TL;DR: Trump is selling Americans out to Big Pharma – all while his administration blames high drug costs on Americans for “walking away from the pharmacy.” Our “Sick of It!” campaign hit six states this week with Senator Gallego, Reps. Scholten and Pocan, and state lawmakers. Trump’s anti-vax executive order is becoming a political crisis for the GOP. New polling shows health care is the top concern for voters heading into November. And 1,178 hospitals are closing or at risk. This is GOP Hot Seat Summer and we’re holding Republicans accountable.

💊 DR. OZ ADMITS THE TRUTH, THEN TRUMP SELLS AMERICANS OUT

Americans are walking away from the pharmacy. Democrats lowered costs. Trump made backroom deals.

This week, Dr. Oz admitted that Americans are “walking away from the pharmacy” because their prescription drugs are no longer affordable.

📱 Watch the clip on X

Here’s the difference: while Democrats have worked to lower drug costs and pushed for transparency in drug manufacturing, Trump and Republicans have done the opposite, backroom dealing with manufacturers and driving up the cost of health care nationwide.

Democrats:

• Gave Medicare the power to negotiate lower drug prices

• Capped insulin at $35/month for seniors

• Capped out-of-pocket costs at $2,000/year

• Saved seniors and taxpayers billions on cancer, arthritis, and autoimmune disease drugs

Trump:

• Made backroom deals that boost drug company stocks

• Bought stocks to enrich himself from his handouts to drugmakers

• Created loopholes for Big Pharma to escape price negotiations

• Rolled back seniors’ savings

• Promised to lower drug prices “1,000 percent” — while hiking costs for thousands of seniors

📖 Read: Side-by-Side: Trump vs. Democrats on Lowering Prescription Drug Costs

Trump’s drug pricing announcements are shams engineered to distract the public from his abysmal record while he quietly undermines Medicare drug price negotiation — the only tool actually saving seniors money.

📰 “SICK OF IT!” CAMPAIGN MAKES THE NEWS COAST TO COAST

From coast to coast, our campaign is turning up the heat.

This week, our “Sick of It! Fix Health Care Now” campaign hit six states with events featuring Senator Ruben Gallego, Rep. Hillary Scholten, Rep. Mark Pocan, state lawmakers, and advocates.

📖 In The News: Sick of It Campaign Turns Up the Heat

📖 In The States: Senator Gallego, Reps. Scholten and Pocan Join Campaign

Senator Ruben Gallego (AZ): “This was a choice. Republicans made a deliberate choice to cut Medicaid and let Affordable Care Act tax credits expire. They could have protected millions of Americans, but instead they chose to prioritize tax breaks for the wealthiest. Kicking people off their health insurance is one of the worst choices you can make — and Republicans are going to have to answer for it.”

Rep. Hillary Scholten (MI): “I am constantly hearing stories from West Michiganders who don’t know how they’ll afford health care now that premiums have gone up by 200%. Some are choosing to go uninsured because they simply can’t afford it. In the richest nation in the world, no one should have to make that choice.”

Coverage:

• WZZM: Rep. Scholten, Advocates Discuss GOP cuts to Healthcare in Michigan

• Michigan Public: Michigan advocates speak out against “devastating” federal healthcare funding cuts

• CBS58: Small businesses raise healthcare concerns

• Wisconsin Examiner: Advocates say Tiffany’s vote bodes ill for healthcare

• FOX 21: Colorado Democrats said OBBB caused higher healthcare costs

• KJZZ: Arizona’s Sen. Gallego criticizes Trump’s cuts to health care coverage

• 13NewsNow: Rep. McClellan sounds the alarm over federal health care cuts

🚸 SICK OF IT SPOTLIGHT: REPUBLICANS ARE MAKING KIDS SICKER

GOP health care cuts are harming our children.

Our latest “Sick of It!” spotlight exposes how Republican health care cuts are making kids sicker across America.

📖 Read: Republicans’ Health Care Cuts Are Making Kids Sicker

When Medicaid gets cut, children lose access to pediatricians, preventive care, and essential treatments. Families are forced to delay vaccinations, skip check-ups, and watch conditions worsen because they can’t afford care.

💉 TRUMP’S ANTI-VAX OBSESSION BECOMES GOP POLITICAL CRISIS

The Public Health Project breaks it down.

Trump’s anti-vaccine executive order isn’t just a public health disaster — it’s becoming a full-blown political crisis for the GOP.

📖 Read: Trump’s Anti-Vax Obsession Becomes GOP Political Crisis

As measles outbreaks spread and parents grow alarmed, Republican lawmakers are facing tough questions they can’t answer. Even GOP senators like Bill Cassidy are calling Trump’s vaccine order “stupid.”

The MAHA movement promised to make America healthier. Instead, Trump is making kids sicker.

📊 NEW POLLING: HEALTH CARE IS THE TOP CONCERN

Americans are sick of paying more and getting less.

• KFF: Health care costs are the top concern for families heading into November. Over half of voters say it’s extremely important for candidates to discuss.

• Gallup: 1 in 4 U.S. workers are staying in jobs they’d rather leave just to keep their health insurance.

• JG Wentworth: Nearly 1 in 3 Americans has a medical condition that has worsened because they couldn’t afford medication.

In November, they’ll vote to fix health care now.

🏥 HOSPITAL CRISIS WATCH: 1,178 Facilities and Counting

This week’s closures:

• California: Watsonville Community Hospital temporarily closed NICU due to staffing issues — reopening weeks away

• Maryland: Mt. Washington Pediatric Hospital closing D.C.-area satellite location

Other changes:

• Missouri: Cuts announced at Texas County Memorial Hospital

State by state:

Arkansas: ACHI on maternity ward closings

California: Ventura County votes for expanded care center to replace Santa Paula Hospital — healthcare workers not satisfied

Missouri: Houston, Mo. pharmacy set to close

New York: New Medicaid work rules put NYC enrollees and hospitals at risk — Bronx and other areas hit hardest; Waterview Heights closure draws fresh scrutiny over safety

Oklahoma: System-owned physician practice closes after 59 years

📊 By The Numbers

8 million — Americans who have lost coverage since GOP cuts

1,178 — hospitals, clinics, providers closing or at risk

1 in 4 — U.S. workers staying in jobs they’d rather leave to keep insurance

1 in 3 — Americans with conditions worsening because they can’t afford medication

📰 Must-Reads

Drug Costs:

• Side-by-Side: Trump vs. Democrats on Prescription Drug Costs

Sick of It! Campaign:

• In The News: Campaign Turns Up the Heat

• In The States: Senator Gallego, Reps. Scholten, Pocan Join Campaign

Public Health:

• Trump’s Anti-Vax Obsession Becomes GOP Political Crisis

✊ What You Can Do

Join “Sick of It!” and demand action:

1. Sign on to the campaign → sickofitcampaign.com

2. Share your health care story → sickofitcampaign.com/share

3. Call your representatives → sickofitcampaign.com

4. Write your representatives → sickofitcampaign.com

5. Get the digital toolkit → sickofitcampaign.com/toolkit

Protect Our Care is fighting to protect and strengthen health care for all.

protectourcare.org | sickofitcampaign.com | Subscribe for next week’s dose.

TL;DR: Trump’s anti-vax executive order is already doing damage. Democrats’ record on drug costs vs. Trump’s is night and day. Rural hospitals are in crisis — 45 in Oklahoma alone face “immediate risk” of closure or cuts. Nevada is losing maternity and NICU services. The cyclospora outbreak keeps spreading while the FDA drags its feet. And the New Republic warns: GOP Medicaid cuts could kill people in 2027. This is what happens when lawmakers put billionaires over working families.

💉 FALLOUT FROM TRUMP’S ANTI-VAX ORDER IS JUST BEGINNING

The Public Health Project breaks down the damage.

This week’s Public Health Project newsletter lays out the grim reality: Trump’s anti-vaccine executive order is already harming public health, and the worst is yet to come.

📖 Read: Fallout From Trump’s Deadly Anti-Vax Order Is Just Beginning

Even Republicans are speaking out:

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) on ABC: “This is just a stupid thing to do.”

More vaccine chaos:

• CBS: RFK Jr.’s autism research stalls as Trump orders baseless vaccine changes

• Roll Call: Kennedy looks for new members for revamped vaccine committee

• NYT: Trump officials falsely connect COVID vaccines to miscarriage

💊 SIDE BY SIDE: TRUMP VS. DEMOCRATS ON DRUG COSTS

The record speaks for itself.

We released a side-by-side comparison of Trump and Republicans’ record vs. Democrats’ record on lowering prescription drug costs.

📖 Read: Trump vs. Democrats on Lowering Prescription Drug Costs

Democrats:

• Capped insulin at $35/month

• Allowed Medicare to negotiate drug prices

• Capped out-of-pocket costs for seniors at $2,000/year

Trump and Republicans:

• Created loopholes for Big Pharma to escape price negotiations and hike prices

• Ended a Medicare drug coverage affordability program

• Raised prescription drug costs for seniors with cancer, multiple sclerosis, and other conditions

The contrast couldn’t be clearer.

💰 GREED WATCH: BIG PHARMA MAKES RECORD PROFITS WHILE SENIORS STRUGGLE

$298 billion in revenue — while 59% of Americans struggle to afford meds.

Ten top drugmakers collectively raked in nearly $298 billion in revenue in just the first half of 2026 — more than the economies of Monaco, Croatia, Iceland, Latvia, and Luxembourg combined.

Meanwhile, a record-high 59% of Americans say they’re struggling to afford their prescription drugs.

And while Trump touts his “deals,” the reality is his policies have done nothing but allow drug companies to save face, dodge tariffs, and escape future drug pricing efforts — all while hiking the price of prescription drug coverage for millions.

Read more: Greed Watch: Big Drug Companies Make Record Sales While Seniors Get Sold Out

🚜 RURAL AMERICA IS IN JEOPARDY

Trump and Republicans are waging war on rural health care.

Our “Sick of It!” spotlight this week exposes how GOP health care cuts are putting rural American lives in jeopardy.

📖 Read: Trump and Republicans Are Putting Rural American Lives in Jeopardy

The numbers are staggering:

• 45 rural Oklahoma hospitals face “immediate risk” of closure

• 12 Tennessee rural hospitals at “immediate risk”

• 57 hospitals closing departments or ending services nationwide

This isn’t a natural disaster. It’s a policy choice.

👶 50 MATERNITY WARDS HAVE CLOSED SINCE GOP CUTS

New and expecting moms are being forced to drive farther and pay more.

Since Republicans passed the largest health care cuts in history, 50 maternity wards across the country have announced closure.

For moms and their families, this is life or death as lifesaving maternity care becomes harder to access. Last week, Senator Cory Booker, former CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, and Dr. Ala Stanford joined us to spotlight the crisis.

Read more: Sick of It Spotlight: 50 Maternity Wards Announced Closure

👤 FACES OF THE GOP HEALTH CARE CRISIS

Real families. Real consequences.

• Tyler in New York is cutting down on groceries — including beef and pork — to make room for higher insurance costs in his budget.

• Madison in North Carolina is rationing her medication and accumulating medical debt after losing coverage she could no longer afford.

• Tywon in Montana worries that Medicaid work requirements will force him off the coverage he needs to get healthy enough to work.

Read more: Faces of the GOP Health Care Crisis

📈 PREMIUM DISASTER WATCH

Premiums are spiraling out of control.

• Mark Steigerwald (Wisconsin): Cancer survivor and small business owner whose premium nearly tripled from $938/month to $2,743/month

• Suzanne and Kip Mercer (Florida): Forced to drop coverage after premiums rose to $4,000/month — they’ve since avoided seeing their doctors

As the fallout from Republican health care cuts ripples across the country, countless more Americans will pay the price.

Read more: Premium Disaster Watch

The New Republic: “How Many People Will the GOP’s Medicaid Cuts Kill in 2027?”

This isn’t hyperbole. When people lose coverage, they die. Researchers estimate that for every 830 people who lose Medicaid coverage, one additional person will die. With millions losing coverage, the math is terrifying.

New York Times Opinion: Trump’s Health Care Cuts

The paper of record weighs in on the devastation Trump and Republicans have caused.

🦠 PUBLIC HEALTH ROUNDUP: OUTBREAKS KEEP SPREADING

Cyclospora and Salmonella:

• NYT: How Cyclospora Evaded the U.S. Food Safety System to Sicken Thousands

• Washington Post: FDA travels to Mexico a month after linking Taylor Farms to outbreak

• CNN: Foodborne illness outbreaks are especially bad this summer

• The New Republic: FDA Only Now Goes to Mexico to Investigate “Explosive Diarrhea” Outbreak

• Time: Salmonella Egg Recall Upgraded to FDA’s Highest Risk Level

• The Hill: Warren presses RFK Jr. on Trump ties to lettuce distributor

Research Cuts:

• Science: NIH is ending a key grant for budding clinical researchers

• NOTUS: “Graveyard for Grants”: NIH Is Holding Up Medical Research Funding

Meanwhile, RFK Jr.:

• USA Today: RFK Jr. says “boxes and boxes” of McDonald’s travel with Trump

So much for “Make America Healthy Again.”

🏥 HOSPITAL CRISIS WATCH: 1,173 Facilities and Counting

Nevada maternity crisis:

• Henderson Hospital to close NICU and maternity services around Sept. 30 — 100 jobs affected

• Nevada Independent: Are there maternity care deserts in Nevada?

• Sen. Cortez Masto updated on Boulder City Hospital

State by state:

Colorado: Healthcare Freefall: Finger-pointing intensifies as Colorado’s system strains under rising costs

Michigan: Good news — Oakland County votes to fund Planned Parenthood clinic through 2028; McLaren, Grand Traverse Women’s Clinic step in to keep OB/GYN care after closure

Montana: Libby asbestos clinic abruptly shutters two weeks early

New York: Waterview Heights nursing home closure worsens crisis

Ohio: Affordability crisis decried at Valley town hall

Oklahoma: 45 rural hospitals face “immediate” risk of closure; Clinic closures expose fragile state of rural healthcare; Pawhuska says goodbye to doctor who served generations

Tennessee: 12 rural hospitals at “immediate risk” for closure

Vermont: Cuts to psychiatric hospital beds, staff spark concerns; Bright spot: New birthing center a plus for Vermont “maternity desert”

Washington: Providence Everett to close autism bridging program

National: Becker’s: 57 hospitals closing departments or ending services

🗺️ IN THE STATES: GOP HOT SEAT SUMMER CONTINUES

Alaska: Caregiver Betty Redd-Mendez placed an op-ed in the Anchorage Daily News holding Sen. Dan Sullivan accountable: “Why won’t Sullivan meet with the Alaskans he was elected to represent? Is he ignorant of the crisis he’s created? Is he ashamed of his votes to rip away care and coverage?” Health care professionals also joined us in Wasilla — registered nurse Renee Kusner-Kalarchik: “A 30-year-old shouldn’t die of sepsis if they’re otherwise healthy because they can’t go to a doctor because they don’t have the money to afford it.”

California: Rep. Laura Friedman, Dr. Jerry Abraham, and Monica Lazo joined our “Sick of It!” event. Rep. Friedman: “1.2 million Californians have lost their health coverage, and that didn’t happen by accident. Trump and Congressional Republicans let the ACA tax credits expire and cut a trillion dollars from Medicaid to pay for a trillion dollars in tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy.”

Michigan: Michigan Democrats held Rep. John James accountable. Storyteller Eric Schneidewind: “Our friend Chris told us that she faced financial ruin. She has been buying health insurance on the ACA marketplace for $325 a month, but cuts in the ACA subsidies raised her premium to $843 per month, plus a $5,500 deductible—an annual increase of over $10,000.”

New Hampshire: The NH Public Health Association and state Rep. Dr. David Nagel discussed health care affordability and access. Tory Jennison, NHPHA Executive Director: “Strong public health is built on prevention. Whether it’s vaccinations, early screenings, or access to primary care, investing in prevention helps people stay healthier and reduces costs.”

📊 By The Numbers

8 million+ — Americans who have lost coverage since GOP cuts

1,173 — hospitals, clinics, providers closing or at risk

57 — hospitals closing departments or ending services

50 — maternity wards that have announced closure since GOP cuts

45 — rural Oklahoma hospitals at “immediate risk”

$298 billion — revenue for top 10 drugmakers in first half of 2026

59% — Americans struggling to afford prescription drugs

830 — people who lose Medicaid coverage for every one additional death

📰 Must-Reads

The Human Cost:

• New Republic: How Many People Will the GOP’s Medicaid Cuts Kill in 2027?

• NYT Opinion: Trump’s Health Care Cuts

POC Reports:

• Public Health Project: Fallout From Trump’s Anti-Vax Order

• Side by Side: Trump vs. Democrats on Drug Costs

• Sick of It Spotlight: Rural America in Jeopardy

Public Health:

• NYT: How Cyclospora Evaded the Food Safety System

• ABC: Sen. Cassidy calls Trump’s vaccine order “stupid”

✊ What You Can Do

Join “Sick of It!” and demand action:

1. Sign on to the campaign → sickofitcampaign.com

2. Share your health care story → sickofitcampaign.com/share

3. Call your representatives → sickofitcampaign.com

4. Write your representatives → sickofitcampaign.com

5. Get the digital toolkit → sickofitcampaign.com/toolkit

The fallout from Trump’s anti-vax order is just beginning. Rural hospitals are at “immediate risk.” Outbreaks are spreading while the FDA drags its feet. And the New Republic is asking how many people GOP Medicaid cuts will kill.

We know the answer: too many. We’re sick of it — and we’re demanding action.

Protect Our Care is fighting to protect and strengthen health care for all.

protectourcare.org | sickofitcampaign.com | Subscribe for next week’s dose.

The Weekly Dose — August 10, 2026

Senator Cory Booker and former CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure joined us to expose how Republican health care cuts have deepened America’s maternal health crisis. Meanwhile, health care workers are slamming RFK Jr. for trying to rewrite COVID history.

TL;DR: Senator Booker reintroduced the Momnibus as maternity wards close across the country. Health care workers are pushing back on RFK Jr.’s COVID revisionism. Trump rejected Arkansas’s Medicaid expansion. Senate Democrats demanded CMS withdraw work requirements. Forbes and Becker’s warn of “financial trouble ahead” for hospitals. And families are facing a second year of double-digit premium hikes. This is GOP Hot Seat Summer — and Republicans can’t escape the consequences of their health care cuts.

👶 “EVERY DAY THAT WE DON’T ACT, MORE WOMEN SUFFER”

Senator Booker and Chiquita Brooks-LaSure spotlight the maternal health crisis.

This week, U.S. Senator Cory Booker, former CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, and Dr. Ala Stanford joined Protect Our Care to spotlight the importance of the Momnibus as Republican health care cuts plunge our country deeper into a maternal health crisis.

📖 Read the full release

The press call comes as Senator Booker reintroduces the Momnibus in the Senate — companion legislation to the House bill introduced by Reps. Lauren Underwood and Alma Adams.

The crisis is real:

• Over 1,170 hospitals, clinics, and providers are closing, cutting services, or at risk

• Maternity wards are shuttering across the country

• Expectant mothers are being forced to travel farther for care

• Rural communities are losing access to labor and delivery services

Read more: Hospital Crisis Watch: Maternity Wards “Brace for Fallout”

🩺 HEALTH CARE WORKERS SLAM RFK JR.’S COVID REVISIONISM

“They remember. We remember.”

Health care workers are pushing back against RFK Jr.’s attempts to rewrite COVID history.

📺 Watch the video

The people who were on the front lines — who watched patients die, who worked double shifts in full PPE, who held phones so families could say goodbye — are not going to let RFK Jr. gaslight the country about what happened.

🦠 PUBLIC HEALTH ROUNDUP

CDC Under Attack:

• Washington Post: RFK Jr. questions scientists, access to data at CDC campus one year after shooting

• Bloomberg: RFK Jr. Criticizes US Covid Response at CDC Shooting Memorial

• STAT (Daniel Jernigan): I was in my office when bullets hit the CDC. A year later, the agency remains under attack

Foodborne Illnesses:

• Politico: Fear of lettuce is making RFK Jr.’s food messaging harder to swallow

• WSJ: Taylor Farms recalls products with jalapeños in salmonella outbreak

Vaccines:

• NOTUS: An Antidote to the Anti-Vaccine Movement Lives in Rural West Virginia

Head Start:

• The Independent: RFK Jr. says Head Start is his family legacy. Critics say he’s gutting the program

• USA Today: As Trump rolls back Head Start rules, some Republicans are wary

RFK Jr.’s Cooking Show Reviews:

• Washington Post: “I tried the recipe. Here’s what I learned (and didn’t).”

• The Free Press: “I Made RFK Jr.’s Salmon Cakes. They Were Bad.”

• Bloomberg: “RFK Jr.’s Cooking Show Is One Long, Boring Political Ad”

✉️ SENATE DEMOCRATS DEMAND CMS WITHDRAW WORK REQUIREMENTS

The work requirements rule is designed to rip care away.

The Senate Democratic Caucus, led by Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden and Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock, wrote to Dr. Oz demanding CMS withdraw the interim final rule implementing GOP Medicaid work requirements.

The rule, released June 1, is designed to kick as many otherwise eligible Americans off coverage as possible — all to pay for billionaire tax breaks.

Read our statement: Senate Democratic Caucus Releases Letter Demanding CMS Withdraw Medicaid Work Requirements

📈 FAMILIES FACE SECOND YEAR OF DOUBLE-DIGIT PREMIUM HIKES

KFF: Insurers propose median 15% premium hike.

A new KFF analysis shows insurers are proposing a median 15% premium increase — on top of last year’s premium doubling and tripling for over 22 million Americans.

This is what happens when lawmakers rip away the ACA tax credits that helped working families afford coverage.

Read more: FACT SHEET: Families Face A Second Year of Double-Digit Premium Hikes As The GOP Affordability Crisis Deepens

🏥 HOSPITAL CRISIS WATCH: 1,170 Facilities and Counting

This week’s closures:

• Louisiana: Lane Regional Medical Center allergy clinic closing, layoffs confirmed

• West Virginia: SurgiCare at CAMC Memorial set to close

New “at risk”:

• California: Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital nurses protest layoffs and service reductions

Other changes:

• Georgia: Wellstar Health System cuts 761 jobs even as it expands

State by state:

Alabama: Rural hospital closures force families to choose: home or health?; Op-ed: Alabama sabotaging Birmingham healthcare

California: Hospital temporarily closes community clinic

Illinois: Can would-be buyer afford to take over more Chicago-area hospitals?

Maine: MDP Statement on MaineHealth Birthing Center Closure

Massachusetts: Six orgs step in to take over services of closing health provider; Op-ed: What happens to a rural community after its hospital closes?; Healey signs bill allowing state to take Norwood Hospital through eminent domain

Montana: Sickened Libby residents wonder where to turn after asbestos clinic closure

New Hampshire: Report identifies key factors forcing birth centers to close

Oregon: Many Oregon hospitals in financial crisis; Salem Health, Santiam Hospital merger approved

Washington: Seattle clinics and resident doctors heartbroken by hospital cuts

National:

• Forbes: Financial Trouble Ahead For Hospitals Due To Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill

• Becker’s: Hospitals already losing money are about to lose more

• Texas Tribune: Lack of broadband gives rise to telehealth in rural clinics

🔥 GOP HOT SEAT SUMMER

This August, we’re turning up the heat.

As Congress heads home for recess, Republicans can’t avoid the anger and consequences of the vote they cast. This month, Protect Our Care is collaborating with state and national partners to:

• Hold empty-chair town halls

• Organize petition drop-offs

• Host accountability events

• Highlight stories from Americans harmed by cuts

In Maine: We supported Maine Democrats outside Senator Susan Collins’ Lewiston office. State Rep. Drew Gattine: “Susan Collins had the seniority and the power to stop this. She could have stopped this. Instead, she locked arms with Donald Trump and her billionaire donors to harm Maine people.”

📊 By The Numbers

8 million+ — Americans who have lost coverage since GOP cuts

1,170 — hospitals, clinics, providers closing or at risk

200,000 — Arkansans at risk after Medicaid expansion rejection

761 — jobs cut at Wellstar Health System in Georgia

15% — median premium hike proposed for 2027

22 million — Americans who saw premiums double or triple

📰 Must-Reads

Maternal Health Crisis:

• POC: Senator Booker & Brooks-LaSure Expose Maternal Health Crisis

• POC: Hospital Crisis Watch — Maternity Wards “Brace for Fallout”

RFK Jr. Reality Check:

• STAT: I was in my office when bullets hit the CDC. A year later, the agency remains under attack

• Politico: Fear of lettuce makes RFK Jr.’s food messaging harder to swallow

Hospital Crisis:

• Forbes: Financial Trouble Ahead For Hospitals

• Boston Globe: What happens to a rural community after its hospital closes?

✊ What You Can Do

Join GOP Hot Seat Summer:

1. Sign on to “Sick of It!” → sickofitcampaign.com

2. Share your health care story → sickofitcampaign.com/share

3. Call your representatives → sickofitcampaign.com

4. Write your representatives → sickofitcampaign.com

5. Get the digital toolkit → sickofitcampaign.com/toolkit

Every day that we don’t act, more women suffer. Health care workers are pushing back on COVID revisionism. Arkansas families are at risk of losing coverage. And 1,170 hospitals are closing or at risk.

This is GOP Hot Seat Summer. We’re sick of it — and we’re holding lawmakers accountable.

Protect Our Care is fighting to protect and strengthen health care for all.

protectourcare.org | sickofitcampaign.com | Subscribe for next week’s dose.

TL;DR: RFK Jr. got demolished on live TV this week for spreading misinformation. Trump is ending a Medicare drug coverage affordability program, forcing seniors to pay more. State Medicaid directors are “panicked” about the fallout from GOP cuts. Health care earnings calls reveal the growing toll as Americans lose coverage. And 1,157 hospitals, clinics, and providers are closing or at risk — including 7 new closures this week in Colorado, Ohio, Texas, and Washington. 100 days out from the midterms, health care is front and center.

📺 RFK JR. GETS A REALITY CHECK

“You’re not a scientist.” “Nutjob.” “Spreading medical misinformation.”

This week, RFK Jr. faced a brutal reality check across cable news and the internet.

Morning Joe: “RFK Jr. Slammed for Spreading Medical Misinformation” — Hosts called him a “nutjob” for his latest claims.

Rachel Maddow: RFK Jr. trying to rewrite COVID history as midterms approach.

Jezebel: “RFK Jr. Reminded He’s Not a Scientist, Crashes Out”

Parade: “Dana Bash’s One-Line Response to RFK Jr. Sparks Applause Across the Internet”

The man in charge of America’s public health is being publicly called out for not understanding science. This is where we are.

💊 TRUMP ENDS MEDICARE DRUG AFFORDABILITY PROGRAM

Seniors will pay more — again.

The Wall Street Journal broke the news: the Trump administration is ending a program that helps seniors afford their prescription drug coverage.

Leslie Dach, Protect Our Care Chair: “Donald Trump and Republicans are making health care more expensive for seniors at every turn. For older Americans living on fixed incomes, even an extra ten or twenty dollars a month can mean choosing between filling their prescription, paying the electric bill, or buying groceries.”

The coverage:

• WJXT-TV: Leslie Dach explains potential impact

• Moneywise: Dr. Oz claims “many” seniors will see lower premiums — but only about a quarter are projected to see flat or lower costs

• Bucks County Beacon: “Countless seniors will soon pay more”

This comes after Republicans already drove up seniors’ drug costs by creating a loophole for big companies to escape price negotiations.

📉 EARNINGS CALLS REVEAL THE TOLL

The health care system is in crisis — and industry insiders know it.

Health care earnings calls this quarter exposed the scale of the fallout from GOP cuts:

• Over 8 million Americans have lost coverage

• Hospitals are seeing a spike in uninsured patients

• Insurers are pulling out of markets altogether

• Families are making impossible choices between groceries and doctor visits

A recent Gallup Poll showed “the availability and affordability of health care” now tops the chart of American worries — ranking higher than the economy and inflation.

Read more: Health Care Earnings Calls Reveal the Growing Toll

🏥 HOSPITAL CRISIS WATCH: 1,157 Facilities and Counting

This week’s closures:

• Colorado: Optum Urgent Care closes multiple locations — patients learned after sign was left on door

• Ohio: Trumbull Regional Medical Center; Bridgeway Pointe assisted living center closing

• Texas: Texas Oncology-Cleveland cancer clinic closing — community leaders hear concerns

• Washington: Providence Hawks Prairie Immediate Care closing; Women’s health clinic in Tacoma shutters

Other changes:

• Arizona: Select Specialty Hospital officially closed; 99 staff laid off

• Arkansas: Nearly 40 employees furloughed at Ouachita County Medical Center

• Kansas: Hospital cutting positions to stabilize finances

State by state:

California: MLK Hospital seeks greater share of county funds to survive

Colorado: Glenwood Springs Planned Parenthood temporarily closed

Kansas: New York Sun: Surging red ink imperils rural maternity care — Kansas is ground zero

Maine: Dozens rally ahead of MaineHealth board vote on Damariscotta birthing unit closure; Medicaid cuts put rural hospitals and economies at risk

Maryland: Cecil County loses its only birth center — expectant mothers forced out of state

Michigan: Planned Parenthood closes Warren clinic citing federal cuts

Oregon: Emergency merger of Willamette Valley hospitals; Latest Asante cuts leave patients, employees facing uncertainty

Texas: Texas Monthly: “God Help Texas’s Rural Hospitals”

National:

• Becker’s: Urban hospital closures and net change, by state

• KFF Health News: Earlier Lifeline for Rural Hospitals Faces Test

• Fierce Healthcare: Hospitals on the edge — a time for CMS to do no harm

📊 By The Numbers

8 million+ — Americans who have lost coverage since GOP cuts

1,157 — hospitals, clinics, providers closing or at risk

7 — new closures added this week

70 million — Americans who rely on Medicaid

61 — years since Medicare and Medicaid were created

100 — days until the midterm elections

$1 trillion — cut from Medicaid and ACA to fund billionaire tax breaks

📰 Must-Reads

RFK Jr. Reality Check:

• Morning Joe: RFK Jr. Slammed for Spreading Misinformation

• Jezebel: RFK Jr. Reminded He’s Not a Scientist

• Parade: Dana Bash’s One-Line Response Sparks Applause

Hospital Crisis:

• Texas Monthly: God Help Texas’s Rural Hospitals

• New York Sun: Kansas is Ground Zero for Rural Maternity Crisis

• KFF Health News: Rural Hospital Lifeline Faces Test

✊ What You Can Do

Join the “Sick of It!” movement:

1. Sign on to the campaign → sickofitcampaign.com

2. Share your health care story → sickofitcampaign.com/share

3. Call your representatives → sickofitcampaign.com

4. Write your representatives → sickofitcampaign.com

5. Get the digital toolkit → sickofitcampaign.com/toolkit

RFK Jr. is getting called out on national television. Seniors are about to pay more for their medications. State Medicaid directors are panicked. And 1,157 hospitals are closing or at risk.

This is what happens when lawmakers put billionaires over working families. We’re sick of it — and we’re demanding action.

TL;DR: Hakeem Jeffries put health care front and center. Brad Woodhouse told MeidasTouch viewers: “We’re going to fix health care now, and you just try and stop us.” Our “Sick of It!” campaign hit 14 states with launch events featuring 11 members of Congress. A Fox News poll shows the public trusts Democrats over Republicans on health care by 21 points. And 1,135 hospitals are closing or at risk. Americans are sick of it — and demanding action.

🏛️ JEFFRIES: HEALTH CARE IS AT THE TOP OF OUR AGENDA

Congressional leaders are prioritizing health care solutions.

This week, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries announced that health care is a top priority — a direct response to the $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid and the ACA that are driving up costs and closing hospitals across the country.

📱 See our coverage on X

The headlines:

• Politico: Jeffries puts affordability at center of midterm strategy

• New York Times: Jeffries and Democrats Focus on Affordability for Midterms

• AP: House Democrats make affordability the centerpiece of midterm pitch

Our statement: House Democrats Place Health Care at the Top of Their Agenda

This is what Americans have been demanding: lawmakers who will fight to lower costs, restore coverage, and fix what’s broken.

🎙️ BRAD WOODHOUSE ON MEIDASTOUCH: “JUST TRY AND STOP US”

Watch POC President Brad Woodhouse break down the fight ahead.

This week, Brad joined Fred Wellman on On Democracy (MeidasTouch network) for a deep dive on the “Sick of It!” campaign, what’s at stake in the midterms, and why health care is a democracy issue.

📺 Watch the full interview

Key moments:

On why health care is a right: “If I were designing the constitution, I would have enshrined health care as an absolute right for every American. Health care is everything. All the things you want to do in life — none of it’s possible if you don’t have good health.”

On the fraud lie: “It’s the biggest lie in American politics. There’s not a trillion dollars worth of fraud. There’s not 8 million people who committed fraud. The way you absolutely know it’s crap is just look at all the fraudsters Donald Trump has pardoned — people convicted of Medicare and Medicaid fraud.”

On demanding action: “If we focus on health care, I think some lawmakers are going to see the light and realize they need to do more for American health care than take it away to fund tax breaks for billionaires.”

On the plan: “Prescription drugs, restore Medicaid, restore the ACA tax credits. Those are the three things we’re campaigning on before the election. When we win and get in power, we’ll do more. But we’ve got to talk about the things that are doable and the things the American people want.”

On the bus tour: “In October, we’ve got a 40-stop bus tour all across the country.”

The bottom line: “We’re going to fix health care now, and you just try and stop us.”

📊 FOX NEWS POLL: PUBLIC TRUSTS DEMOCRATS MORE ON HEALTH CARE

The polling is clear: Americans want a different approach.

A new Fox News poll shows voters trust Democrats over Republicans on seven of nine major issues:

• Health care: Democrats +21

• Income inequality: Democrats +22

• Inflation: Democrats +10

• Economy: Democrats lead

• Foreign policy: Democrats lead

• Government spending: Democrats lead

• Immigration: Democrats lead

The message is clear: Americans are frustrated with the status quo and want lawmakers who will prioritize their health care.

🚌 SICK OF IT! 14-STATE LAUNCH RECAP

From coast to coast, Americans are demanding action.

This month, Protect Our Care launched “Sick of It! Fix Health Care Now” with events in 14 states featuring 11 members of Congress, state lawmakers, advocates, and storytellers.

📖 Read the full recap

Members of Congress who joined:

• Rep. Katherine Clark (D-MA), House Democratic Whip

• Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA), House Democratic Caucus Chair

• Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ), Ranking Member, Energy & Commerce

• Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-IL)

• Rep. Lori Trahan (D-MA)

• Rep. Terri Sewell (D-AL)

• Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA)

• Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA)

• Rep. Dave Min (D-CA)

• Rep. Sanford Bishop (D-GA)

• Rep. Shontel Brown (D-OH)

What’s next:

• August: Accountability events — empty-seat town halls in Republican districts, town halls with Democrats

• September: Policy rollout — prescription drugs, restore Medicaid, restore ACA tax credits

• October: 40-stop bus tour across the country

🦠 PUBLIC HEALTH ROUNDUP: Outbreaks Spread, Confusion Reigns

Measles hits record high.

Mediaite: “Congrats to RFK Jr.”: Measles cases hit record high

Cyclosporiasis outbreak continues:

• Axios: Cyclosporiasis rates rise in five outbreak states

• CBS: Confusion around outbreak as RFK Jr. tries to calm concerns

• The Guardian: Former FDA official says response is near “catastrophic level”

Pandemic preparedness:

• NOTUS: The White House Is Back in the Pandemic Preparedness Game. Barely.

Vaccines:

• Mother Jones: She’s Charged With Killing Her Twins. The Anti-Vaccine Movement Made Her a Martyr.

RFK Jr.’s agenda:

• NOTUS: RFK Jr.’s Big Promise to Ban Pharmaceutical Ads Is in the Slow Lane

• Politico: RFK Jr. making progress on controversial drug “suppression” rollback

Opinion:

• San Diego Union Tribune: How many will die because RFK Jr. was put in charge of public health?

• Tampa Bay Times: The headline from Kennedy’s Tampa visit that nobody wrote

🏥 HOSPITAL CRISIS WATCH: 1,135 Facilities and Counting

This week’s closure:

• Washington, D.C.: Medstar Washington closes its postpartum unit

• Oregon: Hillsboro Medical Center closing one of Oregon’s few geriatric psychiatric units

State by state:

California: South LA providers react to Medicaid cuts — “We’re a vital lifeline”; Shasta Public Health scaling back services after $2M in budget cuts

Washington, D.C.: NBC Washington: What the MedStar WHC postpartum closure could mean for patients

Iowa: Women’s spaces in Iowa City are closing or being restructured

Maine: Massive fight over Damariscotta birthing center — Hannah Pingree proposes pause on maternity ward closures; protesters speak out; Op-ed: Maine’s rural hospitals cannot survive another Susan Collins term

Mississippi: He retired to a small town to stretch his Social Security. Then the only hospital closed.

Oregon: ASANTE closing outpatient PT clinics

Virginia: Hospitals predict $31 billion reduction in Medicaid funding; Commentary: Rural Virginia has been kind to the GOP, yet Trump’s GOP allows rural healthcare to suffer

View our Hospital Crisis Watch for the full break down.

📊 By The Numbers

8 million+ — Americans who have lost coverage since GOP cuts

1,135 — hospitals, clinics, providers closing or at risk

+21 — point public trust advantage for Democrats on health care (Fox News poll)

14 — states where we launched “Sick of It!” events

11 — members of Congress who joined our launch

40 — stops on our October bus tour

$31 billion — Virginia’s projected Medicaid funding loss

📰 Must-Reads

Jeffries Announcement:

• Politico: Jeffries puts affordability at center of midterm strategy

• NYT: Jeffries and Democrats Focus on Affordability

• AP: House Democrats make affordability the centerpiece

Sick of It! Campaign:

• Watch: Brad Woodhouse on MeidasTouch

• POC: Sick of It! Launch Recap

Hospital Crisis:

• Portland Press Herald: Maine’s rural hospitals cannot survive another Susan Collins term

• Virginia Mercury: Rural Virginia suffers under Trump’s GOP

✊ What You Can Do

Join the “Sick of It!” movement:

1. Sign on to the campaign → sickofitcampaign.com

2. Share your health care story → sickofitcampaign.com/share

3. Call your representatives → sickofitcampaign.com

4. Write your representatives → sickofitcampaign.com

5. Get the digital toolkit → sickofitcampaign.com/toolkit

6. Join the coalition → sickofitcampaign.com/coalition

Health care is now at the top of the agenda. Polling shows Americans want action. And we’ve got a 40-stop bus tour coming in October.

After $1 trillion in cuts drove up costs and closed hospitals, Americans are demanding accountability — and solutions.

We’re sick of it. We’re going to fix it. Just try and stop us.

Protect Our Care is fighting to protect and strengthen health care for all.

protectourcare.org | sickofitcampaign.com | Subscribe for next week’s dose.

Last week, Protect Our Care launched “Sick of It! Fix Health Care Now” with six House Democrats, Little Lobbyists, Planned Parenthood, SEIU, and allies on Capitol Hill. House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark put Republicans on notice: “When you screw with people’s health care, when you go after their families, when you mess with their kids, there will be a price to pay.” Meanwhile, Trump’s funding cuts created “the perfect storm” that slowed the government’s response to a record cyclosporiasis outbreak. And 1,124 hospitals are now closing or at risk after Republicans cut $1T from Medicaid. We’re sick of it — and we’re going to fix it.

TL;DR: “Sick of It! Fix Health Care Now“ has officially launched. We’re taking the fight across the country – sharing health care stories, calling out Republicans and building a movement, with live events and a coast-to-coast bus tour this October. House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark, Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, and four more House Democrats joined us on Capitol Hill to demand action. Meanwhile, Trump’s cuts slowed the cyclosporiasis outbreak response, and Larry David told RFK Jr. to “drop dead” on HBO. We’re mad as hell, and we’re not taking it anymore.

🚌 SICK OF IT! FIX HEALTH CARE NOW

We’ve officially launched — and we’re taking this fight coast to coast.

This week, Protect Our Care kicked off “Sick of It! Fix Health Care Now“ in our nation’s Capitol, joined by six House Democrats, Little Lobbyists, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, Caring Across Generations, SEIU, and Community Catalyst.

📺 Watch the full Capitol Hill event

🎬 Watch the MS Now segment

🌐 Learn more about “Sick of It!”

Chris Jansing, MS Now: “The reason you saw that press conference today is because everywhere these candidates go, they’re getting an earful from their constituents.”

🎤 HOUSE DEMOCRATS PUT REPUBLICANS ON NOTICE

“When you screw with people’s health care... there will be a price to pay.”

House Democratic Whip Rep. Katherine Clark (D-MA): “The Republican Party is about to find out that when you screw with people’s health care, when you go after their families, when you mess with their kids, there will be a price to pay. We are going to make sure that each and every voter knows exactly who to blame for every hospital closure we’re seeing across this country, every illness that is going untreated, and every prescription that is going unfilled.”

House Democratic Caucus Chair Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA): “This is not what the American people voted for. Instead of lowering costs, Republicans made life harder and more expensive for everyone. Democrats will do everything we can to make delivering on health care the heart of our mission.”

Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ), Ranking Member, Energy & Commerce: “This was not an accident. This is a crisis of choice perpetrated by Donald Trump and the Republicans in Congress who ripped more than a trillion dollars out of Americans’ health care. I’m frankly sick of it. I know everyone is sick of it.”

Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-IL): “As a registered nurse and one of just a small group of health care professionals serving here in the United States Congress, it has been horrifying to watch this Republican health care crisis unfold. Every single American family should have high-quality, affordable health care.”

Rep. Lori Trahan (D-MA): “It’s a question of priorities, and House Democrats’ priority is you. We’re going to fight for Americans’ health care, and if you raise prices on families, we’re going to hold you accountable.”

Rep. Terri Sewell (D-AL): “Americans know that Republicans have failed them. We are laser-focused on ensuring that Democrats are ready to make health care costs more affordable for every American on day one. We can do it because we’re mad as hell and we’re sick of it.”

Brad Woodhouse, POC President: “We’re going to fix health care now, and you just try and stop us.”

🦠 TRUMP’S CUTS CREATED “THE PERFECT STORM” FOR OUTBREAK RESPONSE

A record cyclosporiasis outbreak — and the government can’t keep up.

CNN: Trump’s funding cuts created “the perfect storm” that slowed the government’s cyclosporiasis response

The Guardian: Trump’s deep public health cuts hinder response to record US cyclosporiasis outbreak

This is what happens when you gut public health infrastructure: outbreaks spread faster, responses slow down, and people get sick.

More public health chaos:

• Vaccines: Idaho mom charged with murder says vaccines killed her twins — doctors say it’s not possible

• Research: Agency that supports health care improvement cuts off grant funding

• Head Start: The Bulwark: Trump preparing new attack on Head Start

• Overdose Prevention: Red states reject Trump’s shift on harm reduction

• LGBTQ+ Foster Care: RFK Jr. axes Biden-era rule to protect LGBTQ+ children

• Global Abortion: Women are dying in Africa as US ramps up battle against abortion

Meanwhile, RFK Jr.:

• FactCheck.org: Flawed claims about sperm count and fertility

• Larry David mocks RFK Jr. on HBO: “Drop dead, Bobby... You’re not a doctor”

• Text feud with Mark Ruffalo goes public

🏥 HOSPITAL CRISIS WATCH: 1,124 Facilities and Counting

This week’s closures:

• New Jersey: ICUs at two Inspira Medical hospitals could be ending

• New York: North Star Health Alliance closing primary care clinics and birthing services

State by state:

Arizona: Small Tucson hospital announces closure, laying off 99 staff

California: MLK Jr. Community Hospital could shut down again due to Medicaid cuts — a hospital vital to LA’s most underserved community

Indiana: Federal, state Medicaid cuts drive low-income health clinic merger

New Jersey: Op-ed: N.J. lost 29 hospitals in three decades. Now Medicaid cuts could claim more.

New York: NUMC closes maternity services indefinitely; Assemblyman asks Gov. Hochul to scrutinize North Star closures

Ohio: Concerns grow about newborn transfers as Delaware hospital maternity closure nears

Texas: Maternal health “deserts” endanger Texas women and babies

National: Becker’s: 720 rural hospitals are at risk — just 6% of ASCs are there to catch the fallout

🗣️ ALLIES SPEAK OUT

Elena Hung, Little Lobbyists: “Kids like mine are alive today because of the Affordable Care Act and because of Medicaid. Health care costs are pushing families like mine to make impossible choices, and that is a policy failure, not a personal one, and we are sick of it.”

Nora Walsh-DeVries, Planned Parenthood Action Fund: “I’m sick of the Trump administration and its anti-abortion backers in Congress who are playing politics with our health care. In the year since Planned Parenthood was defunded, patients faced more barriers and got less care.”

Athena Jones, SEIU Local 512: “Let history record that we choose courage over comfort, that we choose people over politics, that we choose care over cuts. This is why we are here. This is why we fight, and this is why we are not finished yet.”

📊 By The Numbers

8 million — Americans who have lost coverage since GOP cuts

1,124 — hospitals, clinics, providers closing or at risk

720 — rural hospitals at immediate risk of closure

$1 trillion — cut from Medicaid and ACA

29 — hospitals New Jersey has lost in the last three decades

99 — staff laid off at one closing Tucson hospital

📰 Must-Reads

Sick of It! Launch:

• The Hill: Democrats, Protect Our Care to launch $5M ad campaign attacking GOP health cuts

• Watch: MS Now Segment on Capitol Hill Launch

• Watch: Full Capitol Hill Event

• Learn More About “Sick of It!”

Public Health Crisis:

• CNN: Trump’s Cuts Created “Perfect Storm” for Cyclosporiasis Response

• KFF Health News: Pregnant Woman’s Roadside Death in Mississippi

• The Bulwark: Trump Preparing Attack on Head Start

Hospital Crisis:

• KABC: MLK Jr. Hospital Could Shut Down Due to Medicaid Cuts

• Becker’s: 720 Rural Hospitals at Risk

✊ What You Can Do

1. Learn about “Sick of It!” → sickofitcampaign.com

2. Watch the Capitol Hill launch → Full event

3. Tell your story → sickofitcampaign.com/share

Protect Our Care is fighting to protect and strengthen health care for all.

protectourcare.org | sickofitcampaign.com | Subscribe for next week’s dose.

To mark one year since Trump and Republicans gutted health care, we sat down with Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker and frontline nurse Tricia Jackson. 8 million Americans have already lost coverage — and the worst is still ahead.

TL;DR: Governor Pritzker calls it “the big, ugly bill — because of what it does to the most vulnerable people in our society.” One year later, 8 million Americans have lost coverage. Nurse Tricia Jackson says patients are “scared” and skipping care they can’t afford. Deductibles that were $2,000 are now $10,000. And the worst is still coming — Illinois alone could see 770,000 more lose Medicaid. Brad Woodhouse told Congressional Republicans that they “set the health care system on fire.” This is the scam-iversary.

🎙️ GOV. PRITZKER AND A FRONTLINE NURSE ON WHAT’S COMING NEXT

Watch our conversation marking one year of the Big, Ugly Bill.

To mark one year since Trump and Republicans passed the largest health care cuts in history, Protect Our Care spoke with Governor J.B. Pritzker and Tricia Jackson, a family nurse practitioner from Oswego, Illinois, who sees the consequences in her exam room every day.

📺 Watch: One Year of the “Big, Ugly Bill”

Governor Pritzker: “Not the big, beautiful bill. The big, ugly bill — because of what it does to the most vulnerable people in our society.”

“There are a whole lot of people who are in desperate need of health care who are going to be thrown off and may very well perish as a result of having their health care taken away from them.”

Tricia Jackson, Family Nurse Practitioner: “I am hearing a lot of scared. A lot of nervousness. Either they’ve already lost their health care and don’t know what to do — or they’re about to, and they don’t know what to do.”

“Even though I feel like I’m busy, my visits overall are down. Because people aren’t coming in because they can’t afford it.”

What’s already happened:

• 8 million Americans have lost coverage

• 175,000 Illinoisans have lost Medicaid or CHIP

• Deductibles that were $2,000-$3,000 are now $10,000-$15,000

• Preventive screenings getting pushed off, medications going unfilled

What’s still coming:

• 770,000 more Illinoisans could lose Medicaid

• $7 billion loss in federal Medicaid funding for Illinois alone

• People who can’t meet work requirements being thrown off coverage

“We’re looking at things like free clinics,” Governor Pritzker said. “But if it’s not going to be Medicaid — we can’t pay for everybody’s Medicaid without support from the federal government.”

🎤 BRAD WOODHOUSE TOLD CONGRESS THE TRUTH

This week, POC President Brad Woodhouse testified before Congress.

📺 Watch the testimony clips

In a following statement, Brad Woodhouse said: “In the so-called ‘One Big Beautiful Bill,’ Trump and Republicans set the health care system on fire, ransacking Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act to bankroll tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations. It will go down in history as one of the most corrupt, billionaire-enriching laws ever to come out of Congress.”

“Trump and Republicans knew of the pain and anguish the law would inflict on the American people. They knew that more seniors would be forced to split pills in half to ration medication. They knew that millions of sick kids would lose health care. They knew that soon-to-be moms would lose access to maternity care.”

📅 ONE YEAR LATER: The Damage Is Catastrophic

July 4, 2025 → July 4, 2026: A year of destruction.

One year ago this weekend, Trump and Republicans passed the “One Big Beautiful Bill” — gutting over $1 trillion from Medicaid and the ACA to fund tax breaks for billionaires.

The damage:

• 8 million Americans have lost coverage

• 15 million total predicted to lose care

• 22 million saw premiums more than double on average

• 1 in 3 Americans cutting back on essentials to afford care

• 1,075 hospitals, clinics, and providers closing, cutting services, or at risk

Bloomberg: “Falling ACA Health Coverage Is a Predictable Disaster”

Read our full fact sheet: One Year Later — The Fallout Is Even Worse Than Feared

🦠 PUBLIC HEALTH CHAOS: What You Missed Over the Holiday

While you were celebrating America 250, RFK Jr. was making it worse.

Measles:

• Former CDC official says RFK Jr.’s response is “not based on science or reality”

Vaccines:

• Air Force confirms first death in Lackland flu outbreak

• RFK Jr. ends emergency authorizations for COVID-19 drugs

• Mom who claimed vaccines killed her twins now charged with murdering them

Pesticides:

• EPA drops plans to release MAHA agenda

• Axios: Trump backs MAHA in “shocking” Oval Office fight on pesticides

Mental Health:

• Federal campaign to discourage antidepressants could cause new problems

• Psychiatrists push back against HHS agenda targeting antidepressants

Disability Rights:

• AP: Trump’s actions signal move toward institutionalizing people with disabilities

• Parents fear “dangerous shift” as Trump rewrites disability policy

Corruption:

• NYT: Trump Administration delivers lucrative win for its kratom allies

😤 HAS THE MAHA MOVEMENT GIVEN UP?

The New York Times is asking the question.

New York Times: “Has the MAHA Movement Given Up?”

New York Sun: “MAHA Fury Over Roundup Ruling Threatens RFK Jr.’s Hold on Movement”

Rolling Stone: “Are MAGA and MAHA Heading for a Divorce?”

The base that believed Trump and RFK Jr. would “Make America Healthy Again” is watching hospitals close, premiums spike, and RFK Jr. side with chemical companies. They’re not happy.

🏥 HOSPITAL CRISIS WATCH: 1,075 Facilities and Counting

This week’s damage:

New closure:

• Vermont: Brattleboro Memorial Hospital plans to close birthing center within 6-9 months; community rallies

State by state:

Alabama: Good news: Jackson Hospital will not close after reaching a deal with Blue Cross. But: Op-ed warns closing birth centers hurts access

California: Trio of SF health clinics facing closure; 16 hospitals at risk; Dominican Hospital nurses decry proposed layoffs

Illinois: Shuttered Chicago hospital to lay off 500; West Suburban Medical Center future remains uncertain

Iowa: Planned Parenthood closing an Iowa City clinic — leaving just 1 clinic in entire state; workers suspicious of River Hills closure timing

Maine: At shuttered hospital, candidate Platner accuses Collins of “throwing gasoline” on the rural healthcare crisis; community fights to keep birthing center open

Minnesota: Months after Mayo Clinic left, rural towns adjust to “completely different health continuum”

Rhode Island: Brown Health losses raise fears for R.I. services

Virginia: Sen. Warner visits hospital weeks after it was labeled “at risk”

National: Becker’s: 42 hospitals closing departments or ending services; Modern Healthcare: Adventist Health cuts 132 jobs

📊 By The Numbers

8 million — Americans who have lost coverage since GOP cuts

1,075 — hospitals, clinics, providers closing, cutting services, or at risk

42 — hospitals closing departments or ending services this week

22 million — Americans who saw premiums more than double

1 in 3 — Americans cutting back on essentials to afford care

1 — Planned Parenthood clinic left in all of Iowa

1 year — since Republicans set the health care system on fire

📰 Must-Reads

The Anniversary:

• POC Substack: Gov. Pritzker and Nurse Tricia Jackson on One Year of the Big, Ugly Bill

• The Bulwark: Donald Trump Is Bringing Back Death Panels

• Bloomberg: Falling ACA Coverage Is a Predictable Disaster

MAHA in Crisis:

• NYT: Has the MAHA Movement Given Up?

• CBS: Former CDC Official Says RFK Jr. Response “Not Based on Science”

• AP: Trump Signals Move Toward Institutionalizing People With Disabilities

Hospital Crisis:

• Becker’s: 42 Hospitals Closing Departments

• Common Dreams: Candidate Accuses Collins of “Throwing Gasoline” on Rural Crisis

• Vermont Public: Brattleboro Memorial Closing Birthing Center

✊ What You Can Do

1. Watch Gov. Pritzker and Nurse Tricia Jackson → One Year of the Big, Ugly Bill

2. Watch Brad Woodhouse’s congressional testimony → POC Substack

3. Share the one-year fact sheet → Fallout Even Worse Than Feared

4. Join One Nation, Overcharged → onenationovercharged.com

5. Tell your story → storytellercorps.com/share

6. Vote. At the ballot box in November, voters won’t forget that Trump and Republicans prioritized their wealthy donors over ensuring millions of working people could obtain quality, affordable health care.

Protect Our Care is fighting to protect and strengthen health care for all.

protectourcare.org | onenationovercharged.com | Subscribe for next week’s dose.

Subscribe now

They passed the largest cut to health care in American history — gutting more than $1 trillion from Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act to pay for tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations. They called it the One Big Beautiful Bill.

Governor J.B. Pritzker has another name for it.

“Not the big, beautiful bill,” he told us. “The big ugly bill — because of what it does to the most vulnerable people in our society.”

To mark one year since this law was signed, Protect Our Care spoke with Governor Pritzker and Tricia Jackson, a family nurse practitioner from Oswego, Illinois, who sees the consequences of this law in her exam room every single day.

What they told us was alarming. And they were clear about one thing: the worst is still ahead.

What’s already happened

More than 8 million Americans have already lost health care coverage since this law passed. In Illinois alone, more than 175,000 people have lost Medicaid or CHIP coverage — and that number is going to grow.

Tricia sees it firsthand.

“I am hearing a lot of scared,” she told us. “A lot of nervousness. Either they’ve already lost their health care and don’t know what to do — or they’re about to, and they don’t know what to do.”

People aren’t just losing coverage. They’re skipping care they can’t afford. Deductibles that were $2,000 or $3,000 last year are now $10,000 or $15,000. Preventive screenings are getting pushed off. Medications are going unfilled.

“Even though I feel like I’m busy, my visits overall are down,” Tricia said. “Because people aren’t coming in because they can’t afford it.”

What’s still coming

Here’s the part that should alarm everyone: we’re not even at the worst of it yet.

In Illinois, as many as 770,000 people could lose Medicaid in the months ahead. The state faces a $7 billion loss in federal Medicaid funding — a hole no state can fill on its own.

Governor Pritzker didn’t soften it.

“There are a whole lot of people who are in desperate need of health care who are going to be thrown off and may very well perish as a result of having their health care taken away from them.”

People who can’t meet the new work requirements but also can’t meet the exemptions. People who are sick, or caring for someone who is, or working jobs that don’t generate the paperwork to prove it. People who are running out of options.

“We’re looking at things like free clinics,” Governor Pritzker said. “But if it’s not going to be Medicaid — we can’t pay for everybody’s Medicaid without support from the federal government.”

What you can do

Governor Pritzker is looking at free clinics, state-funded programs, any lever he can pull. Tricia is showing up for her patients every single day. And across the country, ordinary people are pushing back — showing up, organizing, and telling their stories.

You can too. Contact your representatives. Share this video. And visit protectourcare.org to find out what’s happening in your state and how to get involved.

That’s how this gets fixed.

Subscribe now

Share

More than 8 million Americans have lost health care coverage. Many of the biggest Medicaid cuts are still ahead. To learn more about what’s happening in your state and what you can do, visit protectourcare.org

TL;DR: Protect Our Care hit a grim milestone: 1,056 hospitals, clinics, and providers are closing, at risk, or cutting services. Sen. Murphy joined our press call to expose the damage. A new Gallup poll shows only 49% of Americans can consistently afford health care — a five-year low. Forbes reports 3 million Americans aged 50-64 could lose coverage. An Axios-Ipsos poll shows health care affordability is a top midterm issue. And Fortune reports Americans’ sense of health care security is at a record low. The scam-iversary is 12 days away.

🚨 1,000+ HOSPITALS AND CLINICS CLOSING OR AT RISK

Last week, we hit a devastating milestone.

Protect Our Care’s Hospital Crisis Watch has now tracked over 1,000 hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, maternity wards, and essential providers that have closed, are at risk of closure, or have cut essential services since Republicans’ health care cuts last July.

First reported in The Hill, Sen. Chris Murphy joined us to sound the alarm:

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT): “Republicans decided to cut Medicaid by around a trillion dollars — the only reason they did that was to pass along tax cuts for their billionaire and corporate friends. Your community hospital, the nursing home that you send your mother to, the maternity ward you’re planning to deliver your baby at, they are closing at an alarming rate, and that’s the consequence of the decision that Republicans made.”

Dr. Chris Ford, Emergency Medicine Physician (Milwaukee, WI): “When we talk about time and emergency medicine, time is everything. It’s the difference between recovery and disability, between a patient surviving and a patient dying. If these cuts continue, patients will continue to pay the price, and not just in dollars, but in delayed care, preventable suffering, and lives lost.”

Callie Harper, Health Care Advocate (Savannah, GA): “My daughter spent three months in the NICU, and she had a brain bleed, a lung disorder, and a vision disorder directly due to our delays in care. Had I been 30, 45, or 90 minutes from a hospital instead of down the road, she likely would not have survived. When you gut Medicaid, you don’t just cut an insurance program; you close the only door a woman can reach in the dark.”

Anne Shoup, POC Senior Advisor: “Behind each pin is a story. Whether it’s an expectant mother losing access to prenatal care, or seniors driving hours for care that used to be down the road, or people with disabilities facing gaps in caregiving — these pins represent our neighbors, our parents, and our kids.”

📺 Watch the full press call with Sen. Murphy

📄 Read the full report

🗺️ Explore the interactive map

📰 Read our exclusive in The Hill

This week’s closures:

• Oregon: La Grande Urgent Care closing in August

• Texas: Raymondville ISD Health Clinic closing its doors

The damage keeps mounting state by state:

Alabama: Judge denies emergency request for Blue Cross to pay more to Jackson Hospital — future in doubt

Arkansas: Drive time to hospitals for labor and delivery getting longer

California: Inside SF’s mental health clinic for seniors marked for closure

D.C.: Nurses protest to keep postpartum unit open at DC’s largest hospital; closure could impact Maryland hospitals; nurses warn of “maternal health desert” risk

Illinois: Hospitals owe the state more than $700M, sparking questions and calls for change

Massachusetts: Families urge lawmakers to keep Pappas Hospital open; Baystate Health cuts jobs; maternity ward called “necessary” amid closure talk

Michigan: Sturgis Hospital closed this week — “A perfect storm”: Why rural hospitals across Michigan are struggling; staff reflect on final day; MDP Chair responds

Minnesota: Rural hospitals still waiting on promised federal grant money to ease Medicaid cuts

Missouri: MU Health Care layoffs and clinic closures; CareSTL loses federal funding — clinic “already collapsing”

Mississippi: Greenwood Leflore Hospital could close if Medicaid withholds funds, derailing UMMC deal

Montana: Libby’s asbestos clinic to close permanently this summer

Vermont: UVM Health is downsizing — what cuts mean for services

Hospital CEOs are speaking out: The damage is “not survivable”

Providers are sounding the alarm: Read their stories

📢 CREATORS ARE SPREADING THE WORD

Help amplify these posts on hospital closures:

📱 Jess Craven on Instagram — Breaking down the 1,000 hospital milestone

📝 Jess Craven on Substack — Why this matters for your community

Share these posts to make sure everyone knows what Republicans did.

📊 NEW POLLS: Americans Can’t Afford Health Care

Gallup: Affordability at Five-Year Low

A new Gallup poll reveals that fewer than half of Americans can consistently afford their health care.

The numbers are devastating:

• 51% of Americans lack access to quality, affordable care or can’t pay for needed care/medicine

• Nearly 3 million more people can’t afford care compared to 2024

• Only 38% of Black Americans and 32% of Hispanic Americans have affordable access to care

• Health care affordability dropped 12% for women since 2022

• Young adults (18-29) have seen the largest drop — affordability down 14% since 2021

• More than half of adults with chronic conditions can’t afford their care

• 6 in 10 adults with anxiety and depression struggle to pay for health care

Axios-Ipsos Poll:

A new Axios-Ipsos poll shows health care affordability is a top midterm issue for voters.

Fortune:

Americans’ sense of health care security is at a record low — the lowest since tracking began.

👴 3 MILLION AMERICANS AGED 50-64 COULD LOSE COVERAGE

Forbes: Trump policies threaten older Americans who aren’t yet on Medicare.

A new Forbes analysis shows Trump’s policies could strip health coverage from 3 million Americans aged 50-64 — people too young for Medicare but facing the highest premiums.

These are workers approaching retirement, cancer survivors, people managing chronic conditions — all watching their coverage disappear.

✊ BLACK FAMILIES ARE BEARING THE BRUNT

A new fact sheet shows how GOP cuts are deepening racial health disparities.

Black Americans are being forced to navigate a health care crisis created by Trump and Republicans. At a time when the country should be working to close racial health disparities, GOP cuts are widening them.

Key findings:

• Only 38% of Black Americans have access to affordable care (compared to 55% of white adults)

• Black Americans remain 1.5x more likely to be uninsured than white Americans

• Black communities will bear the brunt of premium hikes, coverage losses, and provider closures

• The cuts threaten coverage gains that helped reduce Black uninsured rates

Read the full fact sheet: Health Care for Black Families Is on the Line

🍽️ THE HUNGER CRISIS: SNAP Cuts and Rising Food Costs

Republicans aren’t just taking your health care — they’re taking your food.

Wall Street Journal: RFK Jr.’s Food Agenda Collides With Voter Concerns Over Rising Costs — RFK Jr. wants to overhaul what Americans eat, but voters are more worried about affording food at all.

Politico: The Quiet Unraveling of America’s Food Safety Net — SNAP cuts are devastating families across the country.

The Bulwark: Trump’s One Big Beautiful Hunger Crisis — The GOP’s cuts are creating a hunger emergency.

Remember: 61% of Americans are already cutting back on groceries. Now Republicans are slashing food assistance too.

🦠 PUBLIC HEALTH UPDATE: Flu Outbreak at Air Force Base

The New York Times reports on a flu outbreak at an Air Force base — another reminder that public health threats don’t stop while Trump’s HHS remains in chaos.

Still no permanent FDA Commissioner, CDC Director, or Surgeon General.

📊 By The Numbers

1,056 — hospitals, clinics, providers closing or at risk

51% — Americans who can’t consistently afford health care

3 million — Americans aged 50-64 who could lose coverage

12% — drop in health care affordability for women since 2022

14% — drop in affordability for young adults since 2021

38% — Black Americans with access to affordable care (vs. 55% white)

12 days — until the July 4th scam-iversary

📰 Must-Reads

1,000 Hospitals:

• Watch: Sen. Murphy Press Call

• POC: Hospital CEOs Say Damage “Not Survivable”

• POC: Hospital Crisis Watch Interactive Map

Polling:

• Axios-Ipsos: Health Affordability a Top Midterm Issue

• Fortune: Health Care Security at Record Low

• Forbes: 3 Million Aged 50-64 Could Lose Coverage

Food & Hunger Crisis:

• WSJ: RFK Jr.’s Food Agenda Collides With Rising Costs

• Politico: The Quiet Unraveling of America’s Food Safety Net

• The Bulwark: Trump’s One Big Beautiful Hunger Crisis

✊ What You Can Do

1. Watch and share Sen. Murphy’s press call → YouTube

2. Share Jess Craven’s posts → Instagram | Substack

3. Explore the interactive map → Hospital Crisis Watch

4. Join One Nation, Overcharged → onenationovercharged.com

5. Tell your story → storytellercorps.com/share

1,056 hospitals. Millions losing coverage. 12 days until the scam-iversary. Republicans did this — and voters will remember.

Protect Our Care is fighting to protect and strengthen health care for all.

protectourcare.org | onenationovercharged.com | Subscribe for next week’s dose.

Each one marks a hospital, nursing home, clinic, or care facility facing closure, cuts, or uncertainty — communities where the consequences of Republican health care cuts are becoming impossible to ignore.

As a health care advocate and Senior Advisor at Protect Our Care, I have spent years fighting for the belief that health care is a right, not a privilege. And I have never seen a more direct, consequential assault on that principle than Donald Trump and Republicans’ more than $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the largest health care cuts in American history, to fund tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations. These cuts, along with Republicans ending the health care tax credits, are ripping away health care coverage from 15 million Americans so that the wealthiest can pay less in taxes.

Behind each pin is a story. Expectant mothers losing access to prenatal care after the nearest rural hospital was forced to close its maternity ward. Seniors driving hours each way for care that used to be down the road. A nursing home laying off the staff who care for its residents. An emergency room becoming stretched past its capacity. People with disabilities facing gaps in caregiving that allow them to stay in their own homes.

I grew up in rural western Pennsylvania, in a small town built around the coal mining industry, and I saw firsthand hard-working families there struggling to make ends meet. These days, health care has become more unaffordable and out of reach than ever before. In Pennsylvania alone, 23 facilities have already closed, four have said they will be closing, eight have announced cuts, and 15 more are at risk. Across the country, families are already feeling the consequences. They are our neighbors, our parents, our kids. They deserve better than having their health care gutted to write a check to the ultra-wealthy.

We should be lowering costs, expanding access, and cracking down on the corporate greed that has been exploiting patients and communities. Instead, we are watching care disappear from the places that need it most.

Protect Our Care’s new report documents what the Republican cuts are actually doing to communities across the country, detailing how Republicans’ historic cuts to Medicaid and the ACA are devastating hospitals, providers, and patients across the country, pushing hundreds of facilities to the brink of closure and leaving families without critical care.

With one thousand pins and counting, it is a warning. What is documented here is not the end of this story. It is the beginning of what happens when care becomes unaffordable and unreachable.

One thousand pins is one thousand too many — and if we do nothing, the map will only keep growing.

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TL;DR: Melinda French Gates announced an additional major investment in women’s health through Pivotal, focusing on menopause research and midlife health — areas long neglected by medicine and now under further attack by GOP cuts. Meanwhile, Trump officials are suggesting Americans take out loans for health care after Republicans doubled their premiums. Mike Johnson is pushing for even deeper Medicaid and Social Security cuts. And Kansas now leads the nation with 28 rural hospitals at immediate risk of closing. This is Week 3: Hospitals in Crisis.

💜 MELINDA FRENCH GATES STEPS UP FOR WOMEN’S HEALTH

While Republicans cut care, she’s investing in it.

This week, Melinda French Gates announced a historic investment in women’s health through Pivotal — including groundbreaking research on menopause and midlife health, areas medicine has long neglected.

The New York Times:“Melinda French Gates: Women, We Deserve Better Than This”

TIME: “Melinda French Gates Is Donating $215 Million to Women’s Health”

Ms. Magazine:“The Untapped Power of Post-Menopausal Women”

Why this matters now:

• Menopause affects half the population yet it receives a fraction of research funding – an amount which has decreased after GOP cuts

• Women’s health has been systematically underfunded and understudied

• GOP cuts to Medicaid — which covers 1 in 5 women of reproductive age and 40% of births — are making care even harder to access as clinics close and cut services

• Republicans are gutting women’s health care – closing maternity wards, cutting women’s health services, rolling back loan programs and health care providers, and defunding women-led research and reproductive care

Melinda French Gates got it right: We need to invest in programs that promote women’s health and make access to health care more affordable – programs like Medicaid and the ACA. Instead, Trump and Republicans are gutting them.

Read more:

• USA Today: Melinda French Gates on Women’s Health

• AP: Melinda French Gates’ Pivotal Women’s Health Investment

• Fortune: Melinda French Gates on Women’s Health

💸 “GET A LOAN”: Trump’s Answer to the Health Care Crisis He Created

They doubled your premiums. Now they’re telling you to go into debt.

The New York Times reported that Trump officials are suggesting Americans take out loans from insurance companies if they can’t afford health care — after Republicans made premiums skyrocket.

Leslie Dach, POC Chair: “While working families drown in the high cost of living, the Trump administration’s answer to the health care affordability crisis they created is to throw people an anchor made of medical debt and call it relief. Americans are being bankrupted by crushing medical debt, and this administration isn’t lifting a finger to help — it’s busy shoveling more people into that hole.”

And Mike Johnson wants even MORE cuts:

The Bulwark: “Mike Johnson Just Made a Grave Political Error” — Johnson is pushing for deeper cuts to Medicaid and Social Security.

Off Message: “Republican Lies Undoing” — Exposes the GOP’s long game against Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.

Read more: POC: Republicans Hiked Premiums, Now Trump Officials Suggest Getting a Loan

🏥 HOSPITAL CRISIS WATCH

Kansas now leads the nation with 28 rural hospitals at immediate risk.

This week’s damage:

• California: LA health officials ask state for emergency funds, warning of cuts to medical services

• D.C.: MedStar Washington Hospital Center closing postpartum unit citing “financial pressures”

• Georgia: Board ruling threatens Augusta mental health clinic — “It’s about access to care”

• Illinois: Oak Park closes West Suburban hospital building after last elevator fails

• Indiana: Franklin mom delivers one of the last babies at JMH before maternity closure

• Kansas: State leads nation with 28 rural hospitals at immediate risk

• Kentucky: 1,000+ patients losing access to special needs clinic; Beshear blames budget cuts

• Maine: Residents fight potential birthing center closure — “Too important to lose”

• Maryland: Emotions, anger over Union Hospital labor and delivery closure

• Michigan: Kalamazoo nurses rally against proposed Medicaid and Medicare cuts

• New Mexico: Lovelace Health System cuts 43 employees amid “challenging policy environment”

• Ohio: OhioHealth to close maternity unit in Delaware, sparking backlash from nurses

• Pennsylvania: UPMC to lay off 200 employees, cut 300 open positions

• Texas: Rural hospital organization to end contracts with UnitedHealthcare over “unsustainable” rates; BSA Health System reports layoffs

• Virginia: One-third of rural hospitals at risk — lawmakers address crisis

• Wyoming: Six hospitals at risk of closure, health official warns of “economic earthquake”

Hospital CEOs speak out: The damage is “not survivable”

💰 WHILE HOSPITALS CLOSE, ELON MUSK BECOMES A TRILLIONAIRE

The billionaire tax cuts are working — for billionaires.

The New York Times reported that Elon Musk has become the world’s first trillionaire — thanks in part to the tax cuts Republicans passed by gutting health care for millions.

Remember: Republicans cut $1 trillion from Medicaid and the ACA to fund tax breaks for billionaires and corporations. Now billionaires are 30% richer — and hospitals are closing.

💊 TRUMP’S LOOPHOLES UNDERMINE DRUG PRICE NEGOTIATIONS

Big Pharma wins again.

The latest round of Medicare drug price negotiations has been undermined by Trump’s loopholes for big drug companies.

Trump delayed Medicare’s negotiation of cancer drugs Keytruda and Opdivo — costing seniors with cancer $3,000+ per year.

😤 RFK JR. IS “MADDER THAN A BETRAYED MAHA MOM”

Even RFK Jr. is frustrated — but it’s his own chaos.

Our latest Public Health Project newsletter: RFK Jr. Is Madder Than a Betrayed MAHA Mom

Still no permanent FDA Commissioner, CDC Director, or Surgeon General — while Ebola cases may hit 20,000 and measles cases top 2,000.

💸 PREMIUM DISASTER: “A Health Care Bloodbath, With Worse Yet to Come”

The numbers are devastating:

• Premiums up 58% on average

• Deductibles up 37% — the steepest increase ever

• 400,000 Californians, 160,000 Pennsylvanians, 92,000 Illinoisans losing coverage

• Emergency rooms in Indiana seeing double-digit increases in uninsured patients

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “ACA Premiums Are Now Catastrophic”

PennLive: “Medicaid Cuts to Hit Pennsylvania Hospitals — Patients Will Pay the Price”

📊 By The Numbers

992 — hospitals, clinics, nursing homes closing or at risk

28 — Kansas rural hospitals at immediate risk (leads nation)

58% — average premium increase

37% — average deductible increase (steepest ever)

1,000+ — Kentucky patients losing access to special needs clinic

13 — Virginia rural hospitals at risk of closure

$3,000+ — savings lost per cancer patient from Trump delaying drug negotiations

0 — permanent FDA Commissioner, CDC Director, or Surgeon General

📰 Must-Reads

Women’s Health:

• NYT: Women’s Health Care Has Been Neglected

• TIME: Melinda French Gates’ Pivotal Investment

• Ms. Magazine: Menopause Misconceptions

The GOP Agenda:

• The Bulwark: Mike Johnson’s Grave Political Error

• POC: Trump Officials Suggest Getting a Loan

• NYT: Elon Musk on Track to Become Trillionaire

Hospital Crisis:

• KWCH: Kansas Leads Nation With 28 Rural Hospitals at Risk

• POC: Hospital CEOs Say Damage “Not Survivable”

• LA Times: LA Health Officials Ask State for Emergency Funds

✊ What You Can Do

1. Join One Nation, Overcharged → onenationovercharged.com

2. Share this newsletter — Forward to friends and family.

3. Call your representatives — Tell them: Stop the cuts. Stop telling us to take out loans. Fund our hospitals.

4. Tell your story → storytellercorps.com/share

Melinda French Gates is investing in women’s health. Republicans are gutting it. Trump officials are telling you to get a loan. Mike Johnson wants more cuts. And 992 hospitals are closing. The contrast is clear — and voters will remember.

Protect Our Care is fighting to protect and strengthen health care for all.

protectourcare.org | onenationovercharged.com | Subscribe for next week’s dose.

TL;DR: The New York Times revealed RFK Jr. shows “minimal engagement” with his health portfolio — while Ebola may soon hit 20,000 cases, measles surpassed 2,000 cases, and vitamin A poisonings spiked to 38.7% after his “miracle cure” promotion. Sen. Alsobrooks, Lt. Gov. Rodriguez, and Dr. Daskalakis are warning that the HHS leadership void is putting American lives in jeopardy. MAHA moms are losing patience. Cancer patients are being kicked off Medicaid by work requirements. And the affordability crisis is spiraling.

📅 SCAM-IVERSARY COUNTDOWN: Week 2 — The Health Care Affordability Crisis

One year ago, Republicans made the largest health care cuts in history. Now families can barely afford to stay alive.

🗓️ June 1-5: Caregivers Getting Crushed ✓ 🗓️ June 8-12: The Health Care Affordability Crisis ← YOU ARE HERE 🗓️ June 15-19: Hospitals In Crisis 🗓️ June 22-26: Millions Losing Coverage 🗓️ July 4: The Scam-iversary

Since Trump took office, he has:

• Doubled and tripled premiums for millions

• Raised deductibles by 37%

• Robbed 11 million low-income Americans of zero-dollar premiums

• Driven 4.6 million Americans into medical debt

• Delayed Medicare negotiation of cancer drugs that would have saved seniors $3,000+ per year

Read more: One Year Later: The Health Care Affordability Crisis

🚨 RESIGN: RFK Jr. Is “Checked Out” While Americans Die

The New York Times just confirmed what we’ve been saying: RFK Jr. is failing at his job.

The Times reported that RFK Jr. shows “minimal engagement with his vast health portfolio” — even as Ebola spirals, measles spreads, and Americans lose coverage.

The Daily Beast: “Checked Out: RFK Jr. Missing as Agency Spirals”

Common Dreams: Calls for RFK Jr. to resign

This week, Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, and Dr. Demetre Daskalakis joined us to sound the alarm:

The HHS leadership void amid global health threats has put American lives in jeopardy. There’s still no permanent FDA Commissioner, CDC Director, or Surgeon General.

Meanwhile, RFK Jr. has:

• Pushed vitamin A as a measles “miracle cure” — poisonings spiked 38.7%

• Tried to get his “grubby hands” on Americans’ private medical records for an anti-vax fishing expedition

• Used three studies now facing scrutiny to justify controversial vaccine changes

• Ratcheted up his anti-vax agenda to “authoritarian levels”

Read more:

• POC: RESIGN — Kennedy Shows Minimal Engagement

• POC: Sen. Alsobrooks, Lt. Gov. Rodriguez Warn of HHS Leadership Void

🎗️ CANCER PATIENTS KICKED OFF MEDICAID BY WORK REQUIREMENTS

The cruelty is the point.

A new CNN report reveals that cancer patients are losing Medicaid coverage due to Republican work requirements — even though they’re literally fighting for their lives.

The math doesn’t work: If you’re too sick to work, you lose coverage. If you lose coverage, you can’t afford treatment. If you can’t afford treatment, you die.

Remember: UChicago found that work requirements could cause 1 million missed cancer screenings.

And Republicans cry “fraud” to kick seniors out of nursing homes — while Trump pardons actual convicted fraudsters.

😤 EVEN MAHA MOMS ARE “OUT OF PATIENCE”

The base that helped elect Trump is turning on him.

Politico: “The MAHA moms who helped elect Trump are out of patience”

Politico: “RFK Jr.’s movement was supposed to save the GOP’s majorities. It’s not even in the game.”

The mothers who believed Trump and RFK Jr. would “Make America Healthy Again” are watching:

• Premiums double and triple

• Hospitals close

• Kids lose coverage

• Ebola spread unchecked

• Measles cases top 2,000

They voted for health. They got chaos.

🦠 PUBLIC HEALTH CHAOS: Ebola May Hit 20,000 Cases

The outbreaks are multiplying — and no one’s in charge.

Ebola:

• CDC projects cases may top 20,000 in three months

• Doctors are asking: How do you stop Ebola at the World Cup?

• Doctor who’s treated Ebola: “I’m especially worried about this outbreak”

Measles:

• US cases surpass 2,000 for the 2nd year in a row

• Measles and flu — not just Ebola — are front of mind for doctors ahead of World Cup

Screwworm:

• Second cow in Texas confirmed with New World screwworm

• Border closure fueling beef boom in Mexico, gloom in Texas

More HHS chaos:

• Police removed diabetes experts from conference for distributing Trump admin critique

• Civil service protections stripped from thousands of federal health workers

• The Atlantic: Flu vaccines should not be this hard

👶 KIDS ARE LOSING COVERAGE

A new KFF Health News report shows children are being hit hardest.

Kids are losing insurance coverage due to GOP health care cuts — the damage is accelerating.

The numbers:

• 2 million fewer children enrolled in Medicaid since Trump took office

• Uninsured rate for young children rising more sharply than for older children

• Kids’ Medicaid enrollment keeps falling

🏥 HOSPITAL CRISIS WATCH: Hundreds of Facilities Closing or At Risk

The collapse continues.

This week’s damage:

• Alabama: Montgomery’s Jackson Hospital threatens to close by July 1 — CEO calls it “desperate”

• Georgia: Medicaid cuts pushing pediatric clinics to the brink

• Mississippi: Greenwood Leflore Hospital extends closure date to July 31

• Minnesota: Aspirus St. Luke’s ending home health services

• Virginia: One-third of rural hospitals at risk — “We’ve got a crisis,” says lawmaker

• Wisconsin: City on a Hill health clinic closes

Read more: Hospital Crisis Watch: The Clock Is Running Out

💸 AFFORDABILITY CRISIS: Real Stories

These are the faces of the GOP health care crisis:

Pamela Blackstone, Atlanta: Her premiums skyrocketed from $80 to over $400/month while caring for her grandson with autism. “I should not have to make a choice between living, paying my rent or having good health.”

James Davitt, Jacksonville: His premiums went from $1,300 to $4,000/month. His family of four is now completely uninsured. “The only answer for us was to literally not be insured.”

Susan Root, Colorado Springs: Works 16-hour days as a caregiver for her paralyzed daughter. GOP cuts are slashing the income that kept them afloat. “I do it full time, whether I get paid or I don’t get paid, because she has to have care.”

Read more: Faces of the GOP Health Care Crisis

📊 By The Numbers

20,000 — Ebola cases projected in 3 months (CDC)

2,000+ — US measles cases (2nd year in a row)

38.7% — spike in vitamin A poisonings after RFK Jr.’s promotion

37% — average deductible increase for ACA enrollees

4.6 million — Americans driven into medical debt

0 — permanent FDA Commissioner, CDC Director, or Surgeon General

📰 Must-Reads

RFK Jr. Exposed:

• NYT: Kennedy Shows Minimal Engagement With Vast Health Portfolio

• Daily Beast: Checked Out — RFK Jr. Missing as Agency Spirals

• Politico: MAHA Moms Who Helped Elect Trump Are Out of Patience

Affordability Crisis:

• POC: One Year Later — The Health Care Affordability Crisis

• CNN: Medicaid Work Requirements Hit Cancer Patients

• POC: Premium Disaster Watch

Public Health:

• NYT: Ebola Cases May Top 20,000 in Three Months

• ABC: US Measles Cases Surpass 2,000

• KFF Health News: Kids Lose Insurance Coverage

✊ What You Can Do

1. Join One Nation, Overcharged → onenationovercharged.com

2. Share this newsletter — Forward to friends and family.

   Share

3. Call your representatives — Tell them: RFK Jr. must resign. Stop the cuts. Lower costs.

4. Tell your story → storytellercorps.com/share

RFK Jr. is checked out. Ebola is spiraling. Cancer patients are losing coverage. The MAHA moms are out of patience. And we’re counting down to the scam-iversary. Voters will remember.

Protect Our Care is fighting to protect and strengthen health care for all.

protectourcare.org | onenationovercharged.com | Subscribe for next week’s dose.

Subscribe now

TL;DR: It’s been nearly one year since Trump and Republicans gutted $1 trillion from health care. This June, we’re counting down to the July 4th “scam-iversary” with weekly themes exposing the damage: This week: Caregivers Getting Crushed. 63 million Americans care for family members — and Republicans just made it impossible. Plus: 2 million fewer children on Medicaid, Dr. Oz lying about hospital closures, and a Kenyan court blocking Trump’s Ebola quarantine plan.

📅 THE COUNTDOWN BEGINS: One Year of the GOP Health Care Crisis

One year ago, Donald Trump and Republicans jammed through the largest health care cuts in history.

They gutted Medicaid. They slashed the ACA. They handed billionaires another massive tax break. Experts warned the consequences would be catastrophic. They were right.

Brad Woodhouse, POC President: “Republicans created this crisis, they own every consequence, and we will make sure voters remember every lawmaker who voted for this devastation.”

This June, we’re taking this fight directly to the American people:

🗓️ June 1-5: Caregivers Getting Crushed ← YOU ARE HERE
🗓️ June 8-12: The Health Care Affordability Crisis
🗓️ June 15-19: Hospitals In Crisis
🗓️ June 22-26: Millions Losing Coverage
🗓️ July 4: The Scam-iversary

Read more about the countdown

👨‍👩‍👧 THIS WEEK: Caregivers Getting Crushed Under GOP Cuts

63 million Americans care for family members, friends, or neighbors. Republicans just made their lives impossible.

Nearly 1 in 4 Americans is a caregiver. Over 80% are caring for a family member — typically a parent or spouse. 7.3 million caregivers rely on Medicaid for their own health coverage. And Republicans just gutted it.

By the numbers:

• 7.3 million caregivers use Medicaid for coverage

• 1 in 5 caregivers report poor or fair health

• 47% are in the “sandwich generation” — caring for kids AND aging parents

• 7 in 10 also have a paid job; half experience negative work impacts

• 5 million could lose coverage from work requirements alone

The human cost:

Melissa Gonce, Maryland: She cares for her 28-year-old son Jason, who has disabilities. Medicaid lets her be his caregiver instead of sending him to a program that failed him. Now she’s facing an $18,000 cut. “Now I’m faced with a huge decision. Will she be able to weather the cuts and keep her son at home — or be forced to send him back?” (NBC News)

Stacy Staggs, North Carolina: Her daughter Emma relies on Medicaid for the formula that keeps her alive, plus therapies, nurses, and supplies. “If we get to a place where we’re no longer eligible, I can start a timer on how much longer Emma will be alive. That’s the end of it. It’s not abstract. It’s not hyperbole.” (USA Today)

Read more: One Year Later: Caregivers Getting Crushed Under GOP Cuts

🩸 “HEALTHCARE BLOODBATH”: The Republican Catastrophe Hits Home

The headlines are brutal — and they’re getting worse.

LA Times: “Republican Assault on Obamacare Has Created Healthcare Bloodbath”

USA Today: “Trump Couldn’t Kill Obamacare, So He Made It More Expensive”

Vox: “The ACA Marketplace Is in Crisis”

What’s happening across America:

• Arizona: Families relying on at-home disability services are bracing for cuts that would upend daily care

• California: Rural clinics say federal grants can’t come close to replacing Medicaid funding

• Massachusetts: Health leaders scrambling to prevent 300,000 people from losing coverage

• Pennsylvania: A “quickly unfolding healthcare catastrophe”

• Wisconsin: ER doctors warning GOP Medicaid cuts “will hurt Wisconsinites”

NBC News: “Families Caring for Disabled Relatives Face Unthinkable Choices”

The consequences are spiraling: Missed cancer screenings. Rising untreated mental illness. Worsening outcomes for people with disabilities and chronic conditions. American families are paying the price.

🛒 61% OF AMERICANS ARE CUTTING GROCERIES

And Trump said he doesn’t think about your financial situation “even a little bit.”

A new New York Times report found that 61% of Americans are cutting back on groceries to stay within their budgets. More than three-quarters of Americans — including 55% of Republicans — say Trump’s policies have increased their cost of living.

The connection is clear:

Health care costs are crushing families. Premiums doubled. Deductibles spiked by over $1,000. Millions have been priced out of coverage entirely. And when families can’t afford health care, they cut everything else — including food.

Trump’s response? “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation.”

Read more:

• NYT: Nearly Two-Thirds of Americans Are Cutting Back on Groceries

• USA Today: Trump Couldn’t Kill Obamacare, So He Made It More Expensive

👶 2 MILLION FEWER CHILDREN ON MEDICAID SINCE TRUMP TOOK OFFICE

A new Georgetown report confirms the damage to kids.

Since Trump took office, 2 million fewer children are enrolled in Medicaid. That’s 2 million kids who may be going without checkups, vaccinations, dental care, and treatment for chronic conditions.

Meanwhile:

• Axios reports kids’ Medicaid enrollment “keeps falling”

• UChicago found Medicaid work requirements could cause 1 million missed cancer screenings

• States are scrambling to implement work requirements that will kick more people off

Read more:

• Georgetown: Two Million Fewer Children Enrolled in Medicaid

• Georgetown: Uninsured Rate for Young Children Rose More Sharply

🤥 DR. OZ IS LYING ABOUT HOSPITAL CLOSURES

He visited Iowa and claimed cuts “will not have any impact on hospitals.” The hospitals closing say otherwise.

CMS Administrator Dr. Oz toured an Iowa children’s hospital this week and claimed GOP health care cuts “will not have any impact on hospitals until next year. None.”

The reality:

• Iowa hospitals are expected to lose $8.9 billion in Medicaid funding

• Hospitals and clinics are already announcing closures — some explicitly citing Medicaid cuts

• The Rural Health Transformation grant covers barely 10% of the funding gap

Dr. Oz is lying through his teeth while families lose access to the health care providers they depend on.

🦠 PUBLIC HEALTH CHAOS: Ebola, Measles, Hantavirus — And No One Is In Charge

The Ebola crisis is getting worse — and Trump’s response is a disaster.

The latest:

• A Kenyan court blocked the U.S. plan to quarantine American Ebola patients in Africa

• Americans who get Ebola will now go to Europe for treatment — not the U.S.

• Trump administration on “collision course” with WHO over travel bans

• The Atlantic: “The U.S. Is Winging This Ebola Outbreak”

• The Bulwark: “Ebola Veterans Are Aghast at Trump’s Plan”

Meanwhile, other outbreaks are spreading:

• Measles still spreading in Florida; Texas outbreak analysis shows “just how dangerous virus is”

• Hantavirus dispute growing over home monitoring of passengers

• Trump orders agencies to align with study calling for narrower childhood vaccine recommendations

And RFK Jr. keeps making it worse:

• FactCheck.org: A Timeline of RFK Jr.’s Mixed Messaging on the Measles Vaccine

• Progressive Policy Institute: New Report Details RFK Jr.’s Record of Breaking Health Promises

• HuffPost: RFK Jr. Says ‘The War On Protein Is Over.’ Is The War In The Room With Us?

Read more:

• WaPo: Kenya Court Blocks U.S. Plan to Keep American Ebola Patients in Africa

• NBC: Americans With Ebola Will Go to Europe, Not U.S.

• The Atlantic: The U.S. Is Winging This Ebola Outbreak

• STAT: Trump Administration Veers From Previous Government Playbook

• NYT: Inside the Ebola Epicenter, the Virus Rages

• AP: Trump Tells Agencies to Align With Narrower Vaccine Recommendations

🏥 HOSPITAL CRISIS WATCH: 983 Facilities Closing or At Risk

The collapse is accelerating — approaching 1,000 facilities.

This week’s closures and cuts:

• Arkansas: Washington Regional cutting 80+ jobs amid “mounting financial pressures”

• Florida: Gainesville Planned Parenthood shutting down next month

• Georgia: Therapy Works closing as Medicaid company cuts reimbursement by 20%

• Missouri: CareSTL furloughs entire staff — third temporary closure this year

• New York: Jennie B. Richmond Nursing Home closing; Columbia Memorial Hospital cutting beds; Newark-Wayne birthing center closure sparks outcry

• Pennsylvania: Pyramid Healthcare Allentown outpatient center closes after tragedies

• Tennessee: Mayor Wamp defends shuttering county health and dental clinics

Total facilities closing, making cuts, or at risk: 983

The headlines are devastating:

• Politico: Loans Bought California Hospitals Time. The Clock Is Running Out.

• South Side Weekly: Federal Cuts Threaten Safety-Net Hospitals on Chicago’s South Side

• Jersey Vindicator: Jersey City’s Only Remaining Hospital at Capacity After Heights Closure

• Up North News: “Tone-Deaf Tiffany” Sacrificing Rural Hospitals for Billionaire Tax Cuts

• MarketWatch: Cancer Treatment Already Costs Hundreds of Thousands — It’s About to Get Worse

Bright spots are rare: Rhode Island invested $1.6M to save Newport Hospital birthing center; Watsonville Community Hospital (CA) received $10.6M grant; Patrick County (VA) opened a new rural health clinic.

🌏 NEW FACT SHEET: AAPI Communities Hit Hard

This week, Rep. Grace Meng and APIAHF CEO Juliet Choi joined us to spotlight the impact on Asian American and Pacific Islander communities.

• 41% of AAPI adults say health care costs are the most important problem facing their families

• 55% of AAPI individuals oppose Republican health care cuts

• Nearly 5 million people in AAPI communities face steep premium hikes or loss of coverage

Read the fact sheet here.

📊 By The Numbers

61% — Americans cutting back on groceries

2 million — fewer children enrolled in Medicaid since Trump took office

$8.9 billion — Medicaid funding Iowa hospitals will lose

1 million — cancer screenings that could be missed due to work requirements

300,000 — Massachusetts residents scrambling to keep coverage

983 — hospitals, clinics, nursing homes closing or at risk

0 — permanent FDA Commissioner, CDC Director, or Surgeon General

📰 Must-Reads

The Catastrophe:

• LA Times: Republican Assault on Obamacare Has Created Healthcare Bloodbath

• USA Today: Trump Couldn’t Kill Obamacare, So He Made It More Expensive

• Vox: The ACA Marketplace Is in Crisis

Ebola & Public Health:

• The Atlantic: The U.S. Is Winging This Ebola Outbreak

• NBC: Americans With Ebola Will Go to Europe, Not U.S.

• AP: Trump Orders Narrower Childhood Vaccine Recommendations

Hospital Crisis:

• Politico: Loans Bought California Hospitals Time. The Clock Is Running Out.

• South Side Weekly: Federal Cuts Threaten Safety-Net Hospitals

• KQED: What the Massive Medicaid Cuts Mean for Your Health Care

The Human Cost:

• NYT: 61% of Americans Cutting Back on Groceries

• Georgetown: 2 Million Fewer Children on Medicaid

• NBC: Families Face “Unthinkable Choices”

✊ What You Can Do

1. Join One Nation, Overcharged → onenationovercharged.com

2. Share this newsletter — Forward to friends and family.

   Share

3. Call your representatives — Tell them: Stop the cuts. Lower costs. Hold Trump accountable.

4. Tell your story → storytellercorps.com/share

Trump said he doesn’t think about your financial situation. 61% of Americans are cutting groceries to survive. 2 million kids have lost Medicaid. The bloodbath is real — and voters will remember.

Protect Our Care is fighting to protect and strengthen health care for all.

protectourcare.org | onenationovercharged.com | Subscribe for next week’s dose.

Subscribe now

That’s how Rep. Grace Meng describes H.R. 1 — the law that delivered the largest cut to Medicaid in American history to bankroll tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations. More than 4 million Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders are enrolled in Medicaid — nearly 20% of the entire AAPI community — and they’re now squarely in the path of these cuts.

In this AAPI Heritage Month conversation, Protect Our Care’s Vaishu Jawahar sits down with Rep. Grace Meng, Chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC), and Juliet Choi, President and CEO of the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum (APIAHF), for a wide-ranging discussion that moves from their own immigrant family stories to the policy fights ahead. Meng, born and raised in Queens to parents who ran a restaurant, and Choi, a civil rights lawyer and proud daughter of Korean immigrants, bring the lived experience behind the numbers.

They talk through what the cuts mean for the community’s deep tradition of caring for elders, for the over 3 million AAPI-owned small businesses facing roughly 75% higher premiums, and for the legal immigrants — refugees, asylees, trafficking and domestic violence survivors — newly made ineligible for Medicaid. They dig into the rollback of language access protections, the persistent “model minority myth” that erases real health disparities, and why AAPI voices need to be at the policymaking table.

And they close on resilience — why, as Meng puts it, AAPI communities are “just as American as everyone else,” and have overcome far worse.

This AAPI Heritage Month, watch the full conversation.

These men had two things in common: they had diagnosed schizophrenic disorders, and their treatments had been under the supervision of a Medicaid-reimbursed program known as Assertive Community Treatment, or ACT.

Through ACT, teams of mental health professionals are paid to provide intensive care to those individuals with the most severe mental illnesses. They develop relationships, perform regular check-ins, and ensure that their patients take their prescribed medications.

But that all changed after Republicans passed their so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill” last July – a budget reconciliation package which gutted more than $1 trillion from Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, and which forced widespread cuts to critical public and mental health services across the country.

Today, Medicaid is the nation’s largest payer of mental health services. Nearly a third of adults living with a mental illness receive care via Medicaid funded services, as do nearly half of all adults with opioid use disorder.

So, when Republicans passed their tax bill, it pulled the rug out from under millions of Americans living with the most serious mental health conditions in the country.

The cuts made to Medicaid and the ACA forced many states to make a decision: cut their services or fall into deficit spending.

In Idaho, where the state’s Constitution explicitly prohibits deficit spending and where a series of federal income tax cuts reduced state revenue by $1.3 billion annually, Republican lawmakers directed all state agencies to reduce spending by 3 percent.

Magellan, the state’s Medicaid contractor administering the Idaho Behavioral Health Plan, eliminated ACT to meet its target.

Without ACT, patients stopped getting the help they needed. Some harmed themselves. Some threatened community members. Some resurfaced in prisons, mental health institutions, or emergency rooms. Some disappeared entirely. Four died.

Lorenzo Pahvitse-Rodriguez, 45, died of respiratory failure stemming from an infection related to a dental procedure. Without regular medication, his delusions worsened and prevented him from receiving the medical care that could have cured the infection and saved his life.

Carl Adair, 49, who had been receiving treatment via a long-acting injectable antipsychotic, was found curled up on the floor, cell phone in hand, by police. Without his regularly administered dose, he relapsed into his psychosis and was unable to care for himself. He died of bronchial pneumonia and sepsis.

Jesse Turnipseed, 36, was found curled up in a “trash-choked closed where he liked to sleep” by his brother. His cause of death was positional asphyxiation.

A fourth man, unnamed and in his 40s, suffered from delusions which, when untreated, led him to believe that the government was trying to poison him. The care provider assigned to his case told the New York Times: “That was the belief. The government made the yellow pill, so he wasn’t going to take the yellow pill.” His cause of death has not yet been released.

All of these tragedies were both predictable and preventable.

Lawmakers, care providers and community members warned that cutting this program would have serious repercussions – and it did.

After services ended, involuntary psychiatric commitments more than doubled in one Idaho county, and crisis centers reported a 28 percent spike in demand.

To make matters worse, the $4 million cost of running ACT did not disappear when the program was eliminated – it simply shifted. To jails. To emergency rooms. To police intervention. Then to morgues.

Idaho has since voted to restore ACT for one year, funded by one-time settlement money. But restoration is not the same as recovery.

Staff have to be rehired. Patients have to be found – providers say some are simply in the wind. Trust, once broken, takes years to rebuild. And one-time settlement money cannot sustain a program that needs to exist permanently. The families of the four men who died do not get their loved ones back.

What happened in Idaho is not an isolated incident; it is the leading edge of a national crisis Republicans manufactured.

Across the country, families are watching the clinics they count on close their doors, the therapists they trust stop taking their insurance, and the treatment programs that kept their loved ones alive disappear.

Since the passage of the big, ugly bill, more than 900 hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, and other critical providers have shut down, cut their services, or are at imminent risk of doing so. At least 55 mental health clinics, behavioral health facilities, and inpatient psychiatric units have already closed their doors.

An estimated 156,000 Americans will soon lose access to opioid use disorder treatment. As a result, overdose rates among users are expected to double, killing roughly 1,000 more Americans every year.

Children, too, will pay a price. The American Academy of Pediatrics has declared youth mental health a national emergency – and yet, the big, ugly bill gutted funding from the program that pays for mental health care for 37 million children. That’s nearly half of all children in America.

This is the reality of the Republican war on health care. Preventable death and preventable suffering.

Schizophrenia is a serious illness, but it is ultimately a treatable one. ACT was working.

The program was cut not because it failed, or even because it was fiscally inefficient. It was cut because Congressional Republicans and the President of the United States decided tax cuts for the wealthiest people in this country matter more than the lives of their constituents.

This has been The Waiting Room, Protect Our Care’s storyteller series on the real-world impact of health care policy decisions in Washington. If you or someone you love has been hurt by Republican health care cuts, we want to hear from you:

Share Your Story

TL;DR: The Ebola outbreak could become the “deadliest on record” — and Trump’s response is sending exposed Americans to Kenya while CDC asks staff to volunteer for airport screenings. At home, 974 hospitals are closing or at risk. RFK Jr. is attacking mammograms now. And today, One Nation, Overcharged launches — a people-powered movement to demand health care that puts people over profits. Join us.

🚀 LAUNCHING TODAY: One Nation, Overcharged

We’re joining our partners at One Nation, Overcharged to launch a people-powered movement.

Today, One Nation, Overcharged is launching a nationwide campaign to demand a health care system that puts people over corporate profits.

What it is: A summer-long campaign bringing together people from across the country and all walks of life to make the call for a health care system that puts people first impossible to ignore.

The message: Health care should be a right — not a luxury. And it’s past time for those in power to hold unchecked health care corporations accountable.

How to join:

📱 Follow: @onenationovercharged on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, X, Bluesky, and YouTube

✍️ Join the fight: Sign up to get campaign updates

📣 Take action: Here are some ways you can get involved today

By signing up, speaking up, and showing up, you can send a clear message to Washington: Americans deserve a health care system that works for everyone.

🦠 EBOLA EMERGENCY: Could Become “Deadliest on Record” — Trump Official Called It a “Scam”

The outbreak is getting worse. Trump’s response is getting more chaotic.

The International Rescue Committee is now warning the Ebola outbreak could become the “deadliest on record.” A U.S. doctor was just evacuated from Congo and described feeling “helpless” watching colleagues die.

Trump’s chaotic response:

• Sending exposed Americans to a quarantine facility in Kenya instead of bringing them home

• CDC asking staff to volunteer for airport screenings (because they gutted the workforce)

• A Trump official once called Ebola a “scam”

• Still no permanent FDA Commissioner, CDC Director, or Surgeon General

And there’s more:

• Hantavirus is spreading — RFK Jr. offering “legal shields” for experimental treatments

• 8 former CDC directors are begging Trump not to dismantle PEPFAR HIV/AIDS relief

This is what a gutted public health system looks like in a crisis.

Read more:

• ABC: Ebola Outbreak Risks Becoming “Deadliest on Record”

• WaPo: Doctor Evacuated From Congo Feels “Helpless”

• NYT: Trump to Send Exposed Americans to Kenya

• Bloomberg: CDC Asks Staff to Volunteer for Airport Screenings

• Mother Jones: Trump Official Called Ebola a “Scam”

🤡 RFK JR. WATCH: Now He’s Coming for Mammograms

First vaccines. Now cancer screenings.

RFK Jr. fired the leaders of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force — the independent panel that sets guidelines for cancer screenings, including mammograms.

NYT op-ed by fired experts: “Firing Cancer Screening Experts Will Not Make Us Healthy Again”

Ars Technica: “First Vaccines, Now Mammograms? RFK Jr.’s Latest Firings Have Doctors Outraged.”

Also this week in MAHA chaos:

• RFK Jr.’s push to curb antidepressants has “shaken psychiatry” (NYT)

• Natural food colors embraced by MAHA linked to health problems (WSJ)

• FDA still in turmoil — covert campaign pushed out Commissioner Makary

• Relief group phasing out vaccines RFK Jr. believes are “unsafe”

• Some MAHA backers growing “frustrated” with Trump’s health policies

The hospital that said RFK Jr. operated a robotic arm during heart surgery? They clarified: he didn’t. (The Hill)

🏥 HOSPITAL CRISIS WATCH: 974 Facilities Closing or At Risk

The collapse continues — now approaching 1,000 facilities.

This week’s damage:

• California: SF youth clinic closing after Trump bill causes $306M in city budget cuts; LA County pushing Measure ER sales tax to save hospitals

• Wyoming: Hoskinson Health Clinic — the $250M “Mayo Clinic of the West” — closing after just 3 years

• Illinois: Faith leaders, doctors demanding West Suburban Medical Center reopen; Oak Park leaders “demand answers”

• Maine: Houlton Regional Hospital nurses on four-day strike over staffing

• Maryland: Public meeting June 11 on Union Hospital birthing center closure

• Rhode Island: Care New England cuts 30 positions; pressure mounts to save Newport birthing center

• Missouri: Rural hospitals warn $50B in grants won’t offset federal cuts

Total facilities closing or at risk: 974

The headlines tell the story:

• SF Chronicle: SF Youth Clinic to Close After Trump Bill Causes $306M Cuts

• Chicago Tribune: Faith Leaders Press for West Suburban Reopening

• The Street: Cardano Founder’s “Mayo Clinic of the West” Shuts Down

• Cancer Nursing Today: How Rural Hospital Closures Are Impacting Oncology Care

🎭 TRUMP’S GASLIGHTING TOUR CONTINUES

This week: “Health Care Affordability Events” while Americans can’t afford care.

Trump held multiple events this week trying to pretend he’s lowering health care costs. Meanwhile:

• 65% of Americans disapprove of his handling of health care (worst this century)

• Millions are dropping coverage they can’t afford

• TrumpRx is a “publicity stunt” that won’t save most Americans a penny

Brad Woodhouse, POC President: “Trump can lie all he wants, but you can’t gaslight Americans who are struggling to pay their medical bills. These health care affordability events are an insult to the American people.”

Also: Trump visited Rep. Mike Lawler’s district in the Hudson Valley — where Lawler’s vote cut Medicaid coverage from 37,000 constituents.

🤖 NEW THREAT: AI to Deny Seniors’ Medical Care

Senate Democrats are fighting back.

The Trump administration wants to use Artificial Intelligence to automatically deny seniors’ Medicare coverage for treatments their doctors prescribed.

Senate Democrats, led by Sen. Ron Wyden, introduced a resolution to stop it.

Leslie Dach, POC Chair: “Trump, RFK Jr., and Dr. Oz concocted this wild experiment for one purpose: to rip care away from the seniors who need it the most. Will Senate Republicans allow AI to deny seniors the procedures their doctors prescribe, or will they put an end to this madness?”

🌍 NEW REPORT: Trump’s Pro-Polluter Agenda Making Americans Sicker

Climate Power and Protect Our Care released a joint report:

Trump gutted pollution protections, exposing families to dangerous toxins that fuel asthma and other illnesses — at the same time, he’s stripping them of affordable health care.

The report shows how Trump delivered for his Big Oil donors (remember the Mar-a-Lago billion-dollar deal?) while leaving everyday Americans to pay with more hospital visits, more sick days, and unaffordable care.

🗺️ IN THE STATES

Colorado: Medicaid patient Lydia Cruz op-ed: “I was informed by my physical therapist that Colorado was making 2% cuts to Medicaid reimbursements... my therapist may be unable to continue seeing Medicaid patients.”

Michigan: Rep. Debbie Dingell event on state impact report.

New York: Rally ahead of Trump’s visit to Rep. Lawler’s district. Zach Disador (Arc of Mid-Hudson): “Cuts to Medicaid will be devastating for families who depend on these programs to live with dignity and independence.”

North Carolina: Rep. Phil Rubin: “Cutting Medicaid does not make health care costs go away. It just moves them somewhere else.” State facing $35.4 billion in cuts.

Ohio: Report shows 500,000+ Ohioans could lose Medicaid. State facing $33 billion in cuts.

Virginia: Speaker Don Scott: “Nearly $29 billion cut from Virginia’s Medicaid program. More than 260,000 Virginians projected to lose insurance. Sixteen hospitals at risk.”

Wisconsin: Rep. Robin Vining op-ed on mental health clinic closures.

📊 By The Numbers

974 — hospitals, clinics, nursing homes closing or at risk

65% — Trump’s health care disapproval (worst this century)

3rd largest — Ebola outbreak in recorded history

$1 trillion — cut from Medicaid and the ACA

15 million — Americans at risk of losing coverage

0 — permanent FDA Commissioner, CDC Director, or Surgeon General

📰 Must-Reads

Ebola Crisis:

• CNN: Trump Admin Shutting Researchers Out of Global Response

• NYT: I Survived Ebola. This Is What Scares Me Most.

• WaPo: Aid Cuts Left Responders Ill-Equipped

RFK Jr. Chaos:

• NYT: Firing Cancer Screening Experts Will Not Make Us Healthy

• NYT: Kennedy’s Push to Curb Antidepressants Has Shaken Psychiatry

• PBS: Some MAHA Backers Grow Frustrated

Hospital Crisis:

• Cowboy State Daily: Gillette’s $250M Clinic “No Longer Financially Sustainable”

• CBS Baltimore: Cecil County’s Sole Birthing Center Closing

✊ What You Can Do

1. JOIN ONE NATION, OVERCHARGED → Follow @onenationovercharged → Sign up at onenationovercharged.com

2. Share this newsletter — Forward to friends and family.

Share

3. Call your representatives — Demand they restore funding, stop the cuts, and hold Trump accountable.

4. Tell your story → storytellercorps.com/share

Ebola is spreading. Hospitals are closing. Trump doesn’t care. But we do — and today, we’re launching a movement to fight back.

Protect Our Care is fighting to protect and strengthen health care for all.

protectourcare.org | onenationovercharged.com | Subscribe for next week’s dose.

Subscribe now

Trump said the quiet part out loud: “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation.” Meanwhile, 55% of ACA enrollees are cutting food to afford insurance. Trump hit 65% disapproval on health care — the worst of any president this century. And the WHO just declared Ebola a global emergency while HHS has no permanent FDA commissioner, CDC director, or Surgeon General. The chaos is the point.

TL;DR: Trump admitted he doesn’t think about your financial situation “even a little bit” — while 8 in 10 ACA enrollees say costs are higher, and over half are cutting food to pay for insurance. His health care disapproval hit 65%, the worst for any president this century. Hospital closures reached 955 facilities. The WHO declared Ebola a global health emergency — and Trump and RFK’s HHS has no permanent FDA commissioner, CDC director, or Surgeon General. This is what collapse looks like.

🎯 TRUMP SAYS THE QUIET PART OUT LOUD: “I Don’t Think About Americans’ Financial Situation”

He doesn’t care. He admitted it.

When asked whether Americans’ financial struggles factor into his decisions, Trump said:

“Not even a little bit… I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation. I don’t think about anybody.”

Meanwhile, for those Americans he doesn’t think about:

• 73% say health care affordability is a “very big problem”

• 8 in 10 ACA enrollees say costs are higher this year

  • 55% are cutting spending on food to afford health insurance

  • 1 in 10 dropped coverage entirely and are now uninsured

Priscilla Brown, 48, from Florida: “Sometimes I don’t even take my medicine.” She’s rationing her insulin — taking half or a third of her dose — just to stretch it out longer.

Eric LeVasseur, 63, from California: When his premiums nearly tripled to $1,200/month, “it was not something my budget could absorb.” He dropped coverage entirely.

Pamela Blackstone, a grandma from Atlanta: “I should not have to make a choice between living, paying my rent, or having good health.” Her premiums skyrocketed from $80 to $412/month.

This is who Trump doesn’t think about. Not even a little bit.

Read more:

• Protect Our Care: Trump Shrugs Off Americans

• PBS: Many Americans Plan to Cut Food to Afford Insurance

• Protect Our Care: Premium Disaster Watch

📉 65% DISAPPROVAL: Worst Health Care Numbers for Any President This Century

Per CNN’s Harry Enten:

“Donald Trump, 65% disapproval on health care. That is the highest for any president this century.”

The American people have noticed:

• Trump gutted Medicaid and ended ACA tax credits

• He handed HHS to an anti-vaxxer

• Millions are losing coverage

• Hospitals are closing

• And now he admits he doesn’t think about them “even a little bit”

Voters won’t forget in November.

Read more:

• POC: Latest Polls Show Health Care Will Be Trump’s Undoing

• POC: New Numbers — Millions Dropping Coverage

🧠 MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS MONTH: Republicans Are Waging War on Care

It’s Mental Health Awareness Month — and Republicans just closed 26 mental health clinics in Arkansas alone.

Trump and Republicans slashed $1 trillion from Medicaid — the single largest payer for mental health services in America. The consequences are devastating:

• 26 Arisa Health clinics closed in Arkansas (41 counties affected)

• Crisis services ending across rural communities

• Mental health providers being pushed to the breaking point

• Patients have nowhere to go

The stats:

• 1 in 5 Americans lives with a mental health condition

• Medicaid covers nearly 30% of all adults with mental illness

• Medicaid covers 50% of children with mental health needs

Republicans knew these cuts would destroy mental health care. They did it anyway.

Read our fact sheet: This Mental Health Awareness Month, Trump and Republicans Are Waging War on Care

🦠 EBOLA OUTBREAK: WHO Declares Global Emergency — HHS Has No Leadership

This is what a vacant, dysfunctional HHS looks like in a crisis.

The World Health Organization just declared the Ebola outbreak in Congo and Uganda a global public health emergency. Americans in the Congo have been exposed to suspected cases.

Meanwhile, Trump’s HHS:

• No permanent FDA Commissioner

• No permanent CDC Director

• No Surgeon General

• Top drug regulator just fired

• RFK ally Tracy Beth Hoeg fired from FDA

• NIH staffing shortage slashing new grants

• CDC’s role in global HIV program cut

This is unprecedented and untenable. We’re facing a global health emergency with no one at the helm.

The chaos:

• RFK Jr.’s allies are being ousted

• FDA leadership in turmoil over abortion politics and flavored vapes

• HHS making it easier to fire career staff

• The administration is scrambling to “stabilize” Kennedy’s HHS before midterms

Read more:

• POC: Vacant and Dysfunctional HHS at the Worst Time

• POC: No Permanent FDA, CDC, or Surgeon General Is Unprecedented

• NYT: W.H.O. Declares Ebola Outbreak a Global Health Emergency

• Bloomberg: Ebola Spread Shows Deadly Cost of Aid Retreat

🏥 HOSPITAL CRISIS WATCH: 957 Facilities Closing or At Risk

More maternity wards are becoming “birthing deserts.”

This week’s damage:

• Alabama: Providence Hospital labor and delivery unit shutting down — “It kind of just blindsided us,” said one expectant mother

• California: Lawmakers rush $25 million emergency fund for at-risk hospitals

• Florida: New birthing center proposed after closure leaves moms delivering miles away

• Iowa: River Hills Community Health Center closing two clinics

• Kansas: Ashley Clinic closes

• Michigan: Planned Parenthood seeks $5M to avoid clinic closures

• Minnesota: Madelia’s hospital “running out of money — and options”

• New York: Wayne County joins Yates and Seneca as “birthing desert”; Newark-Wayne maternity closing; torture survivor program shuttering

Total facilities closing or at risk: 957

Headlines:

• Axios: Hospitals That Take the Sickest Patients Are Closing

• Modern Healthcare: Where Struggling Rural Hospitals Are Finding Capital

• Becker’s: The Hospitals Cutting Jobs in 2026

🗺️ IN THE STATES

Alaska: Rep. Genevieve Mina: “More than 17,000 Alaskans have already lost their health coverage... another 29,000 could lose Medicaid coverage by 2034.” State facing $2 billion in cuts over the next decade.

Arizona: Rep. Stephanie Stahl Hamilton: “Arizona kids, seniors, veterans, and working families relying on Medicaid are not the problem. These cuts are about paying for tax giveaways to the richest Americans.” State facing $34 billion in cuts.

New Hampshire: Dr. Marie Ramas op-ed: “Medicaid is infrastructure and we should treat it that way.”

New York: Rally at Good Samaritan Hospital to hold Rep. Mike Lawler accountable. Mark Hannay: “Working families across the Hudson Valley will pay the price through higher costs, longer wait times, and reduced access to care.”

📊 By The Numbers

65% — Trump’s health care disapproval (worst this century)

73% — Americans who say health care affordability is a “very big problem”

55% — ACA enrollees cutting food to afford insurance

8 in 10 — ACA enrollees with higher costs this year

1 in 10 — who dropped coverage entirely

955 — hospitals, clinics, nursing homes closing or at risk

0 — permanent FDA Commissioner, CDC Director, or Surgeon General

📰 Must-Reads

Trump’s Confession:

• POC: “I Don’t Think About Americans’ Financial Situation”

• PBS: Many Americans Plan to Cut Food to Afford Insurance

HHS Chaos:

• WaPo: RFK Jr. Promised Outsiders. Now Many Are Gone.

• NYT: Top Drug Regulator Fired From FDA

• CNN: Trump Administration Rushes to Steady HHS Before Midterms

Ebola:

• NYT: WHO Declares Ebola a Global Health Emergency

• STAT: Americans in Congo Exposed to Suspected Ebola Cases

✊ What You Can Do

1. Share Trump’s quote — “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation. Not even a little bit.” Let everyone know.

2. Call your representatives — Demand they restore ACA tax credits and stop the Medicaid cuts.

3. Share this newsletter — Forward to friends and family.

   Share

4. Tell your story → storytellercorps.com/share

Trump admitted he doesn’t think about you. Voters will think about him in November.

Protect Our Care is fighting to protect and strengthen health care for all.

protectourcare.org | Subscribe for next week’s dose.

Subscribe now

TL;DR: Our new report shows how GOP Medicaid cuts are devastating state budgets — Wisconsin alone faces $7 billion in losses over the next decade. Hospital Crisis Watch hit 946 facilities as Arkansas shuttered 26 mental health clinics in one week. Meanwhile, Republicans voted for billions for Trump’s ballroom and ICE while blocking efforts to lower health care costs. And RFK Jr. said child deaths are “acceptable” in service to his anti-vax agenda.

🚨 NEW REPORT: GOP Cuts Are Blowing Holes in State Budgets

“Cruelty with a price tag.”

This week, Protect Our Care brought together state leaders from across the country to expose the devastation of Republican health care cuts:

• Wisconsin Lt. Governor Sara Rodriguez

• Colorado Lt. Governor Dianne Primavera

• Virginia Secretary of Health Marvin Figueroa

• Pennsylvania Secretary of Human Services Valerie Arkoosh

• Former CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure

• Former Medicaid Director Daniel Tsai

What our report found:

States are scrambling to plug massive budget holes, weighing tax increases to keep hospitals open, cutting services for seniors and children with disabilities, and even considering rolling back Medicaid expansion altogether.

Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez (WI): “Republicans found the money for billionaire tax breaks. They couldn’t find it for a kid’s inhaler. Health care is not a talking point. It’s whether a mom can afford her kids’ medicine. It’s whether a grandmother can pay for that hospital bill and groceries in the same week. It’s whether your hospital in town is still open when you need it.”

Secretary Marvin Figueroa (VA): “I’m thinking about the families in Norfolk who are working two or three jobs. I’m thinking about the families in Marion, Virginia, who are having to figure out how to put food on the table. It feels like a betrayal in many ways.”

Secretary Valerie Arkoosh (PA): “Never have we faced a threat quite as grave as what the federal government has forced on states. I hear the anxiety and fear in the voices of Pennsylvanians and providers. H.R. 1 is putting our entire health care system at risk.”

Former Medicaid Director Daniel Tsai: “When I talk to my former colleagues running Medicaid programs all across the country, people are panicked.”

📄 Read the report

🏥 HOSPITAL CRISIS WATCH: 946 Facilities — Mental Health Disaster in Arkansas

26 mental health clinics closed in one week.

Arisa Health announced it will shutter 26 community mental health clinics covering 41 Arkansas counties after losing $4.4 million in state funding. Crisis services are ending. Patients have nowhere to go.

This week’s damage:

• Arkansas: 26 Arisa mental health clinics closing

• Oregon: Lane Community College Dental Clinic shuttering

Total facilities closing or at risk: 946

Headlines from across the country:

• Arkansas: “Arisa Health to close clinics, end crisis services after losing $4.4 million”

• Colorado: 9 hospitals at risk of closure

• Florida: Brevard’s health care landscape changed after hospital closure

• Iowa: Medicaid cuts close health clinic

• Minnesota: Sanford Health merging with North Memorial as hospital deals keep coming

• Oregon: Ashland hospital plans hundreds of layoffs

• Pennsylvania: LeadingAge PA reports “crisis in aging services”

• Washington: “Hospital, clinics hurting as fewer Tri-Cities patients have health care coverage”

• Wisconsin: City on a Hill clinic closure is “a call to action for Milwaukee”

The mental health crisis is exploding — and Republicans just made it catastrophically worse.

🎪 “A SICK JOKE”: Republicans Choose Ballroom Over Your Health Care

The priorities are crystal clear.

While families can’t afford their medications, Senate Republicans unveiled a $72 billion package that includes:

• $40 billion for ICE

• $1 billion for Trump’s gold-plated ballroom

Meanwhile, they’re stonewalling a House Democratic resolution to lower health care costs.

Brad Woodhouse, POC President: “What a sick joke. Last year, Republicans slashed over $1 trillion in health care to pay for tax breaks for billionaires, and now they are lining up to hand over billions more to fund Trump’s gold-plated ballroom and his rogue and violent ICE. Good luck with that at the ballot box in November.”

Read more: Premium Disaster Watch: Republicans Say No to Healthcare, Yes to Trump’s Ballroom

😡 UNHINGED: RFK Jr. Says Child Deaths Are “Acceptable”

He said the quiet part out loud.

RFK Jr. said that child deaths are “acceptable” in service to his anti-vaccine agenda.

Let that sink in. The Secretary of Health and Human Services — the person responsible for protecting America’s children — thinks some kids dying is an acceptable price to pay for his conspiracy theories.

Read more: RFK Jr. Says Child Deaths “Acceptable” in Service to Anti-Vax Agenda

📊 NEW KFF POLL: Health Care Costs Are Voters’ Top Concern

The writing is on the wall for Republicans.

A new KFF poll confirms what we’ve been saying: health care costs are front and center for voters — including MAHA voters — heading into November.

Key findings:

• Health care affordability is the #1 economic concern

• Even Trump and RFK’s base is souring as costs rise

• Voters know who’s responsible for skyrocketing costs

4.5 million Americans have now lost health coverage since the big, ugly bill passed.

📉 INDUSTRY EARNINGS: The Damage Is Everywhere

Even insurers are sounding the alarm.

Industry earnings calls are highlighting how severe the damage is:

• GOP cuts are decimating plan choice

• Destroying competition

• Hiking premiums for working families

• Insurers are pulling out of markets altogether

• Hospitals are seeing a spike in uninsured patients

This is corporate America telling investors the truth about what Republicans did.

🗺️ IN THE STATES

California: Dr. Jerry Abraham at MLK Hospital: “These cuts are devastating people’s access to health care. Over 330 hospitals are at risk of closure, including MLK Hospital right here in South Los Angeles.”

Georgia: State Rep. Dr. Michelle Au: “Here in Georgia alone, nearly half a million patients will lose their health care coverage. Republicans are not concerned the constituents in their districts are losing health coverage.”

New Hampshire: Dr. Marie Ramas op-ed: “When coverage becomes harder to obtain or maintain, the effects are not abstract. Patients delay care. Chronic conditions worsen. Preventive services are missed.”

Wisconsin: Rep. Gwen Moore on POC’s report finding Wisconsin faces $7 billion in cuts: “No amount of spin can change the fact that Republicans have gutted health care to pay for tax cuts for billionaires and big corporations.”

📊 By The Numbers

946 — hospitals, clinics, nursing homes closing or at risk

26 — mental health clinics closed in Arkansas this week alone

41 — Arkansas counties losing mental health services

$7 billion — what Wisconsin will lose over the next decade

4.5 million — Americans who have lost health coverage

$72 billion — GOP package for ICE and Trump’s ballroom

$1 billion — for Trump’s gold-plated ballroom

$0 — Republican investment in lowering your health care costs

📰 Must-Reads

Our Releases:

• NEW REPORT: State Leaders Expose GOP Medicaid Devastation

• RFK Jr. Says Child Deaths “Acceptable”

• Premium Disaster Watch: Ballroom Over Health Care

Hospital Crisis:

• Arkansas: Arisa Health to Close 26 Clinics

• Colorado Pols: Nine Colorado Hospitals at Risk

• Tri-City Herald: Fewer Patients Have Coverage

State Impact:

• Wisconsin Independent: Medicaid Cuts to Cost Wisconsin $7 Billion

• New Hampshire Bulletin: Dr. Ramas Op-Ed

✊ What You Can Do

1. Call your representatives — Tell them: No more ballrooms. No more billionaire tax breaks. Fix health care.

2. Share this newsletter — Forward to friends and family.

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3. Tell your story → storytellercorps.com/share

Republicans found money for billionaires and ballrooms. They couldn’t find it for a kid’s inhaler.

Protect Our Care is fighting to protect and strengthen health care for all.

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In this conversation for Medicaid Awareness Month, Protect Our Care’s Joi Chaney sits down with Maria Town, President and CEO of the American Association of People with Disabilities, to break down what Medicaid actually means for people with disabilities—and what’s at risk right now.

They explain how Medicaid supports far more than doctor visits. It funds home and community-based services, long-term care, mental health support, employment assistance, and more—making it possible for millions of people with disabilities to live independently and stay connected to their communities.

Maria Town also shares what recent and proposed cuts mean in real, everyday terms:

Why Medicaid is often the only way to access essential daily care
How cuts could force people out of their homes and into institutions
The real risks behind work requirements and administrative barriers
Why many people could lose coverage—not because they’re ineligible, but because of red tape

This conversation highlights a bigger truth: Medicaid is part of a civil rights promise—one that ensures people with disabilities can live with dignity, autonomy, and support.

The stakes are high and growing everyday—cuts to disability resources have already been made in many states, and more are likely on the way.

Resources & Learn More

🔗 Protect Our Care: https://www.protectourcare.org
🔗 American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD): https://www.aapd.com/
📄 Medicaid Awareness Month resources: http://medicaidawareness.com/
📊 Fact sheets & analysis:
https://www.protectourcare.org/fact-sheet-americans-with-disabilities-have-been-left-behind-by-republican-cuts-to-medicaid/

Protect Our Care is committed to making sure Americans understand what’s at stake in our health care system—and how we can work together to protect it.