Trump and Republicans’ relentless attacks on healthcare have raised costs for millions of Americans
Donald Trump and Republicans slashed healthcare, jacking up costs for millions of Americans. First, they cut $1 TRILLION from Medicaid — the largest cut to healthcare in history — to pay for tax cuts for the ultra-rich. Then, they refused to extend the popular enhanced Affordable Care Act premium tax credits, hiking premiums by an average of 58% and already forcing three million people to drop their coverage. Now, premiums are set to increase by double digits again next year, and an additional 15 million people are projected to become uninsured.
More than half of Americans could not consistently afford healthcare in 2025 — a five-year low — and nearly one in four American workers report staying in unwanted jobs just to maintain reliable health insurance.
In response, DNC Rapid Response Director Kendall Witmer released the following statement:
“Donald Trump and Republicans’ relentless attacks on healthcare have jacked up costs, and now working families are being forced to weigh whether to pay for their insurance premiums, medical bills, and lifesaving medicine, or putting food on the table. Trump and Republicans have made life nearly impossible for working families — just to prop up their wealthy donors with massive tax cuts. Americans are fed up — and they will make their voices heard at the ballot box in November.”
See more about Trump and Republicans’ disastrous healthcare cuts below:
The New York Times: Republicans Are Trying to Hide These Health Care Cuts
[The Editorial Board, 8/15/2026]
“One of the federal government’s great achievements this century was making health insurance affordable to millions more Americans. In 2010, nearly 18 percent of people under 65 lacked insurance. By 2024, the rate had fallen below 10 percent, thanks to the Affordable Care Act and later legislation that built on it.
“President Trump and congressional Republicans are working to dismantle that achievement. They have effectively cut subsidies for the Affordable Care Act’s marketplaces, making it harder for people who do not receive insurance through work to afford a plan. This year, the subsidy cuts led three million people to lose their health insurance. In Ohio, nearly a third of previous marketplace enrollees lost their insurance. […]
“Republicans’ attacks on affordable health care have taken two forms: one more passive, the other more direct.
“In the passive approach, Mr. Trump and congressional Republicans allowed the expiration of enhanced subsidies for the Affordable Care Act’s marketplaces. The Obama administration and congressional Democrats created the marketplaces for people who fell through the cracks. These people did not receive coverage through their jobs, and they were not poor enough to qualify for Medicaid. […]
“Those health insurance cuts led premiums and deductibles to spike this year. As an example, a middle-income, middle-aged couple with two children could see their premiums more than double, costing an additional $3,500 a year.
“In the more direct approach to cutting health care coverage, Republicans targeted Medicaid, the program focused on the poor and disabled. Last year, the federal government enacted what Republicans call a work requirement. In reality, it is a paperwork requirement — one that forces Medicaid enrollees, most of whom are working or have a valid reason for not working, to file repeated documents proving they have a job or a valid exemption. Americans lead busy lives, and many of them may not know of the new requirement. About two in three enrollees who will lose health insurance should, in fact, be eligible for it, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimated. […]
“The Affordable Care Act was a triumph of government, and it is justifiably popular. Mr. Trump and other Republicans once promised to repeal the law, but they have largely stopped making such statements. Instead, they have sought to weaken the law — partly out of an ideological aversion to government, partly to finance tax cuts for the wealthy — and hope that voters do not notice.”
