Medicaid cuts, SNAP cuts, increased power bills, and federal student loans all decimated, just a day before the celebration of America’s 249th birthday. On July 3rd, 2025, this bill was passed by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Trump on July 4th. This bill has been widely analyzed and debated among politicians, news sources, and economic analysts. Within the cuts brought by this bill, there will be extreme shortfalls in the public systems that serve us every day, from hospitals and hygiene to every minuscule detail of the cost of living, making this prep list a must-read. Here’s a quick roadmap of what’s to come and how to survive it.

Medicaid

What Happened: The OBBBA (One Big Beautiful Bill Act) requires those on Medicaid to provide documentation of 80 hours a month of employment, community service, or work training. These requirements will jeopardize the security of Medicaid for those with difficulty in job and transportation security, disabled individuals, and retired/elderly people.

Alongside this, the MSP (Medicare Savings Program) has been significantly halted until 2034. This program would’ve allowed low-income individuals the ability to cover premiums and cost-sharing for their benefits.

Funding for rural hospitals has also been slashed, leaving hospitals with around 4.5 million a year for the next five years. In comparison, before the OBBBA was passed, rural hospitals were receiving 12.2 billion a year, on average.

What this means for us: Without this funding, and the many additional hurdles that come with signing up for Medicaid while providing work/community documentation, finding low-cost health coverage becomes even more vital. Luckily, there are low-cost health services available, which you can find locally or through websites like HRSA (Health Resources and Services Administration) to locate lower-cost services near you.

What to do: Consider whether staying on Medicaid is doable for you, especially as new requirements start coming for filing. If Medicaid doesn’t seem like a reliable option, consider reaching out to community health centers near you, which might provide you with coverage options or other resources in your area.

SNAP Benefits

What Happened: Within the cuts for SNAP, many provisions are taken away, including increased paperwork, loss of access for people experiencing homelessness, veterans, and individuals aging out of foster care. Additionally, coverage for certain household costs, like internet services, which were previously considered as an aspect of household utilities, will no longer be considered. This will impact homes that have internet access, considering them as a household with a higher overall income, leading to fewer benefits and coverage from SNAP.

What this means for us: Finding cost-lowering alternatives for families and individuals reliant on SNAP becomes especially vital, as these impacts could have many people deliberating between internet and food costs more heavily, cutting out essential needs. Looking for budgeting and local/community alternatives becomes even more critical.

What to do: Volunteering at local food pantries and kitchens is an accessible way to get involved, while also contributing to your community, saving money on food, etc. Additionally, many programs have opportunities for the hours to be documented and considered as time worked, for those opting to qualify for Medicaid over low-cost health center plans.

Power and Electricity

What Happened: Many clean energy initiatives were greatly impacted, such as tax credits for those purchasing electric vehicles, scrapped provisions for solar and wind power energy tax credits for many homeowners, and job losses in clean energy. This has lead to a heavier dependency on older non-renewable energy, which has become increasingly expensive as time progresses.

What this means for us: It’s estimated that power bills will increase on average by $110 within the next year, and up to $400 per year by 2030. These changes will impact homes drastically, especially those with dependents or heavy electronic use, which tends to be the majority of suburban and urban residents.

What to do: Look at what alternatives may be available to you within the present available changes, and future changes. For those looking to get an electric vehicle tax credit, while saving money, used EVs purchased before 9/30/2025 would still be eligible for a $4,000 tax credit, and new EVs would be eligible for a $7,500 tax credit.

Additionally, for those looking to save money through more immediate actions, looking at power and water usage within your home, by going “mini-solar”, and adopting portable solar chargers for your phone and other quick-use devices, such as coffee-makers, laptops, and other devices that require outlets. These options allow you to convert to solar energy more easily without investing hundreds or thousands of dollars.

Student Loans

What Happened: For individuals seeking collegiate education, many changes have occurred with borrowing, loan repayment, and financial aid, primarily impacting students from lower-income families and international students.

When it comes to borrowing, the biggest change is caused by the end of Grad PLUS loans, which allowed graduate students to borrow a total of their educational costs minus their financial aid. This allowed people to ensure they were pursuing education and guarantee the ability to enroll in programs if they couldn’t meet out-of-pocket costs. Currently, the OBBBA limits graduate students to a total of 20.5 thousand per year and 50 thousand per year for professional studies.

Loan repayment programs are changing, and after July 2026, with an updated federal loan system that creates repayment plans ranging from ten to twenty-five years, depending on the amount borrowed, with an alternative income-driven repayment, called RAP (Repayment Assistance Plan). While this plan is designed to assist lower-income families with repayment, guaranteeing a minimum reduction of $50 per month on your principal, if your repayment only covers interest, this program is also one of the longest repayment programs in history, as the updated RAP plan caps out after 30 years.

What this means for us: While these changes are intended to help people repay loans, the new bill adds caps to loans to prevent people from taking out too many loans they can’t pay off quickly, with the expenses of graduate and professional studies, many people are straying away from or delaying higher degrees until there are more financially manageable ways to pay for their education.

Pell grants will no longer be available to individuals whose SAI, or student aid index (which is calculated when families file for federal aid) is above double the Pell grant value. Additionally, international assets and foreign income will be included in these calculations, meaning that international students may face a myriad of challenges in the pursuit of financial aid and education.