Project 2025 Part 3: An Attack On ACA & Abortion

The Republicans have never been fans of health care, especially making it affordable^[1]The New York Times: Republicans Really Hate Healthcare, in fact they have tried to repeal or modify The Affordable Care Act (or “Obamacare” as it’s colloquially known) at least SEVENTY times^[2]Newsweek: GOP Aims To Kill Obamacare Yet Again After Failing 70 Times.

Project 2025 aims to succeed where previous plans have failed and move health care out of the hands of the government and into the clutches of for-profit companies.

In this article we take a look at how Project 2025 plans to gut heath care in America and the impact it will have on citizens.

The Affordable Care Act & Health Care

Forcing Congress to control their budgets more tightly would, of course, enable the President to manage the deficit more effectively however it would limit or reduce funding for some less popular services – The Affordable Care Act (ACA) would certainly be a major target for a Trump Administration.

Trump has repeatedly said he was doing to dismantle The Affordable Care Act and replace it with something “better” although he’s failed to say what that “better” system will be^[3]NPR: What would a second Trump presidency look like for health care?. Republications are also ignoring the surge in popularity of Obamacare with over 40 million Americans now signed up to it^[4]CNN: Obamacare would be even harder to kill now, but Trump promises to try anyway.

Project 2025 goes on to further lay out their various issues with the ACA and the healthcare system in general:

Over the past 45 years, Medicaid and the health safety net have evolved into a cumbersome, complicated, and unaffordable burden on nearly every state. The program is failing some of the most vulnerable patients; is a prime target for waste, fraud, and abuse…. The dramatic increase in Medicaid expenditures is due in large part to the ACA^[5]Mandate For Leadership, Page 466

Project 2025 want to shake up the system allowing for physician-run hospitals to better challenge large hospital conglomerates, make Medicare Advantage compete with other insurance plans, and making Medicare Advantage the default system you’re enrolled in^[6]Mandate For Leadership, Page 464.

This might not seem bad but when you look into the details, it’s forcing American’s healthcare further into private (read: for profit) company’s hands. Medicare Advantage is insurance managed and run by private insurance companies who are free to decide what and who they will cover, whereas Medicaid is government run and available to pretty much anyone under 65^[7]Healthline: Original Medicare vs. Medicare Advantage.

The ACA was exactly what it said it was – affordable. If you force people into the Medicare Advantage program, a lot of the 40 million people served by the ACA would become uninsured due to cost or pre-existing conditions.

Project 2025 also wants to:

Repeal harmful health policies enacted under the Obama and Biden Administrations such as the Medicare Shared Savings Program and Inflation Reduction Act.^[8]Mandate For Leadership, Page 465

The problem? The Medicare Shared Savings Program saved the Medicade program $1.8 BILLION in 2022^[9]Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services: Medicare Shared Savings Program Saves Medicare More Than $1.8 Billion in 2022 and Continues to Deliver High-quality Care and the Inflation Reduction Act (2022) puts more than $500 billion into the economy to help create jobs, reduce healthcare costs, limit prescription drug prices and promote green energy. Not only that, it will put an estimated $237 billion back into the economy over the next 10 years^[10]McKinsey & Company: The Inflation Reduction Act: Here’s what’s in it.

While these two programs alone provide a massive benefit for the American people, Project 2025 sees them a vast Government overreach and as a result they need to be reined in and passed to private firms or cancelled altogether.

What’s the thread that binds all of this together so far? Giving YOUR money to a private company so they can increase THEIR profits.

Abortion

Unsurprisingly, Project 2025 wishes to essentially ban pregnant people accessing any form of abortion care stating that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should:

Reverse its approval of chemical abortion drugs because the politicized approval process was illegal from the start^[11]Mandate For Leadership, Page 458

Amongst other things they wish to rollback changes to laws on abortion bill access by reducing the time frame they can be accessed from 70 days to 49, stop approving “mail-order abortions and interstate carriage of abortion drugs^[12]Mandate For Leadership, Page 459”.

They also want to “Prohibit abortion travel funding^[13]Mandate For Leadership, Page 471”, “Prohibit Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid funds^[14]Mandate For Leadership, Page 471}” and “Withdraw Medicaid funds for states that require abortion insurance or that discriminate in violation of the Weldon Amendment^[15]Mandate For Leadership, Page 471”. This will essentially remove abortion access from the majority of people who may seek it out.

Ironically, since the overturning of Roe v Wade in 2022, there has been an increase in the number of abortions being carried out, with 2023 seeing the highest level since 2011^[16]Vox: Why abortion in the US is on the rise and the majority of these were chemical abortions – 63% which is an increase from 53% in 2020^[17]Guttmacher Institute: Medication Abortions Accounted for 63% of All US Abortions in 2023, an Increase from 53% in 2020 so it’s no wonder Project 2025 are targeting abortion pills so aggressively.

In Part 4 we’ll take a look at how Project 2025 wants to tackle education and what they’re going to do about sex, gender and sexual orientation teaching in schools.

Katy Whitton

Katy is the editor-in-chief of FlippingHeck.com a blog about Self-Improvement, Productivity and Small Business Tips. When she’s not working, she enjoys gaming, making music and Reviewing Things.

www.katywhitton.co.uk