{"id":33906,"date":"2025-07-24T14:27:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T14:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/33906\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T14:27:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T14:27:12","slug":"penn-faculty-policy-experts-reflect-on-trump-era-shifts-in-u-s-health-care-policies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/33906\/","title":{"rendered":"Penn faculty, policy experts reflect on Trump-era shifts in U.S. health care policies"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\"dsc-0063\"\/
\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

Penn health experts respond to health care rollbacks by the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCredit: Devansh Raniwala<\/a> \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Since returning to the Oval Office in January, 1968 Wharton graduate and President Donald Trump has reshaped and rolled back several aspects of the United States health care system.\n<\/p>\n

The Trump administration\u2019s efforts against health care have included sweeping changes to federal health insurance protections and the withdrawal of funding from public health research initiatives. The Daily Pennsylvanian spoke with University public health experts and legal scholars to understand the impact of recent policies \u2014 including the effects of restricted Medicaid eligibility on immigrant populations.\n\t\t<\/p>\n

According to University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School professor Allison Hoffman, who specializes in health sciences, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act \u2014 signed into law by Trump on July 4 \u2014 introduced several provisions that will impact access to Medicaid services nationwide.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cOn average, about 30% of state budgets are spent on Medicaid,\u201d Hoffman told the DP. \u201cOf that, half or more comes from the federal government. What this law is doing is pulling money away from the state Medicaid programs in a number of ways.\u201d\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Hoffman said the federal government plans to implement \u201cwork and community engagement requirements\u201d as a consideration for Medicaid eligibility as part of the act \u2014 adding that \u201cpeople who are able to work have to be working or seeking work or engaged in the community in some other statutorily defined way.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

For renewals scheduled on or after Dec. 31, 2026, Medicaid recipients must reaffirm their eligibility every six months. According to Victor Roy, an assistant professor at the Perelman School of Medicine in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, the work requirements \u201cplace more administrative burdens on people, which will have the impact of less people getting Medicaid.\u201d\n\t<\/p>\n

\u201cTo see [work requirements] rolled out in such a broad-strokes way through this law is really a fundamental change to how the Medicaid program is going to function,\u201d Hoffman said.\n<\/p>\n

University faculty also said that the new Medicaid restrictions will widely impact immigrants residing in the U.S., especially those who are undocumented.\n<\/p>\n

Hoffman described how previous laws\u2019 definitions of \u201ca qualified immigrant\u201d included \u201cpeople who have refugee or asylum status, people who are the victims of domestic violence \u2014 these kinds of categories.\u201d\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThis law narrows the list of who is considered a qualified immigrant to just a few groups,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n

Penn Carey Law professor Fernando Chang-Muy, a lecturer on immigration, classified qualification restrictions as \u201cshort-sighted.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThis administration is looking at it [with] very tunnel vision and saying, \u2018if you\u2019re not in one of these categories, we\u2019re not going to treat you, you\u2019re not going to get access to health care,\u2019\u201d he said to the DP.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

Chang-Muy also criticized hospitals potentially requiring information on a patient\u2019s citizenship status or birthplace when seeking medical care.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just doesn\u2019t make sense from a moral perspective, from an economic perspective, and from a public health perspective, not to support and treat people regardless of their immigration status,\u201d he continued.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

Penn Carey Law professor and director of the Transnational Legal Clinic, Sarah Paoletti, echoed Chang-Muy\u2019s concern about health care access under Trump-era legislation.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cMy understanding is that doctors have an ethical obligation to treat the patient in front of them, and that would also mean treating the patient in front of them regardless of immigration status,\u201d Paoletti wrote to the DP. \u201cIt is not legal \u2013 under international law \u2013 to discriminate in any way on the basis of migration status.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are a nation of immigrants, and we should all be treated with respect and dignity,\u201d Chang-Muy said.\n<\/p>\n

Paoletti noted that \u201ceven if the medical care is still being provided, the asking of questions deters someone from seeking help\u201d and may \u201chave longer term public health consequences not just for those afraid of being detained and deported, but for all of us.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

She also emphasized that many concerns surrounding immigrants seeking medical services are rooted in a hospital\u2019s finances \u2014 or the question of \u201cwho is going to pay the bill?\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the person has insurance, then there is no legal basis for which a medical institution can or should be asking about migration status,\u201d Paoletti wrote. \u201cIf the person does not have insurance, then that person should legally and ethically be treated like any other patient without medical insurance.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand that it costs money to run medical facilities and to provide medical care, but everyone should have the same right to access medical care regardless of their migration status, as a matter of fundamental human rights,\u201d she added.\n<\/p>\n

The Trump administration has also attempted to alter the marketplace created by the Affordable Care Act, which was signed into law by former President Barack Obama in 2010.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Biden administration had been providing subsidies for certain categories of people at higher levels,\u201d Hoffman said. \u201cThe Trump administration has failed to extend the period, resulting in about \u201c5 million people [that] may lose Marketplace coverage.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Hoffman also pointed to the administration\u2019s efforts to \u201cmake it harder to enroll\u201d in insurance programs through new legislation, such as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and other policies.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cBy establishing new requirements for eligibility and restrictions on enrollment periods, less people eligible for insurance will not be able to receive it under the ACA,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n

Roy said that many decisions from the federal government are made \u201cto finance tax cuts,\u201d which results in a \u201credistribution of wealth from the low-income populations to wealthy individuals.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

The rollback of scientific and medical research \u2014 which accelerated on Feb. 7, when the National Institutes of Health implemented a funding cut<\/a> on indirect costs \u2014 has also left many questions for the future of health care.\n<\/p>\n

Katherine Milkman, the James G. Dinan Endowed Wharton professor of operations, information and decisions, called the cuts \u201cworrisome\u201d in an interview with the DP, noting the March stop-work orders<\/a> for research grants received by members of Penn\u2019s faculty.\n\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\tSign up for our newsletter<\/p>\n

Get our newsletter, DP Daybreak, delivered to your inbox every weekday morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s unclear what the implications will be and how dire, but it\u2019s clear that we\u2019re going to have a lot more loss of life that\u2019s unnecessary,\u201d Milkman said.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

She also criticized the \u201ccutback in support for communication\u201d for those who were receiving NIH funding.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are getting these letters that are crazy,\u201d Milkman said. \u201cThey say things in broken English \u2026 it says it\u2019s no longer in the U.S. national interest to understand why people might not get vaccinated. How could that not be in the U.S. national interest when it\u2019s this amazing preventative way to save lives?\u201d<\/p>\n

The Daily Pennsylvanian is an independent, student-run newspaper. Please consider making a donation<\/a> to support the coverage that shapes the University. Your generosity ensures a future of strong journalism at Penn.<\/p>\n

Donate<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Penn health experts respond to health care rollbacks by the Trump administration. Credit: Devansh Raniwala Since returning to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33907,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[28188,28187,28190,97,252,253,3,28189,111,1867,3479],"class_list":{"0":"post-33906","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health-care","8":"tag-academic-research","9":"tag-academics-faculty","10":"tag-app-top-news","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-health-care","13":"tag-healthcare","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-penn-medicine","16":"tag-politics","17":"tag-top","18":"tag-trump"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}