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healthcare
Trump-GOP War on Poor Children Will 'Leave Lasting Scars on Millions'
"Donald Trump and Republicans have left children and their families poorer and worse off in ways that will be felt for generations."
Nov 26, 2025
A report released Tuesday by Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee details how US President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress are waging a multifront war on children by targeting healthcare programs, education, and nutrition assistance as part of their scorched-earth assault on the nation's safety net and redistribution of wealth to the very top.
"In just months, the Trump administration has gutted access to healthcare for millions of children, slashed funding for school meals and nutrition assistance, fired thousands of workers dedicated to advancing child welfare and protecting children, and unleashed policies that traumatize and harm immigrant families and LGBTQ+ youth," reads the report. "These actions are not isolated—they reflect a coordinated agenda that will leave a generation of children sicker, hungrier, and less safe."
As part of the sprawling budget reconciliation package that Trump signed into law over the summer, Republicans enacted the largest-ever cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), slashing more than $1 trillion combined from the two programs.
Roughly half of all kids in the US are covered by either Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program, and around 40% of SNAP beneficiaries are children, meaning cuts to those programs will have far-reaching impacts on the nation's youth in the coming years.
"By making the largest cuts to healthcare and food assistance in the nation’s history, Donald Trump and Republicans have left children and their families poorer and worse off in ways that will be felt for generations," Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said in a statement on Tuesday.
"By dismantling the very systems that safeguard children’s health and future, Trump and Republicans are condemning a generation to poorer health, deeper poverty, and diminished opportunity."
In addition to denouncing cuts to Medicaid and SNAP, the new report outlines how the Trump administration is imperiling mental health programs by canceling grants and other funding, harming children's education by throttling Head Start funds, and inflicting deadly cuts to programs that aid kids overseas—all while delivering massive tax cuts to the richest Americans and largest corporations.
"Trump’s cuts to healthcare access, food assistance, and education have stripped millions of kids of the care, nutrition, and protection they need to thrive," the report states. "By dismantling the very systems that safeguard children’s health and future, Trump and Republicans are condemning a generation to poorer health, deeper poverty, and diminished opportunity."
"Unless stopped," the report concludes, "Trump’s war on kids will leave lasting scars on millions of children and weaken the nation for decades to come."
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Medicare for All Backers Argue It's a Better Solution Than Whatever Trump Is Cooking Up
"Republicans have a million ideas regarding healthcare. Except one," said Sen. Bernie Sanders. "They will never acknowledge that healthcare is a human right—to be guaranteed to ALL."
Nov 25, 2025
As President Donald Trump postpones unveiling his supposed plan to tackle soaring US healthcare costs—reportedly after pushback from congressional Republicans—Medicare for All advocates have renewed calls for shifting to a single-payer system.
"Republicans have a million ideas regarding healthcare. Except one," Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who caucuses with Democrats, said on social media Monday afternoon. "They will never acknowledge that healthcare is a human right—to be guaranteed to ALL."
The union National Nurses United also called for Medicare for All on Monday, pointing to a recent West Health/Gallup poll that found 47% of US adults are worried they won't be able to afford healthcare next year, the highest level since they began tracking in 2021.
"The urgency around this is real," West Health president Timothy Lash told NBC News. "When you look at the economic strain that is on families right now, even if healthcare prices didn't rise, the costs are rising elsewhere, which only exacerbates the problem."
Over objections from progressives, including Sanders, a small group of Senate Democrats earlier this month agreed to help GOP lawmakers end the longest federal government shutdown in US history in exchange for just the promise of a mid-December vote on extending Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies to help over 20 million Americans who face skyrocketing premiums.
Citing unnamed White House officials, MS NOW reported Sunday that Trump was set to introduce the Healthcare Price Cuts Act to combat what the sources called "surprise premium hikes" as soon as Monday.
"The plan would also eliminate 'zero-premium' subsidies currently offered under the ACA, intending to stop 'ghost beneficiaries,' a frequent Republican concern about alleged fraudulent policy recipients, by requiring a small minimum payment as a means to verify eligibility to receive benefits," according to the outlet.
"The nascent plan also features a deposit program that would incentivize lower-premium options on the ACA exchange," MS NOW continued. "For individuals who downgrade coverage, the difference in coverage costs would be distributed to a 'Health Savings Account' provided with taxpayer dollars."
However, as Politico detailed Monday, also citing unnamed sources, "Trump's healthcare plan is in limbo after pushback from Republicans who were caught off guard by the president's forthcoming proposal—questioning, in particular, whether it would include additional abortion restrictions."
As parts of Trump's proposal continued to leak in the absence of its formal introduction, the American Prospect's Ryan Cooper and David Dayen wrote Tuesday that "all told, there's a good chance that Democrats will accept this offer, or something like it, as the best they're likely to get for the time being."
"If they are ever in power again, they can fix the ACA permanently, and avoid the danger of subsidies expiring (as the Prospect advocated back in 2021). But it's quite revealing as to the total bankruptcy of the Republican Party when it comes to healthcare policy," the duo added. "The GOP will flinch from more than doubling health insurance premiums—at least if middle-class people and up are the most affected—but only if they can also make the insurance worse, and make poor people pay more."
Last week, in a pair of op-eds and a letter to Democratic lawmakers, Sanders argued that "at a time when the Republicans have been forced to finally talk about the healthcare crisis facing our country, it is essential that the Democratic Caucus unify behind a set of commonsense policies that will make healthcare more affordable and accessible."
He called for not only extending the ACA tax credits, but also repealing Trump and congressional Republicans' $1 trillion in cuts to the ACA and Medicaid; expanding Medicare to cover dental, vision, and hearing; cutting prescription drug costs by requiring pharmaceutical companies to charge no more for medications in the United States than they do in Europe or Canada; investing in expanding primary healthcare; and banning stock buybacks and dividends, and restricting CEO compensation.
Although Medicare for All lacks majority support in the Democratic Caucus, Sanders—the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions—also emphasized his belief that it remains the ideal long-term solution. He reintroduced the Medicare for All Act in April with Democratic Reps. Pramila Jayapal (Wash.) and Debbie Dingell (Mich.).
Other single-payer advocates have also seized on current concerns and debates about the ACA. In a column for Truthdig last Thursday, Conor Lynch wrote that "with Republicans spotlighting the greed, corruption, and inefficiency of US healthcare, progressive Democrats have an opening to take Medicare for All off the back burner and renew the push for a comprehensive overhaul."
"The fact that Republicans are calling out insurance companies for their profiteering shows how much the national mood has changed since the passage of the ACA," he continued. "With Republicans unable to offer anything but a return to an intolerable status quo ante, Democrats should make the case for moving beyond the broken status quo."
The previous week, CJ Mikkelsen, a retired firefighter and paramedic now leading a small nonprofit in Michigan, made the case in the Midland Daily News that "we need a system like every other country in the developed world has."
Mikkelsen shared some of his and his wife's health struggles and stressed the society-wide benefits: "Medicare for All would mean that everyone is covered for everything at all times. No more losing coverage because you’ve lost your job, want to go back to school, or are starting your own business. The last thing I want you to know about Medicare for All, and pay attention here—IT’S CHEAPER THAN WHAT WE'RE DOING NOW."
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Soaring Medicare Part B Premium Takes Big Bite Out of Social Security Increase
"Medicare shouldn’t have premiums... or copays or deductibles," said US Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed. "Medicare should cover vision, dental, and hearing. And Medicare should cover everyone."
Nov 25, 2025
With much of the nation's focus on skyrocketing Affordable Care Act costs, the Trump administration recently announced a Medicare Part B premium increase of nearly 10% for next year—an amount that will swallow a significant chunk of Social Security recipients' already paltry cost-of-living boost.
The monthly premium for recipients of Medicare Part B, the insurance portion of the program, will be $202.90 next year—a $17.90 increase compared to 2025. The increase will push the monthly premium above $200 for the first time in the program's history.
Jeanne Lambrew, director of healthcare reform at The Century Foundation, wrote in an analysis last week that the $17.90-per-month Medicare premium increase will effectively wipe out 33% of next year's Social Security cost-of-living adjustment (COLA), which was 2.8%—or $53.76 monthly.
"This is the greatest erosion of the COLA in nearly a decade," Lambrew observed. "The Medicare premium increase is the highest in four years, the projected employer-sponsored insurance increase is the highest in fifteen years, and the health insurance marketplace premium increase for 2026 is the highest out-of-pocket cost increase for all types of coverage in history."
To proponents of Medicare for All—a proposal that would provide comprehensive health coverage to everyone in the US for free at the point of service, for a lower overall cost than the status quo—rising premiums across the for-profit US healthcare system provide yet another reason for urgent, transformational change.
"Medicare shouldn’t have premiums... or copays or deductibles," Michigan US Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed wrote in a social media post on Tuesday. "Medicare should cover vision, dental, and hearing. And Medicare should cover everyone."
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the lead sponsor of the Medicare for All Act in the Senate, bashed Republicans for their willingness to entertain a range of healthcare proposals "except one."
"They will never acknowledge that healthcare is a human right—to be guaranteed to ALL," the senator wrote on Monday, the day President Donald Trump was expected to unveil a patchwork healthcare proposal aimed at averting an Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidy disaster of the GOP's making.
But the White House postponed the rollout as the plan—which reportedly would have extended the ACA tax credits for two years while imposing new limits on the program—faced pushback from Republicans on Capitol Hill. The president's proposal also reportedly included a scheme to push Americans into higher-deductible plans.
"Trump, facing collapsing polling and a potential riot-inducing scenario on health insurance, might have backed off temporarily on the longstanding Republican tendency to ruin the healthcare system so rich people can have more tax cuts," The American Prospect's David Dayen and Ryan Cooper wrote Tuesday. "But he’s still ruining the healthcare system, make no mistake, just a bit more stealthily. This has always been the GOP approach to healthcare, and it’s not going anywhere."
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