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
