Washington, D.C. — As a part of the Center for American Progress Action Fund’s ongoing seven-figure effort to educate Americans about President Trump’s broken promises—and with President Trump’s 2020 budget expected to cut billions in funding for Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security—CAPAF is releasing a new video in a social media campaign. The campaign will tell stories of Americans such as Susie Christoff of Fairfax, Virginia, who faces constant debilitating pain from psoriatic arthritis. President Trump’s budget cuts put Americans like Susie’s health and quality of life at risk.
During the 2016 campaign, one of Trump’s central promises to voters was that he wouldn’t cut Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. However, the reality has been much different. Over the next 10 years, President Trump’s budget proposal would spend $1.5 trillion less on Medicaid, $25 billion less on Social Security, and $845 billion less on Medicare. For people like Susie who rely on these programs, these budget cuts could be the difference between receiving the care they need and entering financial ruin.
“I can either stop this medicine or decide to use all of my retirement to pay for a medicine that would get me some relief. So those are my choices,” says Christoff.
According to Christoff, the medication needed to relieve her symptoms costs $3,000 per month, which is why she can no longer afford to manage her arthritis which she says negatively affects her quality of life.
“It’s 24/7 discomfort or pain at some level. I have just got my fourth grandchild a month ago. I can’t get down on the sand to play. I’m not the nana I thought I would be because I can’t physically do a lot,” she says.
President Trump promised that his administration would prioritize tackling increases in prescription drug prices; however, in the first two days of 2019, 60 prescription drug companies raised prices on nearly 300 prescription drugs.
As Christoff says in the video, “Trump made a point of saying over and over and over again that there would be no cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and drug prices were going to drop … I have not seen him keeping any of the promises that he repeatedly used as his platform.”
Christoff says that having to decide between paying the mortgage and paying for life-saving medication is something that shouldn’t happen in America and that President Trump’s broken promise on cuts Medicaid and Medicare puts people like her at risk.
“We need a specific plan for lowering these drug costs. Enough is enough, we need to fix this,” she says.
For more information on this topic or to talk to an expert, please contact Freedom Alexander Murphy at [email protected] or 202.796.9712.