Sixty-one years ago today, Lyndon B. Johnson signed Medicare and Medicaid into law, promising Americans they’d never have to choose between their health and their savings. The Trump administration is marking the anniversary by chipping away at that promise.
The administration confirmed this week it will end the subsidy program that has held down premiums for Medicare Part D drug plans. The fallout lands on 25 million seniors who rely on Part D for prescription coverage, many on fixed incomes with no room to absorb a sudden hike.
It’s the latest assault on Americans’ healthcare after Trump and congressional Republicans used last year’s reconciliation bill to gut nearly $1 trillion from Medicaid, money they turned around and handed over to the ultra-wealthy through massive tax cuts for the richest Americans and giant corporations.
Over, and over, and over again, Trump promised he wouldn’t touch Medicaid or Medicare. He broke that promise, just like he breaks the rest of them, because a president building himself a luxury ballroom, cutting deals that enrich his friends, and using the government to go after his political enemies was never going to put seniors and struggling families first.
“Trump and MAGA Republicans had a choice between protecting seniors’ healthcare and handing another tax break to the richest people in the country, and they chose the billionaires who fill their campaign coffers,” said American Bridge 21st Century spokesperson Brandon Weathersby. “Now they’re coming back for the drug subsidies that keep prescriptions affordable, because gutting Medicaid wasn’t enough for them. This administration is pulling every lever it can find to squeeze this program until it stops working for the people who built it and paid into it their whole lives.”
Published: Jul 30, 2026