Health and Health Care worsen under Trump

Bob Sheak and Arlene Sheak, August 1, 2026

Introduction

Trump and his Republican Party not only continue to fail in creating a viable health care system, they are also making the present system even more inadequate. It is but one example of how Trump and his Republican cronies are reducing opportunities generally for the majority of Americans. His Iran War, tariffs, massive deportation, regressive tax cuts, and self-enrichment schemes are examples. All this is happening despite his hollow presidential campaign promises to support policies that would benefit all citizens.

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Trump Is Making America Uninsured Again

Sasha Abramsky offers some evidence of this trend, May 16, 2026

(https://truthout.org/articles/trump-is-making-america-uninsured-again).

Abramsky’ central point is that the Trump’s GOP is heading into the 2026 midterms as the party that is making health coverage out of reach for millions of Americans. Consider some of his ample evidence.

He writes, “In 2025, the Trump administration successfully pushed Congress to enact nearly $1 trillion in health care cuts over the coming decade, which the Congressional Budget Office analysis estimated would result in 10 million people losing health coverage by 2034. More recently, it has blocked any and all efforts to extend the Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credit subsidies for people buying insurance on the state exchanges. In demanding that the GOP leadership in Congress prevent at all costs a continuation of the expanded ACA tax credits, Donald Trump intimated that his administration was on the verge of proposing a better and more affordable health care reform to replace the ACA system.

“Nothing of that nature has materialized. Instead, the administration’s health reforms have been shockingly small-bore — a handful of measures to lower the costs of prescription drugs, more incentives for consumers to create health savings accounts, a rollback of regulations on catastrophic coverage plans — thus, making it easier for younger, healthier, patients to buy junk insurance, but doing nothing for those who are older or suffer from chronic conditions.

Abramsky continues. “Over the past months, even these baby steps have stalled out, with the GOP seemingly and inexplicably resigned to the fact that it will be heading into the midterm elections as the party that is putting health coverage out of reach for millions of Americans. Early in the Iran war, Trump was caught saying that the federal government could no longer afford its massive Medicare commitments now that the country was engaged in an expensive overseas conflict, and it would have to roll back responsibility for paying for this bedrock safety net program onto the states.”Bottom of Form

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Evidence that millions of Americans are already losing their health insurance

Journalist Aparna Soni reports that “2.6 million Americans Lost Health Insurance in 2025 After ACA Subsidies Expired, Leading to Real Health Consequences,” July 15, 2026 (https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/07/15/2-6-million-americans-lost-health-insurance-in-2025-after-asa-subsidies-expired-leading-to-health-consequences).

Soni continues. “Millions of Americans who buy their own health insurance coverage through the Affordable Care Act marketplaces faced a stark choice this year: pay more than twice as much to keep the same plan or go without. Many did not keep their coverage.

“Federal data released on June 26, 2026, shows that marketplace enrollment fell from 21.8 million people in February 2025 to 19.2 million in February 2026, a decline of about 2.6 million people, or 12%. That is the steepest single-year decline since the marketplaces opened in 2014. ACA marketplaces (or exchanges) are government-regulated platforms where individuals and small businesses can shop for and purchase compliant private health insurance.

Soni is a health economist who studies how insurance coverage affects people’s health, I see the drop as more than a numbers story. The key question is: What happens to people’s health when coverage becomes too expensive to keep?”

Why enrollment fell

“The drop in enrollment numbers traces back largely to the expiration of the ACA’s enhanced premium tax credits, which lowered enrollees’ monthly payments when they were in effect from 2021 through 2025.”

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Trump also eliminated Medicare Part D Subsidies After Vowing to “Protect” the Program in 2024

Chris Walker reports on this for Truthout, July 29, 2026

(https://truthout.org/articles/trump-to-end-medicare-part-d-subsidies-after-vowing-to-protect-program-in-2024). Walker is a news writer at Truthout, “based in Madison, Wisconsin. Focusing on both national and local topics since the early 2000s, he has produced thousands of articles analyzing the issues of the day and their impact on people.”

Walker provides context.

“Mehmet Oz, [Trump’s appointed] head of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, justified the change by citing the hollow reason, ‘stabilizing’ markets.’

“On Tuesday [July 28] the Trump administration announced its plans to end a subsidy program for Medicare Part D, which has helped lower prescription drug costs for tens of millions of enrollees in the program for the past two years.”

“The Biden-era program provided subsidies to insurance companies, which in turn lowered the cost of drugs for seniors in Medicare. If repealed, many enrollees in the program could see their prescription costs increase by hundreds of dollars annually.

“The announcement comes at a time,’ Walker writes, ‘when other costs, including for everyday consumer goods, have been increasing, too. The changes to Medicare Part D will go into effect at the end of this year.”

Trump misled the public

Walker reports that the upcoming program cuts Bottom of Form

contradict “promises and commitments to protecting Medicare that President Donald Trump and the Republican Party in general made during the 2024 elections.” During his presidential campaign, for example, Trump said he would ‘always protect’ Medicare,’ strengthen it for future generations, and promised there would be ‘no cuts’ to the program.”

Now millions of Americans struggle to afford medical insurance

Walker cites DNC Rapid Response Director Kendall Witmer who said in a statement “Donald Trump and Republicans are doing everything they can to make healthcare unaffordable for Americans, especially for seniors,” She added:

Trump and Republicans massive healthcare cuts have pushed working families to the brink, Walker writes. Americans must now grapple with skyrocketing insurance premiums, even bigger medical bills, and rising prescription drug costs. They “are taking on record amounts of medical debt just to make ends meet — all while Trump and his family get even richer and his wealthy donors rake in tax cuts.”

Democrats have a different approach

Democrats and those on the Left want a very different approach. For example, “ In an op-ed for Truthout co-written last month by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota) and Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen, the pair called for repairing the broken U.S. health system by expanding Medicare eligibility to every person in the country.”

Walker notes that Omar and Gilbert added: “Given the resources of our country, we can no longer justify the status quo. The U.S. spends almost twice per person on health care compared to other wealthy nations and our outcomes are often worse. Millions of Americans remain uninsured or underinsured. This is utterly outrageous, especially in the wealthiest country in the world.

“‘We are sick and tired of our health care system putting profits before people,’ Omar and Gilbert said. ‘We need to create a future in which every single person in the U.S. can get the care they need regardless of their ability to pay.’”

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Hospitals are now facing an increasing number of uninsured patients

Reed Abelson reports on how a report by hospitals document that the healthcare cuts have led to a sharp increase in uninsured patients coming for uninsured care

(https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/30/business/aca-obamacare-health-insurance.html).

She writes, “More people who lost coverage after congressional Republicans ended enhanced federal subsidies are now seeking care in emergency rooms and unable to pay bills.”

Abelson continues. “More and more uninsured patients are showing up in hospital emergency rooms and clinics, having lost their coverage under the Affordable Care Act.

“Executives running some of the biggest hospital systems, including large for-profit chains spanning many states, expressed concern over the unexpectedly sharp rise in uninsured patients and the costs associated with treating them.”

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More evidence on how hospitals are facing funding problems and many are closing

Whitney Curry Wimbash reports for The American Prospect on how Trump Funding Cuts are Endangering City and Rural Hospitals Alike

(https://prospect.org/2026/07/15/trump-funding-cuts-endangering-city-rural-hospitals-alike). Here’s some of what she reports.

“A year after Trump ripped $1 trillion out of the American health care system, hundreds of hospitals have closed and millions of people are without health insurance. The majority are in urban areas.”

Winbash continues. “In the year since President Trump stole $1 trillion out of the American health care system to free up funding for mass deportation, tax breaks for his billionaire friends, and, it turns out, illegal wars of aggression, much of the resulting conversation has focused on how the funding cuts would impact rural hospitals and patients. The idea was that most of the harm would hit there, since rural medical providers were already on the brink of collapse across the country.

“But new research from National Nurses United challenges that assumption. Researchers identified 602 financially vulnerable hospitals across 47 states, which together operated with an aggregated deficit of about $10.2 billion. They found that when the full impact of Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act finally hits, the group’s deficit will increase to between $15.4 billion and $17.9 billion. Of this group, 366 are in metropolitan areas, nearly 61 percent, while the rest are in rural or semirural areas,” often financially vulnerable hospitals in cities that tend to serve communities of poor and working-class people.

Trump ended the Affordable Care Act

Winbash continues. “Trump’s Republican Party also refused to extend Biden-era Affordable Care Act enhanced premium tax credits, which caused enrollment for ACA insurance to drop by about 4.2 million people as of February 2026. Insurers that participate in the program jacked prices so high that enrollees faced an average 114 percent increase just to stay with the same plan as the year before; they have proposed a double-digit increase for next year, too, with a median increase of 14 percent for 2027.”

Hospitals are sending patients massive bills just when they can’t afford them and even suing them for payments, Winbash notes.

There’s more bad news.

Winbash continues. “The services hospitals typically cut first are pediatric, maternity, and psychiatric units as well as home health care, all of which typically do not make hospitals as much money as other divisions, Protect our Care’s Director of Policy Programs Vaishu Jawahar told the Prospect. With more cuts on the way, however, more hospitals are converting to emergency-only service centers.”

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The Crisis of Care Work

Robert Kuttner focuses on “the crisis of care work in an article for The American Prospect “(https://prospect.org/2026/07/21/crisis-of-care-work-trump-tps-haitians) .

His contention is that “The end of Temporary Protected Status and Trump’s budget cuts make a bad situation worse.”

Examples of the non-professionals who serve the sick.

Those who serve the sick “come from Haiti, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Uganda, Jamaica, the Philippines, and dozens of other nations. They serve people who may be aging, frail, sick, disabled, dying; often frightened, sometimes angry and unappreciative.

“They bathe their clients, change adult diapers, supervise medications, and provide companionship in relationships that are intimate as well as professional. Their compassion can be ennobling.

“These are the people Donald Trump hates.

Growing shortage of care workers as funds are cut

“America today faces a worsening shortage of care workers, as the population ages, needs expand, and deportations increase. Too few people are willing to work for low pay in nursing homes, hospice care, home care, and as personal care attendants for people with disabilities. These jobs start at $20 an hour or less, and max out at around $25 for experienced people.

Care workers are both skilled and kind

“Anyone who has personally encountered care workers notices that despite the low pay, they tend to be both skilled and kind. The label, care, is exactly the right term. In my own experience with loved ones reliant on nurses and aides, most care workers are deeply caring.

Government has paid too little for much of care work

Kuttner points out, “Care work is heavily funded by government, except for a minority of affluent clients who can self-pay. Hospice care is financed by Medicare. Long-term nursing home care is mostly reimbursed by Medicaid. Care that supports independent living for people with disabilities is funded by Medicaid or the VA. Home care is underwritten by several agencies.

“All of these sources of public funding are barely adequate to the need, and that severely limits the room for better pay. And all are under further threat from Trump

budget cuts as well as mass deportations.

Unions have pressed for improved benefits for care workers

“In heavily Democratic states, the strategy of the labor movement and other advocates has been to press allies in government to allocate more budget for reimbursements, typically through Medicaid, which in turn can translate into better pay. Unions also organize workers directly. This has had only limited success because of other financial demands on Medicaid.

“SEIU has focused on nursing home workers. In Massachusetts, modest increases in Medicaid funding have created a bit more space to press for higher wages. SEIU’s big health local 1199 has organized certified nursing assistants in about 9 percent of Massachusetts nursing homes. According to Massachusetts SEIU leaders, CNAs in unionized nursing homes start at around $22-$23 an hour. That union premium makes life better for these workers but is far from sufficient to increase worker supply.”

Trump’s war on immigrants cuts care service

Kuttner observes that “TRUMP’S WAR ON IMMIGRANTS has cut deeply into the care workforce. The strategy of using ICE to intimidate immigrant workers into self-deporting, even when they currently have legal work status, is all too effective.”

Trump’s ends Temporary Protect Status adding to the shortage

“Separately,” Kuttner writes, “Trump has been systematically ending a legal immigration system called Temporary Protected Status. When Trump’s second term began, TPS was protecting some 1.3 million people facing various perils in their home countries. However, Trump has already ended TPS for people from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Honduras, Liberia, Nepal, Nicaragua, and for most Venezuelans.

“Ai-jen Poo, the founder of the National Domestic Workers Alliance and the coalition Caring Across Generations, told me, “The end of Haitian TPS will be devastating for hundreds of thousands of families who rely upon Haitian care workers. Providers will close their doors, jobs will be lost—for citizens as well as immigrants. The entire industry was already buckling under the pressures of cuts to Medicaid, and high workforce turnover due to low wages. At a moment when the need for care is surging, particularly on the part of our growing aging population, we should be expanding and strengthening our care workforce, not gutting it with cruel and misguided policy.”

Solutions?

Kuttner sees two long-term solutions. “First, we need massive investment in caregiving work, so that different categories of care are not reliant on a patchwork of chronically inadequate funding. Second, the war on immigrants needs to end.” Both have a chance only when Trump’s presidency ends.

“After Trump finally leaves office, Congress could also resume its efforts to enact comprehensive immigration reform, which was fast-tracked for passage in early 2018 until Trump decided that he’d prefer to use immigration as a political cudgel and persuaded key Republicans to oppose it. Comprehensive immigration reform would regularize the status of long-term undocumented residents who have stayed out of trouble, give legal status to ‘Dreamers’ who were brought to the U.S. as children, and crack down on employers who hire people not entitled to work.”

“Congress should revise the law so that admission of asylum seekers and refugees is mandatory, not optional; and shift judicial review to the independent judiciary established in the Constitution.

“America has plenty of immigrants who want to work in the care economy. We should welcome that workforce and pay them decently.”

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Concluding thoughts

Trump has made the already inadequate U.S. healthcare system far worse than it has been. His supporters, perhaps one-third of the population, have gone along with him as they have Trump’s other priorities. His rich and well-to-do followers like the tax cuts, deregulation, and pro-fossil-fuel energy policy.

He and his administration do all this because they are ideologically opposed to programs and policies that give benefits to ordinary Americans. To top it off, Trump falsely believes in his ability to make the best decisions.

Fortunately for democracy’s future, Trump’s poll rankings are low, Republicans are losing elections, his Iran War is highly unpopular, and he is having trouble getting his candidates confirmed by the Senate. Meanwhile, as this post shows, he is doing a great deal of harm. But there is light at the end of this dark time.

RFK and Trump attack scientists at the CDC

Bob Sheak, August 31, 2025

It’s likely that most Americans have never heard of the CDC, or Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, until Robert F. Kennedy, Trump’s appointment to head the Department of Health and Human Services which includes the CDC, wanted the recently appointed director of the CDC, Susan Monarez, fired.

Kennedy asked her to resign because she refused to support his anti-vaccine agenda. She refused, and Trump supported Kennedy by firing her. In this post, I include the highlights of articles reporting on this scandalous issue.

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Washington Post journalists, Lena H. Sun, Dan Diamond, and Lauren Weber, help to clarify what happened (https://washingtonpost.com/health/2025/08/27/susan-monarez-cdc-director-ousted).

“Susan Monarez was confirmed as the CDC’s director in July [2025].” On Wednesday, August 27, the “White House…fired Susan Monarez as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after she refused to resign amid pressure to support [Kennedy’s] vaccine policy, which sparked the resignation of other senior CDC officials and a showdown over whether she could be removed. Her lawyers “accused HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of ‘weaponizing public health for political gain’ and ‘putting millions of American lives at risk’ by purging health officials from government.”

The journalists continue.

“When CDC Director Susan Monarez refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts, she chose protecting the public over serving a political agenda,” the lawyers, Mark S. Zaid and Abbe Lowell, wrote in a statement. “For that reason, she has been targeted.”

Soon after their statement, the White House formally fired Monarez.

“As her attorney’s statement makes abundantly clear, Susan Monarez is not aligned with the President’s agenda of Making America Healthy Again,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said in an email. “Since Susan Monarez refused to resign…, the White House has terminated Monarez from her position with the CDC.” Her lawyer, Mark S. Zaid rejected this notion, saying that “Monarez never intended to resign, never told anyone that she intended to do so and legally remains in the position because President Donald Trump did not personally fire her.”

Monarez, who was confirmed in late July, was pressed for days by Kennedy, administration lawyers and other officials over whether she would support rescinding certain approvals for coronavirus vaccines, according to two people with knowledge of those conversations. Kennedy, who has a long history of anti-vaccine advocacy, and other officials questioned Monarez on Monday (Aug. 27] on whether she was aligned with the administration’s efforts to change vaccine policy, the people said.

“Kennedy and one of his top advisers, Stefanie Spear, also pushed Monarez to fire her senior staff by the end of this week, according to an administration official and another person with direct knowledge of that conversation.”

Monarez, who was a longtime federal government scientist before Trump nominated her to lead the CDC, declined to commit to support changing coronavirus vaccine policy without consulting her advisers, two people said. That prompted Kennedy to urge her to resign for “not supporting President Trump’s agenda,” one of the people said. Monarez still declined to resign, even though Kennedy wanted that. Trump supported Kennedy and decided to follow his recommendation and fired Monarez.”

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Mary Meyer, MD, MPH, Contributing Writer, MedPage Today, argues that the “The Evisceration of CDC Is a Disaster for All of Us” (https://www.medpagetoday.com/washington-watch/washington-watch/117188).

Meyer is an emergency physician with The Permanente Medical Group. She also holds a Master of Public Health and certificates in Global Health and Climate Medicine. Meyer previously served as a director of disaster preparedness for Kaiser Permanente Northern California. Here’s some of what she writes.

“For anyone who missed it, it’s been a whirlwind week at the CDC. Here’s the recap. After 6 months of ‘death by a thousand cuts’ — including layoffs, rescinded grant funding, and content censorship — the CDC descended into chaos on Wednesday [Aug 27].

“First, CDC Director Susan Monarez, PhD, was fired after refusing to resign . Soon after, three longstanding CDC leaders announced their resignations, citing political interference and pressure to sign off on unscientific vaccine recommendations. A few other high-level departures were also reported earlier this week.” The impact on the CDC, the “nation’s leading public health institution will be far-reaching.” Meyer then offers an explanation on why we need the CDC.

“It’s difficult to exaggerate the role CDC has played in protecting the health of our nation. For nearly 80 years, CDC’s accomplishments have been nothing short of remarkable. In 1951, it presided over the elimination of malaria in the U.S. In 1980, it helped achieved the seemingly impossible — the global eradication of smallpox, a disease that killed a third of its victims and left the majority of its survivors disfigured or blind. A year later, the agency authored the first report of an unusual disease striking gay men in California. For almost 8 decades, CDC pioneered global vaccination campaigns , responded to numerous disease outbreaks (SARS, Ebola, Zika), and assembled a national network of subject matter experts. Now, with its current leadership vacuum, both CDC and its vast safety net are at risk of collapse.”

Meyer considers why the administration’s attacks on the CDC are disastrous for the health of the nation.

Effects on state and local health departments

“To begin with, approximately 70% of CDC’s funding goes to state and local public health departments, where it supports workforce training, lab capacity, and public health education. These local departments are the nation’s first line of defense against chronic diseases, environmental exposures, and infectious outbreaks. If their funding becomes compromised, it will undoubtedly lead to cuts in services and staffing, with a concomitant rise in various health conditions and further strain on already-taxed healthcare organizations. Furthermore, these impacts are likely to be greatest in rural and historically underserved areas — the places that can least afford it.”

Effects nationally

Meyer writes: “Nationally, the dysfunction at CDC could easily undermine its programs and trigger a rise in the nation’s overall burden of disease. CDC is the juggernaut of disease prevention. It operates numerous prevention programs aimed at chronic diseases (including diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and cancer), infant mortality, microbial resistance, and injuries. It funds programs to combat the tobacco, obesity, and opioid epidemics. It’s been estimated that CDC’s infection prevention guidelines for healthcare facilities save and $3.3 billion. Its tobacco control program has prevented millions of people from facing the adverse consequences of smoking, and its HIV programs have prevented over 350,000 HIV infections.”

“Then, of course, there’s the role CDC plays in outbreak response, both within U.S. borders and internationally. The agency also serves a vital function in responding to man-made and natural disasters, acting as the national command center in disaster responses.”

Meyer concludes: “We must return to the principles on which CDC was founded: evidence-based policy shepherded by experienced public health leaders.

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Here is what CDC says about its mission and accomplishments (https://cdc.gov/about/cdc/index.html).

“CDC works 24/7 to protect America from health, safety and security threats, both foreign and in the U.S. Whether diseases start at home or abroad, are chronic or acute, curable or preventable, human error or deliberate attack, CDC fights disease and supports communities and citizens to do the same.

“CDC increases the health security of our nation. As the nation’s health protection agency, CDC saves lives and protects people from health threats. To accomplish our mission, CDC conducts critical science and provides health information that protects our nation against expensive and dangerous health threats and responds when these arise.”

A sample of the CDC’s accomplishments.

On the cutting edge of health security – confronting global disease threats through advanced computing and lab analysis of huge amounts of data to quickly find solutions.
Putting science into action – tracking disease and finding out what is making people sick and the most effective ways to prevent it.
Helping medical care – bringing new knowledge to individual health care and community health to save more lives and reduce waste.
Fighting diseases before they reach our borders – detecting and confronting new germs and diseases around the globe to increase our national security.
Nurturing public health – building on our significant contribution to have strong, well-resourced public health leaders and capabilities at national, state and local levels to protect Americans from health threats.

Further background

Tanja Popovic and Dixie E. Snider Jr. provide an historical sketch of the CDC’s 60 Years of Progress (https://pmc.mcbi.nim.nih.gov/articles/PMC3291076).

“Malaria Control in War Areas was formed in 1942 to ensure that the areas around military bases in the southern United States remained malaria-free. Initial facilities were modest, a few rooms on the sixth floor of the Volunteer Building on Peachtree Street in Atlanta. Hardly anyone could have foreseen the future of this small organization. But Joseph W. Mountin, who was charged with setting it up, was not just anyone. An architect of modern public health, Mountin quickly realized that malaria control operations serving the needs of the states (response to state calls for help, laboratory and epidemiologic investigations, training) could become the foundation for improving the health of the nation.

“…in 1946 the Public Health Service established the Communicable Disease Center to work not only on malaria but on typhus and other infectious diseases. The following year, a token payment of $10 was made for a 15-acre area on Clifton Road to house the operations. In the next 60 years, minor changes were made to the name (Center for Disease Control, Centers for Disease Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), but the initials, CDC, remained the same. The campus on Clifton Road grew to include 2 biosafety level 4 laboratories and other state-of-the-art facilities; operations were established in Morgantown, Cincinnati, Fort Collins, and overseas; and the work expanded to include all infectious diseases, as well as occupational health, toxic chemicals, injury, chronic diseases, health statistics, and birth defects.

“A magnet for gifted scientists and other professionals looking to serve in public health, CDC has attracted an exceptional cadre of talent over the years. Mountin was succeeded by leaders who pushed the agency to new levels of achievement, constantly probing new challenges and seeking new public health solutions. The thousands who work in laboratories and offices or trot the globe on epidemiologic investigations; the physicians, veterinarians, microbiologists, statisticians, economists, social scientists, other scholars, and support personnel; the many volunteers who serve on institutional review and other boards and committees; and CDC’s many partners in academia, industry, clinical practice, and state and local governments all share unequivocal dedication to public health.

“In this climate of idealism and dedication, the achievements have been many and span all areas. CDC scientists, typically working with like-minded colleagues, identified and characterized several infectious agents and emerging infectious diseases; invented devices, tools, and stains for diagnoses and systems for surveillance; demonstrated the value of combining laboratory practices and epidemiology; and through vision and leadership, worked closely with state and local health departments to increase their effectiveness as public health organizations. Some in its midst made such major contributions that microorganisms were named after them (Lee Ajello, Ajellomyces spp.; Dannie Hollis, Vibrio hollisiae; Don Brenner, Neisseria brenneri; Robert Weaver, Neisseria weaveri; Joseph McDade, Legionella micdadei).

“CDC led the US campaign to immunize all children against vaccine-preventable infectious diseases; efforts to ‘link’ states in search of foodborne disease outbreak causes by using molecular approaches to trace the causative organisms (PulseNet); efforts to translate science to practice, protecting women and children from such emerging infection-related conditions as toxic shock syndrome and aspirin-associated Reye syndrome.

“Achievements in international health have been major benchmarks. CDC contributions range from support for and leadership of the global effort to eradicate smallpox to the establishment of Project SIDA in Africa to initiate scientific research on the HIV/AIDS epidemic.”

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Concluding thoughts

The CDC is an outstanding example of how, over decades, the government has supported the health of the nation’s people. Now, under Trump and Kennedy, the agency is being reduced and compromised. If they have their way, the CDC will be unable to provide the scientific research and breakthroughs it has had for 80 years. As a result, the U.S. population will suffer. The actions of Trump and Kennedy are yet other examples of an administration based on extremist right-wing ideology and growing authoritarianism. It remains to be seen whether the American public will be able to vote them out in the 2026 midterms. Will it be the CDC of the past decades or will it be the Center of Disease.

Cutting Health Care

Bob Sheak, June 30, 2025

Introduction

Trump’s actions show that he wants to reduce federally supported health care programs. This post documents what he is doing in this respect and what he hopes to do. If successful, it will not be good for citizens or people around the world, many of whom will lack access to health care or only to inadequate health care.

Trump uses Executive Order to end US support for the World Health Organization (WHO)

The Blumberg School of Public Health delves into this issue (https://publichealth.jhu,edu/2025/the-consequences-of-the-us-withdrawal-from-the-who). Trump used executive action to withdraw from WHO in January, 2025. It was one of his first actions as president. As a consequence, the U.S. will lose a host of benefits, such as, detecting, monitoring, and responding to emerging health threats, pandemics, and diseases of importance; gathering and evaluating data and information from all over the world in order to understand the status of health globally and detect emerging problems; setting standards and developing guidelines that help people around the world, including here in the U.S., deal with various health threats and crises—not only infectious diseases, but all sorts of health issues. At the same time, as WHO is already struggling financially, it will lose somewhere between 12% and 15% of U.S. contributions. Additionally, according to Blumberg,

“Health provides an entryway for us to engage with countries, many of whom we may not agree with, and to have diplomatic conversations and other conversations. If that is lost, it will have tremendous consequences for the U.S.’s security and long-term economic and political outlook.”

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Trump reduced the number of workers in health agencies

Rachel Roubein, Lena H. Sun and Carolyn Y Johnson assess Trump’s firing of workers in the nation’s health agencies

(https://washingtonpost.com/health/2025.02.18.trump-health-firings-fda-cdc).

They write: “Many of those terminated worked on issues critical to consumers, from improving health care to regulating food packaging to responding to infectious-disease outbreaks.”

“Several thousand probationary employees across the Department of Health and Human Services were notified they would be terminated after four weeks of leave — fired in what some are calling a ‘Valentine’s Day massacre.’ The termination notices, which arrived over the weekend, capped a chaotic week of speculation about when the cuts would come and who would be affected.

“The terminations had a swift impact. The Food and Drug Administration’s top food official resigned Monday, citing the “indiscriminate firing” of 89 staff members from the agency’s food program and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s rhetoric toward staff.”

“I was looking forward to working to pursue the Department’s agenda of improving the health of Americans by reducing diet-related chronic disease and risks from chemicals in food,” Jim Jones, the FDA’s deputy commissioner for human foods, wrote in a letter — reviewed by The Washington Post — to the agency’s acting commissioner. “It has been increasingly clear that with the Trump Administration’s disdain for the very people necessary to implement your agenda, however, it would have been fruitless for me to continue in this role.”

“Overall, several thousand people from the more than 80,000 workers employed at HHS agencies were told they were terminated. All were probationary, meaning they had just a year or two on the job or had recently been promoted. Many worked on issues critical to consumers, such as improving health care, regulating food packaging or responding to infectious-disease outbreaks.”

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The GOP health care bill threatens bad outcomes

Margot Sanger-Katz, reporting for the New York Times, informs readers that “[a]nalysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found that Republicans’ new version of the legislation would make far deeper cuts and lead to more people becoming uninsured than previous proposals” (https://nytimes.com/2025/06/29/us/politics/trump-policy-bill-health-insurance-cuts.html). Specifically, The G.O.P. Bill has “$1.1 Trillion in Health Cuts and 11.8 Million Losing Care, C.B.O. Says”

Sanger-Katz: “According to a report published late Saturday night, the legislation would mean 11.8 million more Americans would become uninsured by 2034. Federal spending on Medicaid, Medicare and Obamacare would be reduced by more than $1.1 trillion over that period — with more than $1 trillion of those cuts coming from Medicaid alone.” These are unprecedented cuts. The bulk of the cuts come from two features of the legislation.

“One would establish a new, strict national work requirement for some people on the program, who would need to demonstrate they had worked at least 80 hours the month before they sign up, or qualified for an exemption. The Senate version applies this provision to the poor parents of children older than 14 in addition to childless adults without disabilities, the group targeted by the House version. The budget office estimated that that provision alone would reduce federal spending by more than $325 billion over the decade.

“The second big source of savings comes from new restrictions on a strategy many states use to finance Medicaid, by imposing taxes on medical providers to leverage a larger federal contribution. The bill’s restrictions on provider taxes and a related mechanism known as state directed payments would cut spending by a combined $375 billion, according to the report. The House bill would freeze the tax rate for most states, but the Senate version would require many states to lower their existing taxes, beginning in 2027.”

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Doctors Warn Medicaid Cuts in Senate Budget Bill Will Kill Their Patients

Mike Ludwig reports on doctors who warn that cuts to Medicaid and Snap will lead to some patients unnecessarily dying (https://truthout.org/articles/my-patients-will-die-doctors-slam-gop-budget-bill-as-senate-rushes-to-vote). Here is some of what he reports.

“The Senate GOP is looking to make $1 trillion in cuts to federal health care programs over the next decade, including Medicaid, which provides health insurance to lower-income families and people with disabilities. Deep cuts to food assistance for millions of people are also on the table as lawmakers look for ways to cut spending on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program by pushing costs onto states.”

“Senate Republicans are under mounting pressure from doctors and medical associations to reject massive cuts to health care and food assistance as they rush to complete a draft of the budget reconciliation bill designed to implement President Donald Trump’s agenda. Despite an ongoing debate over deep cuts to Medicaid — cuts experts say would devastate already underfunded health systems especially in rural areas.” But the Republican-controlled Congress is going ahead with the cuts anyway.

Ludwig quotes an expert on the damage the bill will do.

“‘If Medicaid is cut, my patients will die. I realize I am being dramatic. It is a dramatic situation,’ said Helen Pope, a physician in Louisiana and assistant professor of medicine at Tulane University, in a statement to Senate staffers. ‘[T]hey are humans who are doing their best. Please don’t allow them to suffer more.’”

Republicans hit a snag on Thursday after the Senate parliamentarian ruled that a proposal to change how states can tax Medicaid providers — a bid to pass on more costs to states — does not adhere to the rules for fast-tracking and passing legislation with a simple majority. Democrats hailed the decision as a win, but Republicans are still determined to make the desired cuts.

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Trump Medicaid cuts would devastate rural health services and hospitals

Andy Sullivan and Richard Cowan focus their attention on how the Medicaid cuts “would devastate rural health services” (https://reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/trump-medicaid-cuts-could-devastate-rural-health-services-hospitals-2025-06-13). Here are excerpts from the article.

“Rural hospitals are sounding the alarm over proposed healthcare cuts in President Donald Trump‘s sweeping tax-cut and spending package, warning the changes could force them to scale back services or close their doors.

“The bill would reduce federal spending on Medicaid, the health program for low-income Americans, by tightening enrollment standards and limiting federal aid to states.

“That worries rural providers, who rely heavily on the program to serve a population that tends to be poorer and sicker than the nation as a whole.

“‘We can’t sustain serving our community the way we are with additional cuts,’ said Carrie Lutz, CEO of Holton Community Hospital in Holton, Kansas. The independent nonprofit hospital, which serves a farming community of 13,000, is asking voters for a quarter-cent sales-tax increase to help cover its costs, which outpace annual revenues in many years.”

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Cuts in Veterans Administration

Abby Vesoulis reports on the harmful effects of Trump’s VA cuts

(https://motherjones.com/politics/2025/06/these-veterans-fought-for-the-us-now-theyre-fighting-trumps-va-cuts).

“The Trump administration has proposed eliminating 15 percent of the Department of Veterans Affairs workforce.”

“Since his inauguration in January, President Donald Trump has moved to slash and burn the federal workforce—and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is no exception. Already, the sprawling agency serving America’s 16 million military veterans has fired 2,400 probationary workers and proposed eliminating an additional 15 percentof its workforce—about 80,000 people.

“Veterans rely on the VA for help with critical needs like counseling for addiction and PTSD, prostheses, senior services, and treatments for cancer stemming from exposure to toxic chemicals. Medical research by VA doctors and scientists not only saves veterans’ lives, but benefits civilians; over the years, the breakthroughs have included pacemakers and CT scans.”

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RFK Jr. falsely disparages vaccines

Lauren Weber and Caitlin Gilbert consider RFK’s harmful impact on the US healthcare system (https://washingtonpost.com/health/2025/01/28/rfk-jr-disparaged-vaccines-dozens-times-recent-years-misled-race).

Specifically, they report on Kennedy’s false statements linking vaccines to autism and on alleged racial differences in vaccine impacts. Here’s some of what they have uncovered.

“Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump’s nominee [now appointed] for the nation’s top health post, has repeatedly disparaged vaccines, falsely linked them to autism and argued that White and Black people should have separate vaccination schedules, according to a Washington Post review of his public statements from recent years.

“In at least 36 appearances, Kennedy linked autism to vaccines, despite overwhelming scientific evidence supporting the use of vaccination to protect people from deadly infectious diseases and refuting any ties to autism, The Post found in a review of more than 400 of Kennedy’s podcast appearances, interviews and public speeches since 2020.

“He criticized vaccines more broadly in at least 114 appearances, calling them dangerous, saying the risks outweigh the benefits and making misleading claims about vaccine safety testing or discrediting vaccine efficacy.”

“A dozen vaccine experts, physicians and public health leaders said they were alarmed that someone who could shape vaccine policy as health and human services secretary failed to recognize reams of scientific data showing vaccines are safe and effective. Kennedy, who has been critical of vaccines for years, founded Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vaccine group.

“False statements about the safety of vaccines pepper Kennedy’s appearances on podcasts, TV, radio and the website of Children’s Health Defense (Kennedy’s ethics disclosures note he resigned his position as chairman of the board and chief legal counsel in December after Trump picked him for the HHS job). He asserts vaccines ‘poisoned an entire generation of American children’ and that doctors have ‘butchered all these children’ by administering shots recommended by federal authorities.

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The harms are multiplied

“The Department of Health and Human Services,” under RFK Jr., “has terminated thousands of grants, including funding for pandemic prevention, and research grants related to cancer, vaccines and chronic diseases. The loss of research funding will delay medical discoveries. Though the agency publishes a weekly list of terminated grants, the full scope of funding cancellations has been obscured, especially at the National Institutes of Health, the major funder of medical research. A database created by Harvard researchers, Grant Watch, has helped to fill in the gaps (https://nytimes.com/interactive/2025/06/30/opinion/hhs-cuts-harming-american-health.html).

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Democrats challenge RFK Jr. on vaccines.

Carmen Paun considers the controversy for Politico, June 24, 2025

(https://politico.com/news/2025/06/24/rfk-jr-isnt-hiding-his-plans-for-vaccines-democrats-say-it-will-cost-lives-00421525).

“The health secretary resurfaced anti-vaccine claims at a House hearing, alleging collusion by pharma companies, public health experts and politicians to mask the truth.”

“The health secretary and longtime vaccine skeptic pledged during his Senate confirmation earlier this year to leave that alone. But at a House health panel hearing Tuesday, Kennedy said there was ample reason to worry some vaccines aren’t safe and gave no ground to Democrats who pointed out that most scientists and public health experts vehemently disagree.”

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RFK Jr. says U.S. will stop funding global vaccine alliance Gavi

Niha Masih reports on this (https://washingtonpost.com/health/2025/06/26/rfk-jr-vaccine-gavi-funding-cut).

“The United States will halt its contributions to Gavi, the global alliance that works to expand access to vaccines for children in some of the world’s poorest countries, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Wednesday — a move that public health experts said would have deadly consequences.

“Kennedy — who has a history of spreading vaccine misinformation — announced the decision in video remarks made to a Gavi summit in Brussels, during which he accused the group of neglecting ‘the key issue of vaccine safety.’

“In his remarks, Kennedy cited a study linking the DTP vaccine — for diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis — to increased child mortality. He also said Gavi should “consider the best science available.”

“‘Until that happens, the United States won’t contribute more to Gavi,’ he said.

“In a statement, Gavi pushed back against Kennedy’s allegations, saying decisions over its vaccine portfolio are guided by recommendations from World Health Organization experts who review all available data through a “rigorous, transparent, and independent process.”

“Gavi says it has helped vaccinate more than 1.1 billion children in 78 low-income countries since its founding that year, preventing 18.8 million future deaths.

“The Washington Post reported in March that the U.S. planned to terminate more than $1 billion in funding for Gavi. The U.S. was the third-largest contributor to the group, accounting for 12 percent of its overall funding as of last year, behind Britain and the Gates Foundation, according to KFF.”

Experts decry the RFK decision, maintaining that it will cause children to die, as Prabhat Jha, a professor in global health and epidemiology at the University of Toronto Dalla Lana School of Public Health, said in an email.

“‘The suggestion that Gavi ignores science is pure nonsense,’ he said, pointing out that the alliance has a ‘robust science committee, draws experts from around the world’ and maintains a high level of scrutiny on manufacturing.

“Atul Gawande, the former head of global health at the U.S. Agency for International Development, said in a social media post that the withdrawal of funding was a ‘travesty and a nightmare.’

“‘This pull out will cost 100s of thousands of children’s lives a year — and RFK Jr will be personally responsible,’ he wrote.”

“Billionaire Bill Gates, whose foundation helped create Gavi, urged Congress to rethink the decision. He said on social media that the funding cuts would have ‘devastating consequences: more sick kids who fall behind in school, more overcrowded hospital wards, and eventually more grieving parents.’”

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Concluding thoughts

Trump wants to reduce government personnel and services in healthcare and everywhere in the federal government budget, in order (1) to increase the chances of getting his tax for the rich included in the Republican budget and (2) to undermine health care services in the public sector so that he can be better able to justify reducing the size of the federal government, “the administrative state.”