Staying Informed: Public Health & The Trump Administration
If you have been on social media lately, you have probably seen something about health care cuts. Maybe a post about Medicaid. Maybe a headline about hospitals closing. Maybe a friend shares something alarming and then scrolls past it.
But I fear that most people are catching pieces of the story. A clip here. A headline there. And because the news cycle moves so fast and there is so much happening at once, it is easy to miss just how broad and how deep these changes actually go.
That is exactly why I am writing this blog.
As a public health professional, I have been watching the last 18 months closely. And I am not convinced that the general public fully understands the scale of what is happening, not just to the ACA, not just to Medicaid, but to the entire public health infrastructure that most of us never think about until we need it.
What Has the Trump Administration Done to Public Health in the Last 1.5 Years?
Medicaid & the ACA
The Trump administration signed the largest health care cuts in history, slashing over $1 trillion from Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act to fund tax breaks for billionaires and corporations.
1 in 5 HealthCare.gov enrollees dropped their ACA coverage after premium tax credits were ripped away.
Over 1 million Americans dropped their health coverage in January 2026 alone after the ACA tax credits were ended.
Vaccines & Children's Health
The infant hepatitis B vaccine recommendation was stopped, despite 1 in 4 children with chronic hepatitis B dying from it.
Nearly $600 million in mRNA vaccine contracts for future pandemic preparedness were canceled.
Two major HIV vaccine studies were ended, setting back research by at least a decade.
Public Health Infrastructure & Research
The U.S. withdrew from the World Health Organization on day one.
Over $500 million in CDC funding was blocked, including programs for youth violence prevention, gun injury prevention, diabetes, and tobacco.
145 HIV research and prevention grants totaling nearly half a billion dollars were terminated.
Hospitals & Communities
Over 900 hospitals, clinics, and nursing homes have closed, cut essential services, or are at risk of doing so as a direct result of Republican health care cuts.
Minimum nurse staffing requirements in long-term care facilities were eliminated.
The government was shut down for the longest period in history, with the government refusing to extend health care tax credits for working families.
Public Opinion
65% of Americans disapprove of Trump's handling of health care, the worst approval rating for any president on health care this century.
Where to Go to Stay Informed
Okay, I have to be real with you for a second. I am not going to tell you to go sit down and read every single one of these websites from top to bottom. That is a fast track to overwhelm, burnout, and shutting your laptop and never thinking about any of this again. I have been there. It is not cute.
Here is what I actually recommend instead: pick the issues you care most about and sign up for the newsletter or email alerts on that specific topic. Are you passionate about Medicaid? Vaccines? Reproductive health? Prescription drug costs?
Every one of these resources lets you filter by topic. Sign up, let the updates come to you, and spend 5 to 10 minutes a day reading what lands in your inbox.
That is it. Five to ten minutes. You will not solve the healthcare crisis in one sitting, but you will stay informed, stay sharp, and stay in the fight without burning yourself out. Consistent and sustainable beats overwhelmed and checked out every single time.
Here are the three resources I trust and use myself:
Georgetown Health Care Litigation Tracker
Run by Georgetown University Law Center, this is your go-to for tracking the legal battles being fought over health care policy in real time. Right now, there are over 350 active cases across 17 issue areas, everything from the Affordable Care Act and reproductive health to federal funding cuts and Medicare drug price negotiations. If you want to understand what is being challenged in court and what that means for your community, this is the place.
This is one of the most respected health policy journals in the country. It breaks down complex policy changes with rigorous, research-backed analysis, in plain enough language that you do not need a law degree to follow along. Great for understanding the why and so what behind major health care decisions.
KFF Health News is an independent, nonprofit newsroom that covers health policy and public health journalism in depth. They have a daily morning briefing, topic-specific newsletters, podcasts, and a dedicated Trump 2.0 tracker that covers real-time changes across agencies, states, and rural health. This is my personal favorite for staying current without feeling like I am just reading hot takes.
Bonus Resource: Protect Our Care
Protect Our Care is an advocacy organization, and it is not shy about where it stands. They are progressive. They are loud about it, but they are incredibly resourceful.
Their Health Care Sabotage Tracker, Hospital Crisis Watch, and Premium Disaster Watch are some of the most comprehensive, regularly updated collections of health care policy changes available right now. The receipts are all there, sourced, linked, and organized by month. Whether you agree with their politics or not, the information they are documenting is factual, timely, and important.
What Can We Do About It?
Stay Informed
I already talked about this earlier, but it bears repeating: staying informed does not mean consuming every piece of devastating news until you are too overwhelmed to function. That is burnout.
Staying informed means opening your email in the morning, spending 5 to 10 minutes reading the updates from the sources you signed up for, and then closing the tab and going about your day.
You do not have to read every story. You do not have to know every detail. You just have to stay consistently aware. Small, daily doses of information will keep you sharp and engaged far longer than one three-hour doom scroll session that leaves you wanting to throw your phone into the ocean.
Talk About It. Post About It. Say Something.
Talk to your friends about what you read. Bring it up at dinner. Share an article on your Instagram story. Post about it on LinkedIn. You do not have to be a policy expert to share what you know; you just have to be willing to say it out loud.
Change happens when people are informed AND take action. Information sitting quietly in your head helps no one.
Show Up in Your Community
Families in our own zip codes are navigating insurance loss, food insecurity, and impossible choices right now, today. And there are deeply practical, tangible ways to help that have nothing to do with a rally, a protest, or an election cycle.
Donate to your local food bank. Volunteer at a meal kitchen. Drop off your clothes instead of throwing them away. Find a volunteer organization in your community, one where you might not know anyone, where you might be a little outside of your comfort zone, and show up anyway.
Two things will happen. First, you will actually help someone. Second, you will stay hopeful. And hope is what keeps us going when the news feels impossible.
