Trump administration, GOP are attacking American health care, congressional physician says

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The nation’s health care system is under attack, a situation that is infuriating, reckless and dangerous to America’s world leadership in science, said one of the physicians serving in Congress.

Rep. Kim Schrier, MD (D-Washington) was a featured speaker on May 6 at the 2025 NCCN Policy Summit: Primary Care and Oncology Collaboration for Better Patient Outcomes. The meeting was planned by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), a nonprofit alliance of 33 cancer centers.

Rep. Kim Schrier, MD (D-Washington)

The first pediatrician elected to Congress, Schrier outlined her work history and legislative support for health care and research. She also slammed the administration of President Donald J. Trump and efforts of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. She blamed congressional Republicans for letting tech billionaire Elon Musk, leader of the Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE, kill a bipartisan health care reform deal, and for a budget proposal to gut Medicaid. The GOP and DOGE have targeted spending and policies of HHS agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

“We've got to recognize that our nation's health care system is under attack right now,” Schrier said, addressing the conference via video. “What we're seeing now from the current administration has been infuriating and reckless, and this includes slashing medical research and essential staff and funding from agencies like the CDC, the NIH and the FDA, and this kneecaps U.S. research and innovation, and it jeopardizes public health.
“It also cedes the ground for U.S. leadership in the world, and basically hands that leadership to China,” Schrier said. “That's plain wrong, and I feel like it just undermines U.S. leadership in the world.”

‘Senseless and irresponsible’

She noted federal budget cuts will affect cancer research in Seattle, just next to her own legislative district. Schrier predicted the federal government’s actions on Medicaid will lead to dire health consequences for Americans.

“These cuts are senseless and irresponsible and will have long-lasting repercussions that will cost lives,” she said.

As though that weren't enough, the Republican-controlled Congress is now pushing for a budget that calls for an $880 billion dollar cut to Medicaid.

“These cuts would be disastrous and detrimental for the most vulnerable members of our communities, many of whom are at higher risk for cancer, for deaths from cancer, for late detection of cancer, and I want you to know that I'm doing everything in my power to call out the destruction these cuts would cause, to restore funding for medical research, especially cancer research, and to stand up for patients,” Schrier said.

Slashing Medicaid will affect everyone, resulting in closures of rural hospitals and limitations to the benefits and services of urban hospitals. Americans can expect even longer wait times in emergency departments, she said.

Primary care, cancer and vaccines

Kennedy has expressed skepticism about the effectiveness and safety of vaccines, especially for youths.

Schrier emphasized the connections among primary care physicians, vaccines and cancer. Schrier has co-sponsored the bipartisan Promoting Resources to Expand Vaccination, Educaiton and New Treatments for HPV Cancers Act, known as the PREVENT HPV Cancers Act, which would raise awareness about the human papilloma virus (HPV), related cancers, and the life-saving, cancer-preventing HPV vaccine. The hepatitis B vaccine also can prevent cancers, she said.

Primary care physicians spend years developing relationships with patients, and that trust can guide people through challenging times, Schrier said. That trust can affect patient attitudes about vaccination, and by strengthening primary care, doctors can keep patients healthy and screen for and catch serious illnesses like cancer sooner than would otherwise be possible.

“And I'm thinking about the primary care physician’s role and ensuring that women get pap smears and mammograms, and we have our patients get colonoscopies and PSAs and other appropriate exams,” she said, referring to prostate-specific antigen tests. Kennedy has profited from lawsuits filed against the makers of the HPV vaccine, Schrier added.

“His undermining of trust and vaccinations threatens to reverse decades of work in making so many dangerous, miserable, deadly infectious diseases, a thing of the past, and we're already seeing a resurgence of measles,” Schrier said. “I am very worried about what he is doing to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or the ACIP, and I will fight his misinformation and spreading of conspiracy theories and sowing doubt about vaccines every single day.”

Physician pay

Meanwhile, physician pay was part of a bipartisan health care reform plan that Democrats and Republicans supported in late 2024. Schrier blamed the GOP members for letting Musk kill the deal. Now, she and Rep. Greg Murphy, MD (R-North Carolina), have introduced legislation to counter the cut to Medicare reimbursement for physicians that went into effect on Jan. 1. That bill includes an increase that would keep pace with inflation, she said, and another bill would improve Medicaid by boosting Medicaid reimbursement to the same levels as Medicare.

Beneficiaries describe a common problem of inadequate access to primary care due to woefully inadequate Medicare reimbursements to doctors and hospitals. Inability to make progress on that issue has real effects on the long-term stability of the nation’s health care, Schrier said. When physicians are not paid fairly, they are more likely to retire or resign early, and the nation already has insufficient numbers of physicians and other clinicians, she said.

NCCN is nonpartisan

It appeared Schrier spoke with an audience largely sympathetic to her points about proposed cuts to research funding. She noted she has made it a priority to work with both parties, particularly physicians in Congress because they speak the same language and have a common history working in health care. After her speech, conference moderator Clifford Goodman, PhD, a consultant on health care technology and policy, noted NCCN is a nonpartisan organization. Later speakers also said cancer care and research often has received bipartisan support because the disease does not discriminate or select patients based on political party affiliation.