Bad Medicine

North Carolina’s medical institutions are among the best in the world. Yet even in this global healthcare hub, our system is straining. Historic disparities among income, race, gender and geography are getting worse. Drug prices and insurance premiums are rising. Vaccine hesitancy is increasing.

This is a lot of highly flammable kindling for the Trump administration’s burning match. Medical disinformation used to come only from fringe circles and paid influencers, but now it’s also coming directly from the federal government. The uninsured rate was dropping, now hundreds of thousands face losing their coverage in 2026 and 2027 amid more than $1 trillion in federal cuts to healthcare.

Cardinal and Pine’s new series, Bad Medicine, will look at the multi-front attack the Trump administration is waging on North Carolina, from huge cuts to Medicaid to the dismantling of federal health infrastructure and research funding to the widespread disinformation on vaccines and pregnancy. Most importantly, our work will center the voices and communities most affected by these changes.