New from @cynthiaccox.bsky.social Is it Too Late for ACA Insurers to Change Their Premiums? www.kff.org/quick-take/i...

Course-ready content for 2025–26: 16 updated modular Health Policy 101 chapters edited by @drewaltman.bsky.social, organized by core topics, and updated at least annually so the fundamentals can link to current events like the 2025 reconciliation law. www.kff.org/other-health... Image by ChatGPT.

New 2025 edition of Health Policy 101 is live. Chapters span Medicaid, the ACA, Medicare, costs, public health, and more. The update reflects major 2025 developments, including the federal budget reconciliation law’s changes to Medicaid and the ACA. www.kff.org/other-health...

There have been a number of congressional and administrative actions undertaken by the Trump administration that are going to impact health coverage and care for immigrant families across America. New piece by @kff.org discusses all the changes in one place www.kff.org/immigrant-he...

Looking forward to the world premiere screening of Diamond Diplomacy, a film "exploring the long and complex relationship between the U.S. and Japan through the shared love of baseball."https://www.diamonddiplomacy.com/

This is a remarkable statistic: 18.7 million out of the 24.3 million Obamacare enrollees are in states won by President Trump in 2024. www.kff.org/quick-take/m...

Support for Congress to extend the enhanced premium tax credits remains very high, even among Republicans and MAGA supporters.

H.R.1 ends health coverage eligibility for many lawfully present immigrants. It doesn't change health coverage options for undocumented immigrants who are already ineligible for federally funded health coverage under longstanding policy. More on this @kff.org : www.kff.org/quick-take/r...

How will it affect family budgets if the ACA enhanced tax credits are not extended? For lower income (23k) the increase alone is a quarter of what they spend on food. More moderate income (80k), well more than 2x their food budget. My latest column:

A movement to protect Americans from medical debt has shifted to the states since the Trump administration halted federal rules enacted by former President Joe Biden. Outcomes are mixed. kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

26 states have moved to allow pharmacists to administer COVID-19 vaccines without an Rx (5 do so for other vaccines). 13 states require state-regulated insurers to cover COVID-19 vaccines at no cost (4 for other vaccines). 22 states rely on non-federal sources for vaccine guidelines.

What are states’ vaccine policies? Are they allowing broad access, given recent federal developments and White House actions? Examine what’s going on with the guidance informing state actions on vaccines as well as pharmacy access and insurance coverage. https://on.kff.org/3IhxRnr

The Pitt has plans to tackle stories next season related to federal health care cuts. I've got some ideas in a new column out in @jama.com. jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Q: The US spends almost 2x on healthcare - why? Is it the 💰prices, or ⬆️use? A: It's (still) the prices. We pay 2x prices (and often use less: fewer in-person physician visits, shorter hospital stays) www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collec... #Quality #Affordability #Healthcare

The Trump administration’s “Make Health Tech Great Again” initiative aims at promoting the digital sharing of health information & boosting access to AI applications and other tools. Our new brief explains the new effort in the context of earlier efforts: https://on.kff.org/3HHRVPu

Is lack of confidence in the safety of vaccines the problem, or distrust in the traditional sources of information about vaccines? My latest column:

The net effect of the changes President Trump and Republicans in Congress are making to health care is a partial repeal of the Affordable Care Act.

"How the rule will be rolled out is still under discussion, but one Los Angeles County health plan that serves about 2.3 million people on Medi-Cal said more than 1 million people could lose their insurance" www.latimes.com/california/s...

@kff.org’s Implementation Dates for 2025 Budget Reconciliation Law brings you a searchable, filterable timeline of health provisions in the signed law. One key strength: you can quickly see what’s coming, when, and how it affects any topic you type in, e.g., immigrants www.kff.org/implementati...

The 2025 budget reconciliation law has quite a few health provisions. A new @kff.org timeline provides a brief overview of the specific provisions and their effective dates.

This policy will discourage lawfully present immigrants who are eligible for Medicaid from signing up, or signing their kids up, leaving them without health insurance. That, of course, is a feature, not a bug.

News reports suggest that the Trump administration has shared confidential data of Medicaid enrollees such as SSNs and race/ethnicity information with ICE for immigration enforcement despite federal and state laws prohibiting this type of data sharing. More from @kff.org www.kff.org/policy-watch...

BREAKING: ICE officials will gain access to personally identifiable information for all Medicaid enrollees, according to an agreement obtained by the AP.

NEW @kff.org, 988: On its three-year anniversary, 988 continues to grow, exceeding half a million contacts monthly. Suicide deaths held steady from 2022 to 2023—too soon to know 988's impact, but this marks a break from prior upward trends. See more: www.kff.org/policy-watch...

Watching the 🦄 at work.

The Senate reconciliation bill would cut federal #Medicaid spending by over $200 billion more than the House bill though the increases vary by state. In 14 states, the Senate bill would reduce federal Medicaid spending by at least $5 billion more than the House bill. www.kff.org/quick-take/s...

⚡ KFF’s @liz-williams.bsky.social compares the increases in the federal Medicaid cuts in the Senate-passed reconciliation bill with the House-passed bill across states. #QuickTake on.kff.org/44zOKRr

Most insurers that did respond said they were keeping an eye on developments in Washington, without indicating whether they would or would not cover vaccines dropped from the recommended schedule.

NEW RURAL BRIEF @kff.org : Senate reconciliation bill would cut federal Medicaid funding in rural areas by $155B—$36B more than the House bill. www.kff.org/policy-watch...

Republicans are poised to pass the biggest cuts in health coverage ever. @nytopinion.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2025/07/01/o...

What Privacy and Protection Standards are in Place for Medicaid Enrollees’ Personal Data?

In addition to 17M losing coverage, more people could be affected. Hospitals are one of the largest employers and may need to layoff workers given cuts to Medicaid, etc. Fewer hospital workers could lead to reduced quality of care or access for everyone. www.kff.org/key-facts-ab...

17 million people estimated to be without health insurance if the current version of the OBBBA under consideration by Senate passes, according to most recent CBO estimates. www.kff.org/quick-take/a... #healthinsurance #access #affordability @cynthiaccox.bsky.social @kff.org

I was horrified when I first learned about this at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles a few years ago.

20 million people are covered under the ACA’s Medicaid expansion. Eliminating the enhanced federal match for expansion coverage would cause many states to pull back, leaving millions uninsured.

The biggest changes to the Medicaid provisions in the Senate budget bill: An increase in federal payments to Alaska and Hawaii. A temporary $25 billion rural health fund. A one year delay in the phase down of provider taxes. Is that enough to get the votes?

In a new policy watch, we examine the details of the Supreme Court’s ruling on Kennedy v. Braidwood Management. With continuing litigation in the lower court, access to ACA preventive services is preserved for now but questions remain.

One of the biggest flashpoints for the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" has been its impact on roughly 1800 rural hospitals, which is why Senate Republicans are proposing a new $15 billion rural health fund. However, there are still questions and concerns about the bill 👇 (1/7)

NEW @kff.org: House reconciliation bill could reduce Medicaid spending in rural areas by $119B over 10 yrs. Over half of the reductions would be in 12 states with large rural populations and expanded Medicaid: KY, NC, OH, IL, VA, MI, NY, WA, PA, OK, LA and AR. See: www.kff.org/policy-watch...

It’s remarkable how much of the debate about Medicaid cuts is now about hospitals and a rural hospital fund to placate critics and appear to soften the blow, not the millions of people who will lose coverage or find it unaffordable. Some will lose SNAP benefits at the same time.

Always a health care angle “Two years ago, he and his partners in the dental company were charged in a federal indictment with Medicaid fraud,” www.nytimes.com/2025/06/23/d...

It has been 3 years since the #SCOTUS Dobbs decision ending the federal constitutional right to abortion. It is the most current entry on @kff.org's health policy timeline wall in our office. For the latest on abortion in the U.S.: www.kff.org/womens-healt...

Federal and state laws protect Medicaid applicant and enrollee data and limit the sharing of personal information. Sharing it for purposes other than health coverage/care poses risks for individuals and may jeopardize confidence in the security of data.

#Medicaid provisions that only apply to ACA expansion states account for roughly half ($427 billion) of total federal spending cut in the House-passed reconciliation bill and changes in the Senate Finance language would further cut federal spending for expansion states: www.kff.org/policy-watch...

Over one in four (27%) physicians and surgeons at U.S. hospitals, rising to one in three in FL (37%), CA (33%), NY (33%), and TX (31%), are immigrants. Policies aimed at restricting immigration could negatively impact the health and well-being of Americans. @kff.org www.kff.org/racial-equit...

NEW: We’ve updated our 2025 budget reconciliation tracker to include health provisions included in the proposed Senate bill. The Senate version’s Medicaid and ACA provisions differ significantly from those in the House-passed bill. Compare the details:

During the ACA repeal debate in 2017, a focus on what was at stake w/repeal contributed to an increase in the law's popularity. We seem to be seeing a similar pattern with coverage of potential Medicaid and ACA cuts in the BBB. Popularity of both programs is at an all-time high in KFF polling.

With federal changes to vaccine policy & recommendations underway, here's our overview of insurance coverage requirements for vaccines by payer, as linked to ACIP/CDC. As we show, federal changes mean consumers could lose access to free vaccines. www.kff.org/other/issue-...

My annotation of the new distributional analysis from the Congressional Budget Office of the One Big Beautiful Bill. www.cbo.gov/publication/...

⚡ KFF’s @lauriesobel.bsky.social writes about how a provision in the House-passed reconciliation bill creates a clash between the federal and state laws in the 12 states that require abortion coverage. #QuickTake on.kff.org/4dyihPh