Hospitals Ready Lobbying Efforts To Fight Big Cuts From Trump’s Megabill
Delayed implementation until 2028 gives hospitals time to persuade Congress to rescind $340 billion in cuts to their budgets. The Republican One Big Beautiful Bill Act included the money to pay for tax cuts and other priorities. Separately, the legislation is also expected to impact insurers due to the volatility in Medicaid-eligible patients.
Politico:
How Hospitals Could Still Escape The Megabill’s Medicaid Cuts
Hospitals lost big in President Donald Trump’s megabill, but they still have plenty of time to fight back. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act that Trump signed on the 4th of July will take a $340 billion bite out of hospital budgets over a decade to pay for tax cuts and other Trump priorities. Then again, maybe it won’t. That’s because Congress delayed implementation of the most devastating of those cuts till 2028, and hospitals, their armies of lobbyists and many allies on Capitol Hill are already gearing up to use the next two and a half years to persuade lawmakers to rescind them. (King, Chu and Lim, 7/14)
The Hill:
Hospitals Across Nation Brace For Medicaid Cuts Under ‘Big, Beautiful’ Law
Hospitals are bracing for the impact from the Medicaid cuts in President Trump’s sweeping spending and tax cut law. While most of the cuts won’t happen immediately, rural facilities in particular say they likely will have to make difficult financial decisions about which services they can afford to keep and which may need to be cut. Hospitals loudly raised alarms about the legislation, but their warnings went unheeded, and now they say they will bear the brunt of the changes. (Weixel, 7/13)
Chicago Tribune:
Safety Net Hospitals Face Potential Service Cuts, Layoffs
Christine Mertzelos is trying to avoid having her leg amputated. Twice a week, a hospital van carries her from her home in Wrigleyville to the wound clinic at Humboldt Park Health, where a diabetic ulcer on her ankle is cleaned, treated and dressed. At one point, the ulcer wrapped nearly all the way around her lower leg — a situation that can lead to amputation if not controlled. The ulcer, however, has shrunk significantly. (Schencker, 7/13)
Reuters:
Trump's Spending Bill Will Likely Boost Costs For Insurers, Shrink Medicaid Coverage
President Donald Trump's spending bill is set to raise administrative costs and make managing costs more difficult for insurers like UnitedHealthcare and CVS Health's Aetna that operate Medicaid health plans, experts say. As a result, those insurers will likely pull back their Medicaid coverage and invest more in existing markets to retain their healthier members, experts said. (Niasse, 7/14)
KFF Health News:
In Rush To Satisfy Trump, GOP Delivers Blow To Health Industry
Doctors, hospitals, and health insurers for weeks issued dire warnings to Republican lawmakers that millions of people would lose health coverage and hospitals would close if they cut Medicaid funding to help pay for President Donald Trump’s big tax and spending bill. But Republicans ignored those pleas, made even deeper cuts, and sent the legislation on July 3 to the White House, where Trump signed it the next day. (Galewitz and Armour, 7/14)
MedPage Today:
'Big Beautiful Bill' Has Health Provisions That Flew Under The Radar
When President Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law on the Fourth of July, many people heard about the major provisions that affected healthcare, such as hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts to Medicaid and a 1-year, 2.5% increase in payments under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule. But what about some of the lesser-known health provisions? (Frieden, 7/11)
Also —
Axios:
New Medicaid Work Rules Put States In A Bind
The new Medicaid work rules in President Trump's tax-and-spending law put states on a tight timetable for setting up systems to notify millions of recipients about the requirements — and to track if they're complying. Previous efforts to set work rules in Georgia and Arkansas showed it could be a messy and expensive process that generally relies on outside vendors to set up the necessary infrastructure. (Reed, 7/14)
The CT Mirror:
Many More People Are On Medicaid In CT Than A Decade Ago
The number of people receiving Medicaid in Connecticut has grown sharply over the last decade. In Connecticut, Medicaid operates under the name HUSKY and insures about one-quarter of the state’s population. The number of people served through any Medicaid-funded coverage steadily grew over the last decade, rising 61% from 2012 to 2023. (Daou, 7/11)
AP:
Hakeem Jeffries' Town Hall In Louisiana To Focus On Trump's Tax Law
Democrats used a Louisiana town hall Thursday night to preview one of their main strategies for attempting to retake the U.S. House next year, ripping into the health care changes in the just-passed Republican tax and spending bill. The top House Democrat, Hakeem Jeffries, said the event in the home state of House Speaker Mike Johnson was the first stop on a nationwide tour to educate voters about the bill, which he called “an all-out assault against the American people.” (Brook, 7/11)
