The state of the country\u2019s health care landscape is in flux, according to top health experts and lawmakers, as the federal government shutdown hinges on the battle over health care access and new priorities crystallize under the second Trump administration. <\/p>\n
Health policy experts, key lawmakers and industry leaders spoke at The Hill\u2019s \u201cHealth Next Summit\u201d on Tuesday, laying out their view of where U.S. public health is headed \u2014 and the dangers and opportunities on the horizon.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The discussions took place one week into the first government shutdown in years, as Democrats demand an extension of enhanced tax credits for Affordable Care Act Marketplace plans. <\/p>\n
Tuesday\u2019s event was sponsored by ByHeart. Here\u2019s what to know: <\/p>\n
Policy experts expressed concerns about how Trump administration policy changes will negatively impact health care. <\/p>\n
Richard Besser, president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and former acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), called Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s control over federal health \u201cabsolutely frightening.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe idea that we have, as a secretary of health, one of the nation’s leading anti-vaccine advocates is absolutely frightening,\u201d said Besser. He called the firing of the CDC\u2019s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and subsequent replacement with members that included some known vaccine critics \u201creally scary.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThe CDC was really the world’s crown jewel when it came to a public health agency and unfortunately, that’s not the case anymore. There’s terrific people still working at the CDC, but its ability to do its job has been severely compromised,\u201d Besser said. <\/p>\n
Nancy Brown, CEO of the American Heart Association, sounded alarm over the future of medical research funding. <\/p>\n
The Trump administration\u2019s budget request included an $18 billion cut to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), representing a 40 percent reduction of the agency\u2019s budget. The Senate Appropriations Committee rejected this proposal<\/a>, instead advancing a bill that would increase funding to the agency.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe proposed cuts and the actual cuts are devastating,\u201d Brown said. \u201cIf we think about the strategic advantage the United States has in the area of science and technology, it\u2019s very significant, and we\u2019re at risk of losing that.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cThe demolishing of scientific research will have a devastating impact on every single one of us today and in the future,\u201d she added. <\/p>\n Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, former administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services during the Biden administration, said the impacts of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) on health care providers was already being felt, despite most of the health provisions being scheduled to go into effect after the midterms next year. <\/p>\n The OBBBA will reduce federal Medicaid spending by $1 trillion over the next decade. <\/p>\n \u201cWhat over the last couple of months, we have seen across the nation is that the money that is taken out of the Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act coverage is already affecting care in this country,\u201d said Brooks-LaSure. \u201cI’ve been doing a number of meetings and town halls across the country, and we’re already seeing rural hospitals who are either talking about not expanding or shutting important services.\u201d <\/p>\n She noted that a rural Georgia hospital announced last month that it was closing down its labor and delivery unit<\/a>, with hospital administrators citing the cuts in the OBBBA as part of the reason.<\/p>\n Besser echoed these concerns, noting how mass firings carried out under the Trump administration prevented states from accessing certain federal resources.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMilwaukee was dealing with a problem with lead poisoning in the water and they called CDC to get support. And the department that focused on lead poisoning was gone,\u201d Besser recalled. \u201cIf you’re in a community and you can’t drink water, you feel it.\u201d <\/p>\nGOP cuts already being felt <\/h2>\n