2025 in Healthcare and What This Means for You

Back in early 2020, a meme circulated that perfectly captured the chaos of just the first few months of the year. It was funny because it was true. You can find that meme here.

I have thought about that meme a lot over the past year.

Since Donald Trump returned to office and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was confirmed as Secretary of Health and Human Services, the “Make America Healthy Again” agenda has fundamentally reshaped how healthcare and public health operate in the United States.

In a relatively short time, we have seen restructuring of HHS, withdrawal from the World Health Organization, major shifts in vaccine policy and messaging, questioning of long-established preventive care standards, increased scrutiny of medicating children, and growing debate around dietary guidance, food safety, and lifestyle-focused disease prevention.

A lot has happened, quickly.

This article is not about politics for politics’ sake. It is about how these changes affect public health and what that means for your everyday wellness as we move into 2026.

A New Public Health Philosophy

Traditionally, U.S. healthcare has relied on centralized guidance, unified standards, and consistent messaging from institutions like the CDC. Trust has been built through transparency, competence, and patient-centered care.

That framework began to fracture in 2025.

A new philosophy entered the conversation, one that prioritizes individual responsibility over population-level protection. Federal health agencies adopted more ambiguous language around well-established preventive strategies, sometimes softening or altering guidance without clear explanation.

The result has been confusion, eroded trust, and increased pressure on individuals to interpret risk without complete information.

Public health works best when guidance is repetitive, transparent, and consistent. We are now entering a culture where opinions increasingly influence how medical research is presented, rather than research guiding health decisions.

This creates more work for both providers and patients.

Vaccines, Prevention, and Trust

One of the loudest themes of 2025 involved vaccines and prevention. Advisory committees were restructured, and long-standing language around vaccine safety and effectiveness was altered.

The CDC website itself was amended multiple times, including the addition of language referencing discredited autism research. This challenged what is considered evidence-based medicine.

Even small declines in vaccination rates increase the risk of outbreaks. Diseases once considered eliminated do not need widespread refusal to return. They only need enough uncertainty.

Public health depends on collective participation. When preventive care becomes optional rather than expected, the consequences extend far beyond the individual making the choice.

Chronic Disease and the Limits of “Do Better”

Chronic disease took center stage under MAHA, and in many ways that focus is overdue.

The United States faces a serious chronic disease burden. Four in ten adults are obese. One in five children is affected. Roughly six in ten Americans live with at least one chronic condition.

This is not about appearance. It is about long-term health, quality of life, and preventable suffering.

While MAHA emphasized childhood health, an important and necessary goal, the approach leaned heavily on identifying culprits such as ultra-processed foods, dyes, environmental exposures, and psychiatric medications.

What was missing was equal attention to access, affordability, safe places for movement, and sustainable community-based wellness support.

The message often became “do better,” without addressing whether better was realistically possible.

Lifestyle matters. Framing chronic illness as personal failure does not improve outcomes.

Looking Ahead

Over the past year, the United States has moved away from long-standing public health norms toward a model that places more responsibility and risk interpretation on individuals.

Wellness is still built daily through movement, nutrition, sleep, preventive care, and community.

Public health exists to protect us when individual effort is not enough.

As we move into 2026, understanding how healthcare changed in 2025 helps us prepare with clarity rather than panic.

Wellness is personal. Public health is collective. We need both.