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The Trump administration announced on Tuesday that it intended to end a Biden-era program that for the past two years has helped tamp down the cost of monthly premiums for drug coverage for people on Medicare. The decision means that millions of Americans 65 and older could face higher Medicare drug premiums next year, when the cost of living is already a major concern. That could be politically damaging for Republicans in the midterm elections. (Robbins and Abelson, 7/28)

The Trump administration is looking into alternatives to the current fee-for-service-based payment system for physicians who treat Medicare patients. The request for information issued on July 14 by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) noted that the Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) coding system, on which the Medicare reimbursement program is based, is owned by the American Medical Association (AMA). (Frieden, 7/28)

Democratic attorneys general and the Justice Department are facing off for the first time in court Tuesday over the fine line between being sick and being “medically frail,” a distinction that could cost Medicaid recipients their health benefits. At stake is a key part of a new Trump administration rule imposing work requirements on Medicaid, the state-federal health insurer for low-income people, starting in January. (Ollstein and King, 7/28)

Doctors in Iowa, like in most in the country, don’t spend their days thinking about politics. But politics in Washington lately has focused on healthcare, and a lot of physicians have become acutely aware that policy flowing from the capital will make their lives and the lives of many patients worse. “Are those of us who are working clinically at the bedside mindful of the potential changes?” said Dr. Nick Kluesner, an emergency physician in Des Moines. “The answer is yes.” (McAuliff, 7/28)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: Uninsured But Undaunted, A Surgical Patient Searched The Globe For A Deal

Around the end of last year, Ronmel Rangel, 63, began to feel a familiar discomfort in his lower abdomen. Twenty-five years earlier, while living in his native Venezuela, he had undergone surgery to repair a hernia on the right side of his groin. Now, the same pain had returned — on the left. This time, Rangel was in the U.S. and lacked health insurance. In 2019, he moved to Portland, Maine, where one of his daughters lives. (Andalo, 7/29)