Healthcare Illinois. “The Republicans in Congress who want to cut Medicaid are not on the front lines with us, seeing the magic that Medicaid does every day. If we’re going to be talking about making changes to Medicaid, we need to be talking about expansion, not cuts. Medicaid changes lives and Medicaid saves lives.”

“We’re here because Republicans in Congress want to slash Medicaid,” said Brad Woodhouse, President, Protect Our Care. “They have to cut spending so that they can provide tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans in this country. That’s what they’re trying to do and that’s what we’re going to stop. If we fight like hell, we will protect Medicaid for this generation and generations to come.”

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In News

HEADLINES: CBO Reveals the Truth – Republican Budget Cuts Medicaid

Republicans Have Passed a Budget Resolution Plan to Cut Nearly a Trillion Dollars From Medicaid

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office just confirmed what Democrats have been saying all along – the Republican budget plan forces nearly $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid, the largest cut in its history. Medicaid provides coverage for over 70 million Americans, especially low-income seniors, children, veterans, people with serious disabilities, and people who take care of their children or elderly parents.

HEADLINES

Washington Post: GOP Must Cut Medicaid or Medicare to Achieve Budget Goals, CBO Finds.

  • “But the House GOP’s budget, which passed last week in a hairline vote, asks the committee responsible for federal health-care spending to find at least $880 billion in savings over 10 years. And the Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday that reducing costs that much won’t be possible without cuts to Medicare, Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program.”

The Hill: Republicans Need to Cut Medicaid to Hit Budget Savings Target, CBO Finds.

  • “That’s a problem for House Republicans, who are looking to slash $880 billion from programs in the committee’s jurisdiction to help pay for an extension of President Trump’s tax cuts and border enforcement funding. One of the prime targets is Medicaid, the joint federal and state-funded program that provides health coverage to more than 72 million low-income Americans.”

NBC: Republicans Can’t Meet Their Own Budget Target Without Cutting Medicare or Medicaid, Budget Office Says.

  • “That leaves Republicans in a deep predicament. The budget resolution, adopted by the slimmest of margins in the narrowly divided House, was the delicate product of negotiations among conservative hard-liners who demand steep spending cuts and swing-district GOP lawmakers who say they don’t want to slash funding for the health programs their constituents rely on.”

MSNBC: On Medicaid Cuts, Budget Officials Tell Republicans What They Didn’t Want to Hear.

  • “The truth wasn’t nearly that simple. While the literal text of the bill didn’t reference specific Medicaid cuts, the GOP plan directed the congressional committee that oversees Medicaid to find $880 billion in cuts that can only be found in Medicaid. A week later, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office confirmed that Democratic criticisms were true.”

Common Dreams: CBO Report Confirms ‘Republicans Are Lying’ About Medicaid Cuts.

  • “According to the CBO, just $135 billion in spending under the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s jurisdiction over the next decade would be available for cuts when excluding Medicaid, Medicare, CHIP, and programs that are ‘budget-neutral with revenues offsetting spending.’”

The 19th: The 19th Explains: Is Trump cutting Medicaid?

  • “Why would the  $880 billion in spending cuts come from Medicaid? Put simply: The math otherwise does not add up.”
  • “The Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan entity that acts as Congress’ bookkeeper, confirmed late Wednesday that it would not be possible to finance Trump’s tax agenda without cutting Medicaid or Medicare.”

Alternet: ‘Republicans Are Lying’: Top Dem Says Government Report Confirms Fears About Medicaid Cuts.

  • “That means Republicans would have to cut Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), or Medicare to achieve the $880 billion in spending reductions that the House budget resolution instructs the energy and commerce panel to impose between fiscal years 2025 and 2034.”
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In News

NEW: State Fact Sheets, Theme Weeks Underscore the Importance of Medicaid To Millions of Americans Across the Country

New Activities Part of Protect Our Care’s $10 Million “Hands Off Medicaid” Campaign

Washington, D.C. — After Republicans voted to decimate Medicaid, Protect Our Care is continuing its $10 million “Hands Off Medicaid” campaign 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. In addition to releasing new state-by-state fact sheets, Protect Our Care will work with partners to host virtual and in-person events with members of Congress, storytellers, and experts centered around Medicaid and the people who rely on it. The activities will also include digital campaigns, paid ads, and new research. 

Protect Our Care’s new fact sheets outline how Medicaid is a lifeline for 70 million Americans across the country and how any cuts will have devastating consequences. As a result, millions – including working folks, children with disabilities, expectant mothers, and seniors in nursing homes – could lose critical health care coverage while rural hospitals have to shut their doors. Read the fact sheets here. 

“Health care for every single one of the 72 million people relying on Medicaid is at risk,” said Protect Our Care President Brad Woodhouse. “These are our neighbors, children, parents, and grandparents. If Republicans in Congress succeed in cutting Medicaid, the results will be swift and catastrophic. Seniors in nursing homes will be kicked out, rural hospitals will close, parents will have to quit work and struggle to take care of their disabled children, costs will skyrocket, and the list goes on. We will all pay the price.”

The theme weeks are as follows:

  • March 10 – 14: Medicaid Expansion: Medicaid expansion covers almost 21 million Americans, improving people’s health, keeping hospitals open, increasing families’ financial security, and saving lives. 
  • March 17 – 21: Economic Impact: Medicaid cuts will create a $50 billion hole in state budgets, forcing them to raise taxes, cut other parts of their budget such as K-12 education, or make steep cuts to Medicaid eligibility and benefits.
  • March 24 – 28: Rural America: Medicaid is a vital source of coverage for people across rural America, who are more likely to lack insurance, experience negative health outcomes, and have more barriers to accessing care.

April: Medicaid Awareness Month:

  • 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.
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In News

STATEMENT: Trump Runs and Hides From the GOP’s War on Health Care During Congressional Address

Protect Our Care White House Display Tells Trump “Hands Off Medicaid”

Washington, D.C. – Tonight Donald Trump addressed a joint session of Congress to outline his priorities. During his speech, he boasted about his plan to give tax breaks to his billionaire friends, but he failed to mention that this is funded by ripping health care away from millions of families. 

In response, Protect Our Care President Brad Woodhouse issued a statement:

“Donald Trump can try to run from his war on American health care but he can’t hide from it. He knows his plan to cut nearly $1 trillion from Medicaid is so deeply unpopular that he would rather sweep it under the rug and not mention it at all. While people are struggling to pay their bills, he wants to raise the cost of health care and take away coverage that millions of people count on. Trump is breaking the promises he made to the American people just to provide his billionaire friends with tax cuts.”

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In News

Protect Our Care White House Display Tells Trump “Hands Off Medicaid” 

Protect Our Care supporters are displaying a “Hands Off Medicaid” message in front of the White House ahead of President Trump’s address to Congress, signaling opposition to the Republican budget that would slash Medicaid by nearly $1 trillion. Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress are trying to rip away health care from millions of families to fund tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans. This display is part of Protect Our Care’s $10 million “Hands Off Medicaid” campaign exposing the choice between protecting Medicaid or giving away new tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy.

Medicaid is an essential pillar of our health care system with over 70 million Americans currently covered through the program. The GOP budget would have a devastating impact on the most vulnerable Americans, including low-income seniors, children, veterans, people with serious disabilities, and people who take care of their children or elderly parents. Learn more here. 

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In News

FACT SHEET: No Matter What Trump Says Tonight, Republicans Are Waging War on Health Care

Tonight, in his address to Congress, President Trump will lie to the American people. No matter what he claims, the truth is that he and his Republican allies in Congress are waging a war on health care. Between passing a budget resolution that would enact the largest cuts to Medicaid in history to the reckless mass firings at the health agencies charged with developing lifesaving cures and treatments that keep us safe, Trump has put the health and well-being of every American in serious jeopardy.

Right now, President Trump and his Republican allies in Congress are working to kick millions of children, seniors, and people with disabilities off their Medicaid coverage and spike the cost of health care for the middle class, all to line the pockets of billionaires and large corporations with tax breaks. 

Here are four big ways he and his Republican allies in Congress are waging war on our nation’s health care:

1. Ripping Away Coverage From Millions of Americans By Slashing Medicaid. Even as Republicans have lied through their teeth about not cutting Medicare or Medicaid, they passed a budget resolution last week calling for massive cuts that would be impossible without slashing one or both health programs in order to fund tax breaks for billionaires and corporations. Slashing Medicaid could:

  • Put the care of over 8 million seniors at risk, including many of the 5.6 million who count on Medicaid for long-term care and 6 in 10 nursing home residents. 
  • Take away coverage for people with disabilities and mental illness, jeopardizing care for over 15 million adults with disabilities and kids with physical, mental, and developmental disabilities.
  • Take away health care from children. Almost half of all children in America have Medicaid, helping over 30 million children get the health care they need. 
  • Threaten health care for veterans. Nearly a million non-elderly veterans, many of whom suffer with chronic conditions, use Medicaid for all or part of their health care. 
  • Jeopardize health care for new mothers. Medicaid covers 4 in 10 births and is the largest share of maternity coverage. 
  • Force rural hospitals and clinics to close. Half of all children and 20% of adults in rural areas get their healthcare through Medicaid. 

2. Raising The Cost of Health Coverage For Middle Class Families. Republicans want to raise health care costs for over 24 million Americans. Republicans are refusing to extend tax credits that help working families afford health care, which will raise costs and rip away health care from millions of Americans at a time they cannot afford it. If Republicans take away these tax credits, they’ll be taking away health care. Costs will skyrocket by an average of $2,400 for millions of families, and 5 million people will lose their health care altogether. Without these credits, families will pay up to 90 percent more for their health care, while billionaires and CEOs will get another huge tax break. 

3. Hiking Prescription Drug Costs For Seniors. Republicans have introduced legislation to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act’s prescription drug provisions that are saving Americans thousands of dollars on health care. This includes ending the $35 monthly cap on insulin, stopping Medicare from negotiating lower drug prices, ending the $2,000 annual out-of-pocket cap on drug costs, and allowing drug companies to once again raise drug prices through the roof without penalty. They want to raise costs on the 53 million seniors with Part D prescription drug coverage while giving more tax breaks to drug companies and their CEOs. 

4. Destroying Medical Research, Endangering Public Health, and Bringing Back Vaccine Preventable Diseases. Under the second Trump administration, public health is under serious threat. Over the past month, his federal grant stoppages and cuts have upended the nation’s medical research infrastructure and thrown global efforts to stop the spread of deadly disease into chaos. Republicans’ confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the next Secretary of Health and Human Services has already begun to cost lives and undermine our nation’s most critical health institutions. His opposition to vaccines has already led to a deadly resurgence of measles across the Southwest, the cancellation of a scientific panel that meets to approve flu vaccines, and the halting of vaccine research. As vaccination rates across the country drop, it is only a matter of time before other once-eliminated childhood diseases, such as polio, make a comeback. Our country is now more at the mercy of infectious disease than ever in recent history.

If Republicans Enact Their Proposals:

  • GONE: Coverage for up to 36 million people because of the GOP’s onerous work reporting requirements. 
  • GONE: Federal funding for Medicaid expansion, putting coverage for 21 million Americans at risk. 
  • GONE: Protections and health care for over 30 million children currently covered through Medicaid.
  • GONE: Billions in federal state funding for Medicaid, as Republicans plan to cut federal funding for Medicaid and eliminate provider taxes to cut taxes for the rich.
  • GONE: Critical funding for rural hospitals through Medicaid. 

If Republicans Repeal The Affordable Care Act:

  • GONE: Protections for more than 100 million Americans with pre-existing conditions, including 54 million people with a pre-existing condition that would make them completely uninsurable.
  • GONE: Medicaid expansion, which covers over 21 million people. 
  • GONE: Quality, affordable coverage for over 24 million people who buy insurance on their own.
  • GONE: Premium tax credits that make premiums affordable for 93 percent of people who purchase health care on the marketplace.
  • GONE: 2.3 million adult children will no longer be able to stay on their parents’ insurance.
  • GONE: Ban on insurance companies having annual and lifetime caps on coverage.
  • GONE: Requirements that insurance companies cover prescription drugs and maternity care.

If Republicans Roll Back The Inflation Reduction Act:

  • GONE: $35 cap on monthly insulin costs for people with Medicare.
  • GONE: Medicare’s power to negotiate lower prices for the most popular and expensive prescription drugs. Over 9 million people take the first ten drugs and over 5 million people take the second 15 drugs selected for negotiation, which together account for over a third of Medicare Part D yearly spending. 
  • GONE: Prescription drug savings for people on Medicare, including the $2,000 annual out-of-pocket prescription drug cap and protections from drug company price hikes through inflation rebates. Nearly 19 million American seniors are expected to save an average of $400 per year, including 11 million who will save an average of $600 per year from the $2,000 out-of-pocket cap alone.
  • GONE: Free vaccines for 53 million people on Medicare, including for shingles and pneumonia.
  • GONE: Prescription drug savings for 4 million low-income seniors through the Medicare Part D Extra Help program.
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In News

STATEMENT: Republicans Can’t Hide From Their Constituents After Voting To Gut Medicaid

Republicans Are Avoiding Hosting Town Halls After Voting To Cut $880 Billion+ From Medicaid In Order To Fund Tax Breaks for the Ultra-Wealthy

Washington, D.C. – GOP leadership is advising House Republicans to avoid hosting town halls with their constituents after voting to cut hundreds of billions from Medicaid in order to fund tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy. In response, Protect Our Care President Brad Woodhouse issued the following statement:

“Republicans are deeply mistaken if they think they can get away with voting to gut Medicaid by canceling their town halls so they don’t have to hear the backlash from their constituents.”

Politico: No More In-Person Town Halls, NRCC Chief Tells House Republicans

  • “The chair of the House GOP’s campaign arm told Republican lawmakers Tuesday to stop holding in-person town halls amid a wave of angry backlash over the cuts undertaken by President Donald Trump’s administration. Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.), the NRCC chair, delivered the message inside a closed-door meeting of House Republicans, according to three people granted anonymity to describe the private remarks.”
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