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The Trump administration’s proposed new rules for Obamacare plans next year would shift more health care costs to Americans, with much higher deductibles that could lead to larger medical bills. Under the proposal, people who rely on the Affordable Care Act for their health insurance coverage could choose plans with much lower monthly premiums. But that could leave them exposed to medical expenses totaling thousands of dollars more than A.C.A. plans do now before their insurance would kick in. (Abelson, 2/26)

As rural health care across the state faces challenges to funding and services, the Public Health Accreditation Board has awarded White Earth Nation's health care system national accreditation. (Eagle III, 2/27)

Legislators on Connecticut’s General Law Committee are considering a bill aimed at ensuring consumers understand the potential pitfalls of medical credit cards before signing up. Hundreds of thousands of dentists, doctors and veterinarians across the country offer patients the option to apply for medical credit cards to help pay for out-of-pocket costs. (Golvala, 2/25)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: He Needs An Expensive Drug. A Copay Card Helped — Until It Didn’t

Over the course of 2025, Jayant Mishra of Mission Viejo, California, progressively developed scaly, itchy red patches on his skin. Then came the pain and swelling in the joints of his hands, making it difficult to do his work at a bank. His primary care doctor referred him to a rheumatologist, who diagnosed psoriatic arthritis. She advised Mishra that while there’s no cure, there were many new medicines that could keep the autoimmune disease in check, and she recommended one, Otezla. (Rosenthal, 2/27)

A top health official at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) hedged on payment reform, but committed to helping physicians address prior authorization challenges, during the American Medical Association's (AMA) National Advocacy Conference. Seven in 10 physicians in private practice cited their inability to negotiate higher payment rates as the number one reason they either left or sold their practice, according to Bruce Scott, MD, the immediate past president of the AMA, who moderated the discussion. (Firth, 2/26)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: To Avoid Care Disruptions, Know When The Clock Runs Out On Your Prior Authorization

A woman with multiple sclerosis wanted to be able to walk up the stairs at home without losing her balance. Her doctor prescribed medicine that helped, but then approval from her insurance plan for the drug expired. (Boden, 2/27)

State Medicaid budgets will shrink by $664 billion through 2034 as key provisions of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (H.R. 1) take effect, with impacts varying by state depending on expansion status, reliance on provider taxes and the use of state-directed payments, according to a RAND study published Feb. 26. Meanwhile, Medicaid managed care insurers have been flagging a mismatch between state capitation rates and enrollee acuity over the last couple of years following the pandemic-era continuous enrollment unwinding. (Emerson, 2/26)

CalOptima, Orange County’s health insurance program for the poor, has seen a plunge in membership since summer, which advocates attribute to the effects of the Trump administration’s hardline immigration policies and sweeping changes to Medi-Cal. More than 26,500 CalOptima members have left since the start of the year, dropping the total enrollment to roughly 822,000 in mid-February, according to data shared by the agency. Some 15,000 people dropped from the health plan just in February. (Wang, 2/26)

After three years at the helm, Jay Ludlam is stepping down as director of North Carolina’s Medicaid program. Ludlam’s tenure included North Carolina’s expansion of Medicaid, a decade-in-the-making endeavor that has given more than 710,000 low-income residents access to coverage since December 2023. (Baxley, 2/27)