Earlier Today, Protect Our Care Released A Report Grading Trump’s Health Care Record: He Flunks at Lowering Costs But Gets an A+ For Enriching Billionaires
Washington, D.C. — Tonight, Donald Trump tried to deny his affordability crisis during his State of the Union address, but the state of Americans’ health care is in shambles. For the past year, Trump and Congressional Republicans have carried out an unprecedented assault on our health care, slashing over $1 trillion from Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to finance tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations. Then, Republicans voted to lock in massive premium hikes and ripped away the ACA tax credits, pricing over 1 million Americans out of coverage this year alone, and forcing millions more to make impossible decisions to keep their health care.
Trump tried to deflect from his health care crisis with empty promises to lower drug prices, but the truth is that his initiatives have failed to deliver lower prices for patients. Hospitals are cutting services or shutting down completely. Parents are postponing doctors’ appointments. Families are opening premium bills that cost more than their mortgage. The fallout all lands on Republicans’ shoulders.
“‘Affordability’ may be a hoax to Donald Trump, but for hard-working families struggling to pay the bills, it’s a matter of survival,” said Protect Our Care Chair Leslie Dach. “It’s whether a senior can fill a heart medication without cutting pills in half. It’s whether a parent can afford to take their child to the doctor. It’s whether a family has to choose between groceries and cancer treatment.
“Trump cannot talk about relief while families watch their premiums spike. He can’t tell us he’s lowering drug costs when all he is really doing is making backdoor deals with big drug companies to make them richer. And he certainly cannot campaign on affordability after slashing over $1 trillion from Medicaid, forcing hospitals to close and making it harder and more expensive for Americans to see a doctor in the first place. Words on a stage do not make health care affordable. Actions do. And on that, the American people are still waiting, and come election time, they will remember who left families in the dust.”
Background
LIE: Trump brought down drug prices and is getting Americans the lowest prices in the world.
TRUTH: Trump’s latest publicity stunt, TrumpRx, rips Americans off by charging them higher prices than they would pay through their insurance or for a low-cost generic version. Prices on TrumpRx are twice as high as in the UK and Australia for drugs like Ozempic. The Inflation Reduction Act, which passed without a single Republican vote, allowed Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices for seniors and is now saving seniors and taxpayers billions. Trump has a long history of opposing drug price negotiation and his big, ugly bill is costing seniors and taxpayers billions by delaying Medicare from negotiating lower prices on many of the most popular and expensive cancer treatments.
LIE: Trump wants to improve health care and reduce costs for everyday Americans.
TRUTH: Trump puts drugmakers and big corporations above everyday people at every opportunity. He entertained drug company CEOs at his Mar-a-Lago resort, solicited millions in donations, then spent the past year handsomely rewarding Big Pharma for their support. Meanwhile, his war on health care is spiking health care costs and ripping away insurance coverage for millions of working families.
LIE: Trump has a “plan” to give money directly to the people instead of giving them health care.
TRUTH: Republicans’ so-called plan is just a desperate attempt to distract from the fact that Trump and Republicans in Congress kicked nearly 15 million people off their health insurance by passing the largest cuts to health care in history. Trump’s “plan” to hand out cash fails to stop premium hikes, will drown working families in medical debt, and will enrich only the wealthy.
LIE: Trump protected Medicare and will “always protect Medicare.”
TRUTH: Trump forced over 1.3 million low-income seniors on Medicare to pay thousands more each year in premiums and out-of-pocket costs. Trump hiked the cost of Medicare prescription drug coverage and stopped seniors from being able to purchase popular generic drugs for only $2. Trump also signed a $9 billion bailout for big drug companies designed to hike drug prices for seniors on Medicare by carving out top-selling products such as lifesaving cancer drugs Keytruda and Opdivo from Medicare drug price negotiation. Countless seniors will be forced to choose between putting food on the table and paying for the health care they need to survive, thanks to Trump.