The Troubling Impact of Trump's Health and Science Policies
- Anonymous
- 6 days ago
- 5 min read
As an American living in England, working in health and science research for the past 7 years, I've observed from across the Atlantic how my home country's immense potential is often overshadowed by policies that seem to harm rather than help its citizens. The distance provides both perspective and heartache.
Since President Trump's return to office, his administration has implemented healthcare and scientific research policy changes that show concerning impacts across the country. These policies reflect a worrying shift from evidence-based approaches to politically motivated decisions, prioritizing short-term political gains over long-term public health and scientific advancements that could benefit generations to come.
Health Policy Changes Reducing Access and Increasing Costs
I have been watching with growing concern as the healthcare landscape in my home country undergoes a dramatic transformation.
To understand the context, it's crucial to first examine the Affordable Care Act (ACA), a landmark healthcare reform passed under President Obama. Initially passed in 2010, the ACA aimed to address critical healthcare gaps by expanding insurance coverage, protecting individuals with pre-existing conditions, and establishing health insurance marketplaces. The individual mandate—a controversial yet economically critical provision—required Americans to have health insurance or pay a tax penalty. This mechanism was designed to create a balanced insurance market by ensuring healthy individuals' participation, thereby offsetting the costs of more extensive medical needs.
During his first term (2017-2020), President Trump began systematically weakening the ACA's protections. Executive orders allowed insurers to potentially discriminate against individuals with chronic health issues, while crucial subsidies for middle and lower-income Americans were dramatically reduced. The administration eliminated the individual mandate's financial penalty in 2017, destabilizing the carefully constructed insurance market.
Short-term insurance plans proliferated, offering cheaper alternatives that often excluded essential services like maternity care, mental health treatment, and prescription drugs. Insurers could again potentially deny coverage to individuals with pre-existing conditions, raising serious concerns about healthcare accessibility.
In his second term, President Trump has further intensified his efforts to roll back ACA provisions by cancelling executive orders from the Biden administration. Specifically, Trump has reversed policies that extended the annual timeframes when Americans could sign up for health insurance through ACA marketplaces (known as enrollment periods) and cut funding for organizations that help people navigate the complex insurance selection process (called third-party enrollment assistance). These changes came after President Biden's administration had successfully increased ACA participation to approximately 24 million enrollees largely by increasing government financial assistance that reduced monthly insurance payments for consumers.
From my perspective, these changes represent more than policy adjustments—they signify a fundamental reimagining of healthcare as a market commodity rather than a social right. Despite claims of increasing competition and reducing costs, millions of Americans face higher premiums, fewer insurance options, and less comprehensive coverage.
Ultimately, the Trump administration's healthcare policies have left a lasting impact: weakening patient protections, increasing economic barriers to healthcare, and challenging the notion of healthcare as a fundamental right.
Scientific Research Under Siege
The Trump administration's policies have had a profound impact on the scientific research community as well. One of the most significant changes has been the administration's approach to federal funding. By capping indirect cost reimbursements for institutions receiving National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants, the administration has placed financial strain on universities and research institutions. These indirect costs, which cover essential infrastructure like lab maintenance and administrative support, are critical for sustaining research operations. The cap has forced institutions to either absorb these costs or scale back their research activities, jeopardizing the progress of ongoing projects.
Additionally, the administration's executive orders have introduced ideological restrictions on federally funded research. Topics such as diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), gender studies, and green energy have been explicitly targeted, leading to the termination of related programs and grants. This has created a chilling effect, with researchers uncertain as to whether their work aligns with the administration's shifting priorities. The lack of clear communication from agencies like the NIH and the National Science Foundation (NSF) has further compounded this uncertainty, leaving many researchers in limbo.
I spoke with a researcher from John Hopkins University (Baltimore, USA) about how these changes are affecting her. Like me, she preferred to remain anonymous due to fears of facing repercussions for speaking out about the current administration. She said "The hardest part of these funding cuts is dealing with the uncertainty. It’s challenging to maintain productivity and continue research as usual when you’re unsure if the grant currently supporting your work will be impacted. This uncertainty not only slows down scientific progress but also makes long-term scientific planning very difficult.”
The administration's withdrawal from international agreements, such as the Paris Climate Accord and the World Health Organization, has also isolated U.S. scientists from global collaborations. These decisions have weakened the nation's ability to address pressing global challenges, from climate change to public health crises, and have diminished its leadership in the scientific community. Moreover, the rapid pace of policy changes, including mass layoffs at federal science agencies, has disrupted the stability and morale of the research workforce.
Together, these actions represent a significant departure from the long-standing bipartisan consensus on the importance of investing in science. The cumulative effect of these policies has been to erode the infrastructure, funding, and collaborative spirit that underpin scientific innovation, leaving researchers to navigate an increasingly uncertain and restrictive environment.
The Path Forward
The negative impacts of the current administration's health and science policies present serious challenges for America's future. Without course correction, the country faces the prospect of declining health outcomes, reduced scientific innovation, and diminished global influence in research and development.
Healthcare advocates, scientific organizations, and public health experts are increasingly calling for bipartisan solutions that restore evidence-based approaches to these critical areas. State governments are exploring ways to fill federal funding gaps for essential research and health programs, while private foundations are establishing emergency funds to maintain critical scientific work.
The stakes could not be higher. As America's healthcare infrastructure weakens and scientific capacity erodes, the nation's ability to address future challenges—from pandemics to climate change to economic competition—diminishes accordingly. The path to restoring America's health and scientific leadership will require sustained advocacy, investment, and a return to policies that prioritize evidence over ideology. Despite these challenges, I remain hopeful about America's capacity for renewal. In conversations with friends working in healthcare and research back home, I hear determination rather than defeat. America has faced crossroads before and found its way forward—the resilience and ingenuity that have defined the nation at its best moments remain alive beneath the surface, waiting for the right conditions to flourish again.