On the Tuesday, March 17, 2026, episode of The Excerpt podcast:Public health policy has become one of the most contentious fronts of the Trump administration. From cuts to Medicaid to the promotion of dubious theories on the causes of autism, some physicians say they feel compelled to run for office. USA TODAY National Reporter Sarah D. Wire explains what it could mean for the midterms.
Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it.This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.
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Dana Taylor:
Over the past 14 months, the Trump administration's policies have affected virtually every facet of American life from education to the economy. But perhaps the area it's had the most controversial impact is on public health. Some medical practitioners are now voicing their dissatisfaction with those policies by entering politics. Could they sway the midterms?
Hello and welcome to USA TODAY's The Excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor. Today is Tuesday, March 17th, 2026.
Here to dig into how the changes to public health policy are impacting the coming midterm elections is USA TODAY National Reporter Sarah Wire. It's good to have you back on The Excerpt, Sarah.
Sarah D. Wire:
Thanks for having me.
Dana Taylor:
As part of your reporting here, you spoke with several physicians who had decided to enter politics because of this administration's health policies. What did they tell you, Sarah?
Sarah D. Wire:
All these people are still running to be the Democratic nominee, but they all said they want to challenge the administration's misuse of science and data. Now, in Chicago, I spoke to an emergency room doctor named Thomas Fisher, and he said when the GOP tax and spending bill passed over the summer, he felt this moral call to stand up and do something. He felt like the government was increasing suffering on purpose. I spoke to a pediatrician in California, Dr. Richard Pan. He's already squared off against Secretary Kennedy over child vaccine rates in California. And he said he realized that if Kennedy's in Washington, DC, he needs to be as well.
Dana Taylor:
And can you please recap for us in broad strokes, what changes to public health this administration has enacted?
Sarah D. Wire:
We've seen Health and Human Services, Kennedy he's back to blaming mother's Tylenol use during pregnancy causing autism, he's changed the federal dietary guidelines. But more broadly, we've seen with the so-called Big Beautiful Bill, which we call the GOP Tax and Spending Bill, and that changed Medicaid and who qualifies, added work requirements also got funding to the states.
Dana Taylor:
Sarah, there are also already quite a few physicians in Congress. What's their position been on some of these controversial health policies?
Sarah D. Wire:
Yeah, there are about two dozen doctors and nurses already in Congress. Actually, most of them are Republicans. We've seen the majority walk the party line. Some have tried to change the bills behind the scenes and make them better for their constituents. A few have been really vocal in opposing Secretary Kennedy, but we haven't seen it very much.
Dana Taylor:
You also spoke with someone at the Department of Health and Human Services for this story. What did they tell you?
Sarah D. Wire:
They said that Secretary Kennedy is trying to fix a long-standing problem within the medical industry and that all of his critics are part of that industry. He said he's focusing on patient choice and informed consent, and that's all about restoring trust in the medical community.
Dana Taylor:
When HHS SecretaryRFK Jr.took office, he rolled out his Make America Healthy Again plan, or MAHA plan, which had huge support among a bipartisan group known as MAHA Moms. Remind us here, what were the primary tenets of MAHA?
Sarah D. Wire:
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You're right. The MAHA Movement brought together this unexpected coalition. You had independents and Democrats and non-voters. And this was a group that didn't inherently support President Trump or Republicans. They did back Kennedy's run for president. It was one of the reasons that President Trump really tried to embrace Kennedy is he knew that he had this untapped group of voters. They're united in a desire to combat childhood diseases by reducing environmental toxins, ultra-processed foods, over medicalization. The anti-vaccine movement was a major part of this group, and they'd already supported Kennedy who had founded an anti-vaccine group himself.
Dana Taylor:
USA TODAY has recently reported that the MAHA Movement base of support has been less than thrilled with this administration, and that may threaten GOP control in Congress. Why is that?
Sarah D. Wire:
My colleague Swapna Ramaswamy recently reported on this. They're particularly upset about an executive orderDonald Trumpsigned in February that called for increasing the production of glyphosate, a widely used weed killer linked to carcinogens. The agricultural industry relies on this, but MAHA advocates don't want it touching our food. And MAHA embraced Kennedy in part because he was part of legal efforts to block it in America. And Kennedy's not really been able to do anything specifically about this. You can't not back President Trump's executive order. He said that he doesn't like it, but there's not much he can do beyond that.
One woman told Swapna that this is a huge slap in the face from WAHA. It was one of the biggest things they were hoping to accomplish under Trump. There's really not much that Kennedy can do about it.
Dana Taylor:
What justification did Trump's executive order give for boosting production of this chemical?
Sarah D. Wire:
The order said that domestic production, elemental phosphate and glyphosate is necessary for national security. The order says that elemental phosphate is critical to military technologies and is a critical precursor element in producing glyphosate-based herbicides, a lack of which could jeopardize agricultural productivity.
Dana Taylor:
And the order also included limited immunity. Tell me about that, please.
Sarah D. Wire:
The order provides limited immunity to domestic companies that make glyphosate. It's a cheap and effective herbicide popular with farmers. This is important because there's only one company in the United States that produces these two drugs. It's Bayer, which acquired Monsanto back in 2018. They have threatened to stop producing Roundup unless they obtained court protection against lawsuits blaming the pesticide for causing cancer. On April 27th, theSupreme Courtis scheduled to hear arguments on whether the company can be held liable under state law for not disclosing the cancer risks, even though the EPA hasn't deemed it necessary to include that risk on their label.
Dana Taylor:
Congress's failure to reinstate healthcare subsidies that were part of the Affordable Care Act is another factor here. Is the Trump administration prioritizing any solutions here?
Sarah D. Wire:
Healthcare costs have skyrocketed for millions of Americans because of these healthcare subsidies ending at the end of the year. They were premium tax credits that were approved during the pandemic to help make sure as many people were insured as possible. Some people saw their rates double or triple, and some of they were paying thousands of dollars for healthcare, so they stopped paying for insurance. There's been some talk about opening more access to health savings accounts, but there really hasn't been any movement forward at this point.
Dana Taylor:
And finally, Sarah, what are the biggest takeaways from this reporting that you want to leave us with here?
Sarah D. Wire:
I think there are some warning signs when it comes to the power of healthcare and the impacts that voters might consider come November and during the midterms. There's a really tight majority controlling the House and even the Senate's potentially up for grabs. And President Trump has said that if Democrats control either chamber of Congress, that's the end of his ability to do what he wants during this presidential term. And even the people who support MAHA are saying that this should be a warning signal for the administration going into the election.
Dana Taylor:
Sarah Wire is a national reporter for USA TODAY. Sarah, it's always good to have you on.
Sarah D. Wire:
Thanks for having me.
Dana Taylor:
Thanks to our senior producer, Kaely Monahan, for her production assistance. Our executive producer is Laura Beatty. Let us know what you think of this episode by sending a note to podcasts@usatoday.com. Thanks for listening. I'm Dana Taylor. I'll be back tomorrow morning with another episode of USA TODAY's The Excerpt.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:RFK Jr.'s health policies are encouraging doctors to enter politics | The Excerpt
