and distribution networks at breakneck speed. But the momentum vanished. The muscle was never allowed to become bone. Grants dried up. Staff disappeared. Equipment sat idle.
In Mississippi, chemist Eden Tanner said it flatly: “I want to cure brain cancer. That’s all I want to do. But they cut my grant.” She wasn’t the only one. A Nature survey found that three out of four U.S. researchers are considering jobs abroad.
“We’re not just defunding research. We’re canceling futures.”
H.R. 1, passed in July, didn’t just dent Medicaid and ACA funding—it detonated them. Nearly $800 billion gone over the next decade. Seventeen million people projected to lose coverage. Work requirements, paperwork traps, rural hospital closures—it’s not a theory. It’s happening.
The girl in Dr. Lew’s ER got help. The next one might not.
Meanwhile, CRISPR cured 29-year-old Janelle of sickle cell disease. “I go months without remembering I was ever sick,” she said. In London, 19-year-old Jasmine rode a bike along the Thames—her first pain-free summer. Their recoveries were made possible because someone, somewhere, funded the science. Protected the patients. Built the infrastructure.
Once, that someone was us. We were the country that showed up—with vaccines, with doctors, with grain ships, with ideas. We led not just with power, but with purpose. We believed that helping others made us stronger too.
We still can.
The system isn’t beyond repair. The science hasn’t vanished. The doctors haven’t given up. What’s broken isn’t our capacity—it’s our will.
But will can return.
We’ve rebuilt before. We’ve reimagined before. And if we choose to, we can once again become the nation that answers need with action, not tariffs. The nation that saves lives—not just our own, but everyone’s.
All it takes is the decision to care again.
Bibliography
1. Congressional Budget Office. Estimated Budgetary Effects of H.R. 1, the American Health Care Reform Act of 2025. July 2025.
2. Analyzes the projected loss of insurance coverage and Medicaid funding from the 2025 reconciliation bill.
2. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. FDA’s Role in the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain. Updated March 2024.
4. Outlines the extent of U.S. reliance on imported drugs and ingredients.
3. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. HHS Announces Workforce Reduction Plan. April 2025.
6. Announces the layoff of 10,000 HHS employees and the restructuring of key health agencies.
4. National Institutes of Health. NIH Data Book: Research Grant Trends. Accessed July 2025.
8. Provides data on terminated research grants and historical funding patterns.
5. The White House. Remarks by President Donald J. Trump on Pharmaceutical Tariff Measures. July 2025.
10. Official statement justifying the 17% pharmaceutical import tariff.
6. Association of American Medical Colleges. “Impact of NIH Budget Cuts on U.S. Medical Schools.” AAMC News, March 2025.