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One year after the Republican-led Congress imposed new work requirements for adults receiving food stamps, the number of low-income Missourians who use the program has dropped by nearly 50,000. (Erickson, 7/29)

Starting next week, Nebraskans on Medicaid will be at risk of losing their health coverage unless the state can verify that they work, volunteer, or attend school for 80 hours per month. Come January, millions of other low-income Americans will face the same cliff. (Cueto, 7/30)

Here’s a costly pop quiz: If you’re delivering a baby at, let’s say, HCA HealthONE Rose Medical Center in Denver, how much is it going to cost? If you answered “It depends” or, ultimately, “I don’t know,” you win the game but also understand one way consumers lose in the healthcare system. (Ingold, 7/29)

By the end of 2020, Kentucky’s newly elected Gov. Andy Beshear had one goal above all others: Keep people alive. The state was battling two merciless threats. COVID-19 was killing hundreds of people each month, and deadly drug overdoses were among the highest in the nation. Calling addiction a disease that breeds in isolation, Beshear worried people would stop seeking treatment for fear of contracting COVID-19. (Acquisto and Six, 7/30)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: Medicaid Insurers’ Contracts On The Line In Tight Governor’s Race

One of America’s most competitive gubernatorial races could settle a heated argument over whether private insurance companies should run Medicaid. The race is in Iowa, whose Medicaid program has been plagued with controversy since 2016, when the state hired national insurance companies to manage billions of dollars’ worth of benefits. That shift was made by then-Gov. Terry Branstad, a Republican. With his executive order, Iowa joined most other states in privatizing the management of Medicaid, which covers healthcare for more than 67 million Americans with low incomes or disabilities. (Leys, 7/30)