The Path Forward: What Patient Advocates Should Know About Health Policy in 2025-2026

Since November 5th, patient advocacy groups, scholars, medical practitioners, and lawyers have been carefully watching to see what the second Trump Administration might focus on. The second Trump Administration will not simply be a replay of the first, as President Trump’s unusual Cabinet appointments, such as the selection of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), make clear. During 2017, the Trump Administration came into power focused on a clear goal: gutting the Affordable Care Act (ACA). This time, the Administration’s healthcare agenda is widely varied, including sweeping changes to public health focused agencies such as the CDC and FDA, significant changes to Medicaid funding structures, changes to the Inflation Reduction Act, bans on gender affirming and reproductive care, and more. These changes could have a detrimental impact on marginalized communities, including people with chronic illnesses and disabilities, low-income communities, and communities of color.

This issue of Health Care in Motion is forecasting a few (but not all) of the top health policy priorities to follow during 2025-2026. Some of the analysis was drawn from a joint CHLPI-Petrie Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics event which brought patient advocates and health law scholars together to discuss the potential threat the Administration poses to access to care, opportunities for innovation, and strategies to protect healthcare.

Read the latest Health Care on the Ballot.