As a nurse, I am writing this opinion in my role as a patient advocate. Project 2025, a playbook for the next conservative administration, threatens the health, safety and well-being of you, your loved ones and our country. The policies embraced by Project 2025 will touch and seek to restructure nearly every aspect of American life. The following are some of the implications for our health and health care.
Project 2025 calls for eliminating the Medicare drug negotiation program that has finally reined in price gouging by big pharma of insulin and soon-to-be other life-saving drugs that make these drugs accessible to all whose lives depend on them. More than 45 million Americans are currently enrolled in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace. Project 2025 seeks to appeal and/or gut the ACA and all the protections it provides.
Preexisting conditions will again be used to deny health insurance, contraception will be restricted and prescription drug prices will increase. Medicare and Medicaid will be privatized and defunded. Medicare Advantage plans will become the default Medicare enrollment option and will no longer be required to provide the basic Medicare requirements. This will take us back to pre-ACA, i.e., millions of uninsured or underinsured Americans, and the denial of quality health care to those who need it the most.
Recent research indicates that vaccination recommendations by the ACIP and CDC have been credited with preventing millions of illnesses and deaths from 1994-2023. This has made us a healthier nation. The goal of Project 2025 is to reduce or eliminate the impact of these and all government agencies and the expertise they provide. According to Project 2025, we don’t need experts. Why would we if we have Google?
A woman’s right to make reproductive health care decisions will no longer be respected with her bodily autonomy rights dismissed. Masquerading as morality, Project 2025 seeks to put a national end to reproductive rights, including all medically necessary and elective abortions. Some of the strategies to achieve these goals include prohibiting abortion travel funding, excluding abortion providers from Medicaid participation, withdrawing federal Medicare participation for states that include abortion coverage in private insurance plans, limiting other contraceptive measures and eliminating access to approved safe early abortion medications.
Project 2025 also seeks to utilize the Department of Health and Human Services as a monitoring and reporting agency for pregnancy and reproductive health surveillance. In vitro fertilization will be denied to single and same-sex couples. The nuclear family is Project’s 2025 valued family. All others are judged inferior and not worthy of support or protection.
Project 2025 specifically threatens the health and rights of LGBTQ+ citizens and their health care providers. It will scale back anti-discrimination laws, ban care related to gender identity and prioritize religion-based objections to treating gender minority patients. Children who participate in Head Start programs receive innumerable benefits. These advantages appear immediately and last a lifetime, Project 2025’s goal is to eliminate Head Start. This goal directly conflicts with the righteous tenets of Project 2025’s of the family and children’s sanctity under God. Why will children whose lives benefit from Head Start be left behind?
From increasing natural disaster severity to threats of emerging and changing infectious diseases, the link between the health of our planet and our health is direct and undeniable as seen by the recent hurricanes. Project 2025 seeks to weaken climate change policies and institutions, impairing the national and global response to climate change and hence threatening our health.
Project 2025 is a clear and present danger to our health. As nurses and health advocates, we recommend that we take heed of this threat directly attached to another Trump administration and neutralize it at the ballot box on Nov. 5 with our votes.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
We invite you to add your comments. We encourage a thoughtful exchange of ideas and information on this website. By joining the conversation, you are agreeing to our commenting policy and terms of use. More information is found on our FAQs. You can modify your screen name here.
Comments are managed by our staff during regular business hours Monday through Friday as well as limited hours on Saturday and Sunday. Comments held for moderation outside of those hours may take longer to approve.
Join the Conversation
Please sign into your Press Herald account to participate in conversations below. If you do not have an account, you can register or subscribe. Questions? Please see our FAQs.