Trump Healthcare Changes: Or What Good Is Getting Rid of Wokeness and DEI If You’re Sick, Dying, Dead, or Bankrupt?
Executive Orders will affect already poor American healthcare.
Recent Trump Changes to Healthcare
Many are cheering, and others decrying, newly-inaugurated President Trump’s efforts to dismantle “wokeness” and DEI. But all Americans should give more attention to the changes in US healthcare that Trump has wrought in a matter of days.
It’s well established that the United States lags far behind all developed nations in healthcare outcomes. Yet the US has the most expensive healthcare system in the world.
“The U.S. spends more on health care than any other country and Americans are sicker, die younger and struggle to afford essential health care. We spend the most and get the least for our investment.”
Dr. Joseph Betancourt, Commonwealth Fund President.
Since January 20, things have gone from worst to even worse.
Recent changes may hit hardest in “red states” like Texas, Georgia and Florida which rely heavily on Obamacare (“the ACA”). President Trump’s recent actions will most affect lower income individuals and red state voters, who form a large part of President Trump’s base. But they will also affect all Americans and, according to experts, pose health risks at home and abroad.
“The U.S. continues to be in a class by itself in the underperformance of its health care sector.” Commonwealth Fund Report.
Using Executive Orders to Weaken Healthcare Programs
President Trump said during the 2024 campaign that he had “the concepts” of a healthcare plan. It appears that one administration concept is to use Executive Orders to reduce and weaken popular healthcare options and access to healthcare, and to cease efforts to make prescription drugs more affordable.
On his first day in office, January 20, 2025, Trump rescinded many of former President Biden’s Executive Orders related to healthcare. These orders had increased access to Obamacare and Medicaid, and lowered prescription drug prices. Trump’s rescissions weakened access to and reduced funding for popular congressional programs like Obamacare, Medicare, and Medicaid, and opened the door to higher drug costs.
Direct Rescission of Healthcare Executive Orders
The first item on President Trump’s “Spending Reform Options Explainer” is “Repeal Major Biden Health Rules,” signalling the importance to the new administration of undoing Biden’s actions.
To that end, on January 20, Trump rescinded:
Biden Executive Order 14009 (“Strengthening Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act”);
Biden Executive Order 14070 (“Continuing To Strengthen Americans' Access to Affordable, Quality Health Coverage”); and
Biden Executive Order 14087 (“Lowering Prescription Drug Costs for Americans”).
In so doing Trump made it harder to secure and use Obamacare/the ACA and Medicaid, which provides assistance to low-income patients. These rescissions also ceased efforts to search for ways to reduce sky-high out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs, and to allow Medicare to negotiate for lower out-of-pocket prices for prescription drugs.
They also removed Biden’s requirement that providers of critical illness insurance, hospital indemnity insurance, and other fixed-indemnity health insurance issue a disclaimer to consumers explaining how their insurance differs from traditional insurance.
President Trump called these Biden policies “radical” and “unpopular”. But these Biden policies were popular with the public and helped individuals ameliorate some of the worst ills of the US healthcare system. Indeed, polls indicate that Americans do not agree with Trump’s actions with respect to Medicaid and Medicare, and paring back Obamacare.
Excerpt from Navigator Research January 23, 2025 poll.
Our Takeaway
Healthcare touches everyone’s life. Virtually all Americans but the uber wealthy must deal with healthcare accessibility, quality, and expense issues as well as insurance company delays and denial of care, often care needed urgently.
These problems hit hardest for middle class, lower income, and elderly Americans, who struggle the most with exorbitant medical costs and minimal access to healthcare. But healthcare problems affect high- and low-income Americans the most of any developed country in the world. Over 44% of both low- and high-income Americans report having medical care bill problems in the past year.
A vast majory, 82% of Americans, believe prescription drug prices are too high. Medicaid remains popular, with 51% of Americans believing the government doesn’t spend enough. Fewer than 25% believe the government spends too much on Medicaid.
Despite clear evidence of a substandard, dangerous system, so far, in the new administration Americans and their health are the clear losers.
There’s More: Other Executive Orders and Administration Directives
In addition to Executive Orders repealing President Biden’s health-care Executive Orders, the new Trump administration has taken other steps related to health and healthcare. These actions may further harm the collective health of the United States, of individual Americans, the functioning of the United States, and even the health and functioning of the world.
A partial list of other health and healthcare-related actions taken by President Trump in week 1:
· Executive Order Withdrawing the United States from the World Health Organization (WHO);
· Executive Order Withdrawing the United States from the Paris Accords, under which the US had targeted a plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 60% by 2035;
· Acting director of the federal Department of Health and Human Services (DHH) prohibited the release of any public health communication, including from the NIH, CDC, and FDA;
· HHS cancelled all scientific meetings across the federal government
· Rescinded Executive Order 13990 (Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis).
A plan is needed to heal American healthcare rather than just destroying old policies.
Destruction Rather Than a Plan to Fix Urgent Problems
Despite weakening the already flimsy infrastructure in place in the American healthcare system, President Trump has not attempted to replace the poor system with a new plan. The rescission of Executive Orders followed by no plan or replacement will not help Americans secure what all other developed countries and most of the world view as a universal right: accessible, affordable healthcare.
While it’s sometimes good to be an outlier, at this point, we need our government to accept that our “exceptional” approach has led to catastrophic results.
We need to look beyond politics, partisanship, and special interests. We need more than the concepts of a plan or to undo past efforts to address a critical problem.
Americans deserve better healthcare, longevity, and health. This problem deserves constructive attention now.
Bad News for America’s Health, World Health, and Climate
Taken together, these moves will likely exacerbate already dire conditions. They will also increase the expense of healthcare and medication for the American public.
They are likely to make Americans sicker through lack of healthcare access, lack of information, and lack of coordination between agencies, states, and the world. Some of these measures could prove catastrophic if a public health emergency occurs.
It doesn’t matter what you believe, where you live; if you’re an American, your chances of staying healthy and being well taken care of or economically secure have decreased.
And should a public health emergency strike, we will be even less prepared than we were for the COVID pandemic. These issues, our issues, demand the immediate attention of the public and our leaders.
Want to Know More?
KFF 2024 Poll Americans’ Challenges With Healthcare Costs
Useful spreadsheet from Sheppard Mullin tracking Executive Orders and Rescissions week of January 20, 2025
List and discussion of Trump healthcare changes through Executive Orders
Commonwealth Fund 2023 Survey, The Cost of Not Getting Care: Income Disparities in the Affordability of Health Services Across High-Income Countries
Discussion about the potential effects of the US withdrawing from the WHO, potential legal issues with the order, and Trump’s previous attempted withdrawal from the WHO
Discussion of HHS pausing public health and science-related communications and cancelling scientific meetings.
Navigator Poll A Majority of Americans Oppose Cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid
