Protect Our Care Will Continue Tracking Every Action Donald Trump And Republicans Take to Sabotage Our Health Care
As of today, Republicans have held the government hostage for 36 days, breaking the record for the longest government shutdown ever. This historic mess isn’t happening in a vacuum – it’s part of a decades-long war. Since the moment Donald Trump was sworn in, Republicans have repeatedly used every lever of power they have to sabotage the American health care system, from making the largest cuts to health care in American history to ending the tax credits that millions of working people relied on to afford coverage. Families are watching premiums skyrocket, patients are losing access to doctors and medication, and people are being forced to put their health at risk because they simply can’t afford care anymore. This shutdown is just the latest chapter of a much bigger story: leaving hard-working Americans in the dust to prioritize tax breaks and profits for billionaires and big corporations.
“The American people have been crystal clear: they reject the GOP health care shutdown,” said Protect Our Care President Brad Woodhouse. “They know exactly what Republicans are doing – raising costs and ripping health care away from working families to pay for more tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations. Republicans don’t care how many people get hurt in the process. They’ve spent years waging a relentless war on Americans’ health care, and they will slash coverage, spike premiums, and even shut down the entire government if it means taking another swing at the Affordable Care Act.”
November 2025
- Kept the government shut down for the longest period of time in history, refusing to deliver relief on skyrocketing premiums.
October 2025
- Shut down the government, ending health care tax credits for working families across the country.
- Launched the Rural Health Transformation Program, created as part of the GOP budget bill, to distract from the rural health care collapse Republicans caused — with funding that falls far short of closing the gap left by gutting Medicaid and defunding hospitals.
- Fired N.I.H. whistleblower who warned that the steps taken by the Trump administration are endangering public health.
September 2025
- Restricted access to the COVID-19 vaccine by recommending the updated vaccine for people with health conditions and all people aged 65 and older only.
- Appointed five new members to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, including critics of the pandemic response and some who faced charges of spreading misinformation.
- Stopped recommending the measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella combined shot for children under age 4 despite no scientific evidence backing this decision.
- Promoted an unproven link between autism and Tylenol with no evidence.
- Hired Mark Blaxill, an anti-vaccine activist and author, as a senior advisor at the CDC.
August 2025
- Blocked hundreds of millions in funding for CDC health programs, including youth violence prevention, gun injury and death prevention research, and efforts targeting diabetes, chronic kidney disease, and tobacco use.
- Kicked top medical organizations out of workgroups for establishing vaccine recommendations.
- Signed an executive order rewriting the rules of how the federal government awards billions of dollars in research grants, giving Trump’s appointees unprecedented power.
- Canceled over $500 million in contracts and funding for the development of mRNA vaccines to fight respiratory illnesses.
- Refused to enforce a Biden-era rule limiting junk short-term health plans that are notorious for charging more or denying coverage altogether for people with conditions like asthma, diabetes, and cancer.
- Stopped research that was aimed at narrowing the health care gap between racial and socioeconomic groups, such as why minority and low-income Americans have shorter lives or suffer higher rates of illnesses.
- Revived the Task Force on Safer Childhood Vaccines, which has been pushed for by anti-vaccine groups.
- Tapped Retsef Levi, who called the COVID-19 vaccine “the most failing medical product in the history of medical products,” to lead a committee to review the safety of the COVID-19 vaccine.
- Fired Susan Monarez, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, after she refused to change vaccine policy without scientific backing.
July 2025
- Signed the GOP spending bill, codifying the largest health care cuts in history, kicking 17 million Americans off their health care, and putting hundreds of rural hospitals at risk of closing.
- Eliminated any further enforcement of a CMS rule that made it easier for people who rely on Medicare to enroll in Medicaid, CHIP, and the Basic Health Program.
- Effectively eliminated the enforcement of a CMS rule, which made it easier for people who rely on Medicare to enroll in Medicaid’s Medicare Savings Programs.
- Ended minimum nurse staffing requirements, increasing the risk of residents receiving unsafe and low-quality care in long-term care facilities.
- Lowered the cap on state-directed payments, which are a key source of revenue, especially in rural areas.
- Stopped states from implementing or raising new Medicaid provider taxes.
- Postponed a U.S. Preventive Services Task Force meeting that was set to discuss healthy diet, physical activity, and other steps to prevent cardiovascular disease.
- Delayed around $140 million in grants to fund fentanyl overdose response efforts.
June 2025
- Rescinded Biden-era guidance that directed hospitals to provide abortion care if needed to save a patient’s life or prevent serious harm under EMTALA, even if the state restricts or bans the procedure.
- Canceled contracts worth nearly $600 million for vaccines for flu subtypes that could trigger future pandemics.
- Ended two major HIV vaccine studies, setting back research at least a decade.
- Fired all 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).
- Named eight new members of the ACIP that include COVID-19 deniers and vaccine skeptics such as Robert Malone, Martin Kulldorff, Retsef Levi, and Vicky Pebsworth.
- Issued a rule shortening the Affordable Care Act enrollment period, stopping monthly enrollment periods for lower-income families, and adding miles of red tape to prevent hard-working Americans from obtaining affordable coverage.
- Hired Lyn Redwood, the former president of the Children’s Health Defense, the anti-vaccine organization founded by Kennedy, to HHS.
May 2025
- Ordered NIAID’s Integrated Research Facility to stop research into Ebola and other infectious diseases.
- Issued an Executive Order on drug pricing that contained no policy specifics and was designed to distract Americans from the Republican assault on health care.
- Laid off hundreds more National Institutes of Health staff.
- Nominated Casey Means, a former physician, now wellness influencer who peddles dietary supplements, creams, and teas, as Surgeon General.
- Hired Vinay Prasad, an outspoken skeptic about COVID-19 vaccine mandates, as the Food and Drug Administration’s new top vaccine regulator.
- Stopped recommending COVID-19 vaccines for children and pregnant people.
- Limited access to COVID-19 vaccines to people aged 65 and older and others who are at high risk of becoming seriously ill if infected.
April 2025
- Passed a budget through Congress that slashes billions from Medicaid funding.
- Issued an Executive Order designed by big drug companies to delay Medicare drug price negotiations, giving drug companies four extra years to price gouge seniors.
- Enacted tariffs on medical supplies, such as pacemakers, increasing costs to companies by hundreds of millions of dollars, which may be passed on to consumers.
- Announced a significant increase in payments for Medicare Advantage plans, nearly doubling the projected costs to beneficiaries that the Biden administration had previously released.
- Ended the world’s longest-running Diabetes trial, despite RFK Jr. calling chronic diseases like diabetes an “existential threat.”
- Froze federal funding, causing vaccination sites across the country to close amidst the largest measles outbreak of this century.
- Confirmed celebrity doctor and grifter Mehmet Oz to be the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
- Closed down the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, a critical support structure for gathering statistics on hospital expenditures, waste and fraud, as well as surveys on specific medical issues like methamphetamine use.
- Unveiled a taskforce designed to deregulate health agencies, increasing profits for big drug companies.
- Shut down CMS and HHS’s Minority Health Offices; going forward this means little to no research will be done on increasing access and affordability to marginalized populations such as racial and ethnic minorities and rural Americans.
- Terminated 145 grants totaling nearly half a billion dollars on the research of HIV prevention and care.
March 2025
- Released plans outlining proposals to fire 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.
- Cancelled over $12 billion in health care grants, putting into question states’ abilities to treat mental health disorders and infectious disease outbreaks.
- Proposed a new rule which would prevent gender-affirming care from being covered under ACA marketplace plans.
- 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.
- Proposed stripping DACA recipients of health care coverage guaranteed under the ACA.
- Put David Geier, an anti-vax, quack scientist, and fake doctor, in charge of the “study” into connections between vaccinations and autism.
- Selected the GOP’s general counsel, Thomas March Bell, as HHS Inspector General. Bell is best known for his radical anti-abortion views and his support for defunding family planning health agencies.
- Defunded studies that aimed to explain vaccine hesitancy and explore how to increase vaccination rates.
- Shut down 30 percent of all Indian Health Service and Bureau of Indian Affairs offices, ripping away health care access from people already systemically underserved when it comes to health care.
- Ended funding for childhood vaccination campaigns in the poorest countries, risking more infectious disease outbreaks worldwide.
- 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; this will lead to 2 million Americans losing 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.
- Ordered HHS to remove the public comment portion of the rule-making process, ending transparency and removing feedback from the people who the policies would affect.
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.
- Disbanded a panel researching ways to further health equity for those on Medicaid and Medicare.
- Fired around 1,900 probationary workers from the Department of Health and Human Services, with the administration hinting they could fire as many as 5,200.
- 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.
- The FDA’s head of medical device safety, Ross Segan, was fired among other employees.
- 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.