With President Trump back in office, the Republican threat to health care is real. The last Trump administration was disastrous for Americans’ health care with repeated attempts to raise costs and kick millions off of their coverage. Republicans tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act and its protections for pre-existing conditions, hike prescription drug and premium costs, and cut Medicare and Medicaid – and they intended to do it all again.
But health care is a kitchen table issue. No matter where they live or work, or who they voted for, the American people want health care to be more affordable and accessible. Republicans have been clear about their intentions: ban Medicare from negotiating with drug companies for lower prices, cut Medicaid for kids and families to provide tax cuts for the ultra-rich, and rip away critical protections for pre-existing conditions. These GOP policies will result in higher costs and worse care – the exact opposite of what the American people want. Across the board, the Republican health care agenda of putting profits over people is deeply unpopular.
Protect Our Care will continue to monitor all of the ways Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans target health care and update the “Health Care Sabotage Tracker” over the next four years.
March 2025
- Fired 10,000 HHS employees who have been responding to infectious disease outbreaks, approving new life-saving drugs, administering critical programs like Medicare and Medicaid, and more.
- Confirmed Jay Bhattacharya, a COVID-19 skeptic who has called for dismantling the National Institute of Health, as National Institutes of Health Director, and Marty Makary, who supports RFK Jr.’s bogus science claims and has plans to overhaul the FDA, as Food and Drug Administration Commissioner.
- Put David Geier, an anti-vax, quack scientist, and fake doctor, in charge of the “study” into connections between vaccinations and autism.
- Defunded studies that aimed to explain vaccine hesitancy and explore how to increase vaccination rates.
- Passed a continuing resolution that paves the way for Republicans to rip away cost-saving tax credits for middle-class families, jeopardizing the health and financial stability of millions of people.
- Announced a rule that shortens the Affordable Care Act open enrollment period by one month and ends the ability for low-income families to sign up monthly instead of waiting for the enrollment period in the fall, making it harder for families to enroll in affordable health care coverage.
- Shut down two independent food safety committees that help keep Americans safe from outbreaks of bacteria, such as listeria.
- Offered 80,000 HHS employees a buyout to leave the agency.
- Defied court orders to stop freezing or terminating research grants.
- Started a new “study” into connections between vaccinations and autism, despite the fact that it is already settled science that vaccines do not cause autism.
February 2025
- Canceled the FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee which was set to discuss the strains of influenza to include in the next flu shot.
- Indefinitely postponed the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) meeting. The ACIP “offers guidance on vaccine approvals and influences which shots insurers cover” and had been scheduled to discuss vaccines for COVID-19, meningococcal virus, influenza, RSV, HPV, and mpox.
- Ended the HHS Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Long COVID.
- Terminated the CDC’s flu vaccine campaign, which aimed to raise vaccination rate, especially among higher-risk groups such as seniors and children.
- Fired several thousand employees across HHS, including those who worked on infectious diseases.
- Cut nearly 90 percent of ACA Navigator funding that currently helps people enroll in affordable health coverage.
- Proposed up to $2 trillion in cuts to Medicaid, which would leave millions of Americans without coverage.
- Removed critical data across multiple websites, including information on contraception, transgender health, and disaster planning.
- Increased the prices of prescription drugs, including cancer and heart medications as well as vital antibiotics, through his blanket tariffs on China.
- Delayed implementation of a Biden administration rule that barred medical debt from showing on credit reports.
- Cut NIH grants, capping the payout rate at 15 percent. This will hinder life-saving research being done at universities across the country.
- Violated court orders to halt funding freezes to organizations like the NIH, instead choosing to fire staff, cancel research, and disrupt health care.
- Halted all studies and activities within the NIH relating in any capacity to LGBTQ+ health, including active research programs.
- Updated funding conditions for the Department of Transportation, requiring that groups seeking grants have anti-public health and anti-vaccine policies in place before they can receive any funding.
January 2025
- Revoked a Biden administration order that prioritized protecting and strengthening Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act in order to make high-quality health care accessible and affordable for every American. Per Stat: “Trump rescinded Biden’s executive order that led to longer enrollment periods for Affordable Care Act plans in most states and extra funding for the third parties that help people enroll in ACA insurance. Those measures helped the Biden administration nearly double ACA enrollment to about 24 million people, though those gains were mostly due to the extra government subsidies that lowered the cost of ACA premiums.”
- In a two-page memo, Donald Trump ordered a freeze on all federal financial assistance except Medicare and Social Security. This means billions of dollars in grants, any and all Medicaid services, ACA premium subsidies, and more may be unable to be provided to Americans. According to reports, all fifty states were briefly unable to access their Medicaid portals. The chaos and confusion surrounding this event leaves the future of Medicaid payments uncertain.
- Signed an executive order ending all funding for any kind of gender-affirming care for people 19 and under by threatening the revocation of all Medicaid and Medicare funding; as well the order further eroded patient privacy protections for all Americans.
- Another OMB memo confirmed a pause on all funding for Rural Health and Safety Education Competitive Grants Program and Distance Learning & Telemedicine Grants clawing back millions of dollars in funding for rural health programs.
- Ordered a communications and hiring freeze for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as well as new restrictions, halting grant funding for lifesaving medical research.
- Revoked a Biden administration order instructing agencies to identify ways to expand affordable health coverage even further and help Americans enroll in quality health coverage.
- Revoked a Biden administration executive order which aimed to lower prescription drug costs for people on Medicaid or Medicare by analyzing new payment models.
- Revoked a Biden administration order that instructed the Secretary of Health and Human Services to create a plan to support new studies for treatments to future threats to public health.
- Ordered the CDC to withdraw all of its research from any publication and has forbidden any terms relating to pregnancy or gender to be included in any future research.
- Removed multiple CDC websites and datasets involving HIV, youth health behaviors, and LGBTQ+ health.
- Signed an executive order to withdraw from the World Health Organization on his first day in office.