Washington, D.C. – Tonight, Donald Trump is set to address a joint session of Congress to outline his priorities. Here’s the real state of the union: the Republican war on health care is alive and well. Already, Trump endorsed the Republican plan to cut nearly a trillion from Medicaid — threatening health care for over 70 million Americans who rely on the program. He nominated an HHS Secretary who has no regard for public health, and he is empowering a billionaire to make indiscriminate cuts to lifesaving public health programs with no oversight. As a result, American health care is at risk like it has never been before.
“All Donald Trump will do tonight is lie,” said Protect Our Care Chair Leslie Dach. “He will lie about protecting Medicaid while he has endorsed the Republican plan to cut nearly a trillion dollars from Medicaid to give tax breaks to his billionaire buddies. He will lie about allowing Elon Musk to take a hatchet to public health infrastructure, including the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control. He will lie about RFK Jr. implementing an anti-vaccine agenda. Donald Trump is endangering the lives of millions of Americans but there is zero chance he’ll admit to any of it.”
Protect Our Care will continue to track all of Donald Trump’s attacks on health care and public health via our “Health Care Sabotage Tracker.”
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.