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Republicans say California’s use of Medicaid money for social services amounts to waste, fraud, and abuse. But even as Gov. Gavin Newsom voices concern about losing funding, he says he’s proud of the state’s holistic approach to caring for its sickest and most expensive patients.
New Medicaid work requirements could make a complex system even harder for farmworkers to navigate.
Over the past 70 years, the number of inpatient psychiatric beds has dropped dramatically, leaving many without critical care when they experience mental health crises. I was one of the lucky ones to get a bed — after 21 hours of waiting.
A work requirement is coming to Medicaid. Sam Whitehead tells WAMU’s “Health Hub” how to keep your coverage — and who’s exempt from the new rule.
California’s next governor will face tough decisions on a highly controversial piece of healthcare policy: what to do about health coverage for the more than 1.4 million low-income residents without legal status. Democrat Xavier Becerra and Republican Steve Hilton present starkly different choices as public opinion wavers.
The Trump administration’s cuts to Medicaid and SNAP may complicate Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo’s reelection chances.
With the fiscal year mostly over, hundreds of millions of dollars in health-related grants approved by Congress still have not reached their designated recipients, with the Trump administration again delaying distribution. Meanwhile, on the fourth anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that allowed states to ban abortion, the number of abortions in the U.S. is actually rising. Maya Goldman of Axios, Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico Magazine, and Rachana Pradhan of Ńîąóĺú´«Ă˝Ň•îl Health News join Ńîąóĺú´«Ă˝Ň•îl Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more.
“Government has to intervene, because healthcare is run like an unregulated utility,” Indiana’s GOP governor says of the state’s effort to regulate hospital prices.
The Trump administration has laid out what millions of Americans on Medicaid must do to prove they’re working or completing other activities. Health policy researchers and consumer advocates say there are some important takeaways.
As predicted, the expiration of enhanced tax subsidies for Affordable Care Act health plans is causing many people to lose coverage for failing to make premium payments. Meanwhile, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. responded angrily to a New York Times article suggesting he’s not actively engaged in the work of his sprawling department. Lauren Weber of The Washington Post, Lizzy Lawrence of Stat, and Sandhya Raman of Bloomberg Law join Ńîąóĺú´«Ă˝Ň•îl Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews KFF’s Tricia Neuman, who is retiring this month as a senior vice president and the executive director of the Program on Medicare Policy.
One of California’s largest healthcare unions is sponsoring two initiatives that would regulate community clinics and cap executive and managerial pay at hospitals and physician groups. In the most recent eruption of a long-standing feud, the measures have drawn fierce opposition from a wide swath of the medical industry.
Big cuts to healthcare programs in the 2025 GOP budget law are creating an affordability crunch for many Americans: Higher health insurance premiums. Confusion about who Medicaid will cover under the new rules. Ńîąóĺú´«Ă˝Ň•îl Health News chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner explains how the changes could leave nearly 2 million children uninsured.
Adult Medicaid enrollees with serious health conditions may not be automatically exempt from new work rules, according to a new regulation from the Trump administration. Meanwhile, the administration is also proposing to give political appointees even more power over who gets health and science grant funding. Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, and Liz Essley Whyte of The Wall Street Journal join Ńîąóĺú´«Ă˝Ň•îl Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews Ńîąóĺú´«Ă˝Ň•îl Health News’ Lauren Sausser, who wrote the latest “Bill of the Month.”
A year after the measure’s passage, a state law is keeping immigrants and their children from accessing Medicaid even when they qualify.
Health experts and advocates for low-income people say federal rules implementing President Donald Trump’s new Medicaid work requirements upend months of work by state governments to prepare the computer systems that determine who’s eligible for benefits.
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When Republicans passed their big budget bill in 2025, they thought the effects of cuts to health programs wouldn’t show up until after the 2026 midterms. They were wrong. Meanwhile, the party is trumpeting its efforts to lower drug prices. Maya Goldman of Axios, Shefali Luthra of The 19th, and Lauren Weber of The Washington Post join Ńîąóĺú´«Ă˝Ň•îl Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more. Also this week, Rovner discusses Ebola with Ńîąóĺú´«Ă˝Ň•îl Health News’ CĂ©line Gounder.
The state is ramping up to implement the federal work requirements six months ahead of the deadline. But Montana is one of several states already struggling to pay for health services.
Ńîąóĺú´«Ă˝Ň•îl Health News journalists made the rounds on national or local media recently to discuss topical stories. Here’s a collection of their appearances.
Some children are healthy enough to leave the hospital after a medical stay but have no place to go. Across the country, the practice of allowing children to remain hospitalized “beyond medical necessity” has become a costly problem, and states have struggled to address the issue.
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