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Ńī¹óåś“«Ć½Ņīl Health News chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner answers listenersā questions about how the āOne Big Beautiful Billā could affect health care in Washington, D.C., and beyond.
A new poll finds that most adults oppose the GOP bill that would extend many of President Donald Trumpās tax cuts while reducing spending on domestic programs including Medicaid. Most Trump backers support the plan until they learn that millions would lose health coverage and local hospitals would lose funding.
An estimated 4 million Americans will lose health insurance over the next decade if Congress doesnāt extend enhanced subsidies for Affordable Care Act marketplace coverage, which expire at the end of the year. Florida and Texas would see the biggest losses, in part because they have not expanded Medicaid eligibility.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. this week did something he had promised not to do: He fired every member of the scientific advisory committee that recommends which vaccines should be given to whom. And he replaced them, in some cases, with vaccine skeptics. Meanwhile, hundreds of employees of the National Institutes of Health sent an open letter to the agencyās director, accusing the Trump administration of policies that āundermine the NIH mission.ā Anna Edney of Bloomberg News, Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet, and Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico Magazine join Ńī¹óåś“«Ć½Ņīl Health Newsā Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more.
The combination of the House-passed spending and tax bill and the Trump administrationās regulatory action could change Affordable Care Act enrollment and the cost of insurance. The result, according to the Congressional Budget Office, is that millions of people may become uninsured.
The domestic policy legislation the House advanced in May includes the most substantial rollback of the Affordable Care Act since President Donald Trump and his Republican allies tried to pass legislation in 2017 that would have largely repealed President Barack Obamaās signature domestic accomplishment.
Congressional Republicans are looking to cut at least $880 billion from a pool of federal funding that includes Medicaid ā and the program is likely to take a major hit. A previous budget crunch in Missouri offers a window into how cuts ripple through peopleās lives.
Ńī¹óåś“«Ć½Ņīl Health News journalists made the rounds on national or local media recently to discuss topical stories. Hereās a collection of their appearances.
Monica Soni, Covered Californiaās chief medical officer, oversees an effort to hold health plans financially accountable for the quality of care they provide, including childhood vaccination rates, which have fallen in California and nationwide. She worries federal spending cuts could soon bring turbulence to the stateās Affordable Care Act marketplace.
When Congress returns next week, it will be writing a budget reconciliation bill thatās expected to cut taxes but also make deep cuts to Medicaid. But at least some Republicans are concerned about cutting a program that aids so many of their constituents. Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet, Tami Luhby of CNN, and Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico join Ńī¹óåś“«Ć½Ņīl Health Newsā Julie Rovner to discuss this story and more. Also, Rovner interviews Ńī¹óåś“«Ć½Ņīl Health Newsā Rae Ellen Bichell about her story on how care for transgender minors is changing in Colorado.
These fixers, officially known as caseworkers, unraveled complex and arcane health insurance rules to solve peopleās coverage issues. They worked in a little-known federal department with which most consumers never interact ā until they need help.
Consumers who were enrolled fraudulently in Affordable Care Act coverage could receive unexpected tax bills ā the first and possibly only clue they were a victim of fraud. Getting help may become difficult as federal workers are laid off and funding for assistance programs is cut.
The GOP-controlled Congress is weighing cuts to Medicaid, the government health program that covers millions of Americans ā including nearly 40% of Louisianans represented in the House by Speaker Mike Johnson.
The proposal also would reverse a Biden administration policy that allowed āDreamersā ā immigrants in the country illegally who were brought here as children ā from qualifying for subsidized ACA coverage.
At least 20 states have settled disputes with health insurance giant Centene since 2021 over allegations that its pharmacy benefit manager operation overcharged their Medicaid programs. Two holdouts appear to remain: Georgia has not yet settled, and Florida officials wonāt answer questions about its Centene situation.
Congressional Republicans are pushing plans that could make deep cuts to Medicaid to finance President Donald Trumpās tax cuts and other priorities. At stake is coverage for millions of low-income Americans, as well as a huge revenue source for hospitals ā and every state.
Health leaders say a tool to boost medical coverage for Native Americans, a population that has long faced worse health outcomes than the rest of the nation, has been underused by many states and tribes since it was written into the Affordable Care Act more than a decade ago.
President Donald Trump was sworn in Monday and by Wednesday had virtually stopped scientific policymaking at the Department of Health and Human Services. While incoming administrations often pause public communications, the acting HHS head ordered an unprecedented shutdown of all outside meetings, travel, and publications. Meanwhile, Trump issued a broad array of mostly nonbinding executive orders, but notably none directly concerning abortion. Rachel Cohrs Zhang of Stat, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, and Rachel Roubein of The Washington Post join Ńī¹óåś“«Ć½Ņīl Health Newsā Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews Rodney Whitlock, a former congressional staffer, who explains the convoluted ābudget reconciliationā process Republicans hope to use to enact Trumpās agenda.
Republicans in Washington are working on plans to shrink Medicaid, the nearly $900-billion-a-year government health insurance program that covers 1 in 5 Americans.
As Gov. Gavin Newsom enters the second half of his final term, health care stands out as his most ambitious but glaringly incomplete initiative for California residents. The issue will likely shape his national profile for better or worse. And now, Donald Trump brings a new wrinkle.
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