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Republicans in Congress have suggested big cuts to Medicaid, the state-federal health insurance program for people with low incomes or disabilities. The complex, multifaceted program touches millions of Americans and has become deeply woven into state budgets and the U.S. health care system.
A state lawmaker wants health insurers to disclose denial rates and explain those denials as anger grows over rising costs and uncovered medical care. If the bill is signed into law, health experts say, it could be one of the boldest attempts in the nation to rein in denials.
States are required to claw back health care costs from the estates of many Medicaid recipients. Some, including Iowa, are particularly aggressive in their pursuit.
Pain MD, which once ran as many as 20 clinics across three states, gave chronic-pain patients about 700,000 total injections near their spines, according to court documents. Last year, federal prosecutors proved at trial that the shots were medically unnecessary and part of an extensive fraud scheme.
吃瓜不打烊 shares our favorite reader-submitted health policy valentines. One struck us in the heart and inspired an original cartoon.
As Republicans consider adding work requirements to Medicaid, Georgia and Arkansas 鈥 two states with experience running such programs 鈥 want to scale back the key parts supporters have argued encourage employment and personal responsibility.
It鈥檚 common for young people leaving jails and prisons to end up back behind bars, often after lapses related to untreated mental health issues or substance abuse. A new law is aimed at getting them on Medicaid before they鈥檙e released. But the government coordination required to make it happen is significant.
The Montana health department says the Board of Public Assistance is redundant and a bureaucratic hurdle that helps few people. Current and former board representatives say the rare cases in which the panel helps people are important.
State Medicaid and Affordable Care Act programs have long struggled to connect with lower-income Americans to help them access care. Now some are trying an alternative approach: meeting them at the laundromat.
Gloria Sachdev, a pharmacist by training, has spent years taking on the health care establishment in Indiana, working to pull down high hospital prices and make information public to patients. Now, in a newly created position in the governor鈥檚 Cabinet, she鈥檚 no longer fighting from the outside.
The Affordable Care Act requires most insurance plans to cover preventive care, including many forms of contraception, without cost to patients 鈥 but not if they鈥檙e 鈥済randfathered鈥 plans, which predate the law.
A sweeping Trump administration order threw the nation鈥檚 health system into disarray Tuesday, as states and the health industry tried to make sense of what looked like a freeze on federal Medicaid funding.
Enhanced federal subsidies and more state aid for out-of-pocket costs have made health insurance purchased through California鈥檚 marketplace more affordable. It's unclear if the incoming Republican Congress will extend the enhanced subsidies beyond 2025.
With just days to go before the official launch of a new administration, the GOP-led Congress is putting together plans on how to enact incoming President Donald Trump鈥檚 agenda, with a particular emphasis on cutting spending on the Medicaid program. Meanwhile, the Biden administration makes major moves in its last days, including banning a controversial food dye and ordering cigarette companies to minimize their nicotine content. Joanne Kenen of Johns Hopkins University and Politico Magazine, Anna Edney of Bloomberg News, and Sandhya Raman of CQ Roll Call join 吃瓜不打烊鈥 Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews Harris Meyer, who reported and wrote the latest 吃瓜不打烊 鈥淏ill of the Month鈥 feature, about a colonoscopy that came with a much larger price tag than estimated.
California has a few major changes coming to its health policy landscape in 2025. New laws that took effect Jan. 1 ban medical debt from credit reports, allow public health inspections of private immigration detention centers, and ban toxic chemicals in makeup.
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.
Health is unlikely to be a top priority for the new GOP-led 119th Congress and President-elect Donald Trump. But it鈥檚 likely to play a key supporting role, with an abortion bill already scheduled for debate in the Senate. Meanwhile, it鈥檚 unclear when and how the new Congress will deal with the bipartisan bills jettisoned from the previous Congress鈥 year-end omnibus measure 鈥 including a major deal to rein in the power of pharmacy benefit managers. In this 鈥渃atch up on all the news you missed鈥 episode, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Shefali Luthra of The 19th, and Lauren Weber of The Washington Post join 吃瓜不打烊鈥 Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more.
Legislative leaders say the decision whether to renew Montana鈥檚 Medicaid expansion program this year will loom over behavioral health spending and hospital regulation, among other topics.
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.
Advocates say it is discrimination and are arguing for 鈥渋nsurance fairness鈥 on the grounds that people who have joints surgically replaced typically don鈥檛 face the same kinds of coverage challenges.
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