Latest KFF Health News Stories
World’s Premier Cancer Institute Faces Crippling Cuts and Chaos
After spearheading a 34% cut in cancer mortality, the National Cancer Institute at the NIH is bleeding resources and staff and could see its budget cut by nearly 40%.
States Brace for Reversal of Obamacare Coverage Gains Under Trump’s Budget Bill
States that run their own health insurance marketplaces fear an end to automatic Obamacare reenrollment under the tax and spending megabill would have an outsize effect on their policyholders.
GOP Governors Mum as Congress Moves To Slash Medicaid Spending for Their States
In 2017, when President Donald Trump tried to repeal Obamacare and roll back Medicaid coverage, Republican governors helped turn Congress against it. Now, as Trump tries again to scale back Medicaid, Republican governors — whose constituents stand to lose federal funding and health coverage — have gone quiet on the health consequences.
El megaproyecto de ley republicano supondrá más costos de salud para muchos estadounidenses
Esto, a su vez, perjudicaría las finanzas de hospitales, residencias de adultos mayores y centros de salud comunitarios, y podría obligarlos a reducir servicios y personal, hasta a cerrar instalaciones.
Republican Megabill Will Mean Higher Health Costs for Many Americans
Spending cuts hitting medical providers, Medicaid and Affordable Care Act enrollees, and lawfully present immigrants are just some of the biggest changes the GOP has in store for health care — with ramifications that could touch all Americans.
To Cut Medicaid, the GOP’s Following a Path Often Used To Expand Health Care
Republicans are attempting to use the budget reconciliation process to boost President Donald Trump’s priorities and reduce health coverage. That process has been used to pass nearly every major piece of health legislation for decades — except usually lawmakers use it to expand health care, not cut it, writes Julie Rovner.
Too Sick To Work, Some Americans Worry Trump’s Bill Will Strip Their Health Insurance
Republicans claim 4.8 million Americans on Medicaid who could work choose not to. The GOP’s work-requirement legislation could sweep up disabled people who say they’re unable to hold jobs.
KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': Live From Aspen — Governors and an HHS Secretary Sound Off
In this special episode taped before a live audience at Aspen Ideas: Health, three former governors — one of whom also served as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services — discuss how state and federal officials can work together to improve Americans’ health. Democrat Kathleen Sebelius, former Kansas governor and HHS secretary under President Barack Obama; Republican Chris Sununu, former New Hampshire governor; and Democrat Roy Cooper, former North Carolina governor, join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner.
With Enhanced Subsidies Set To Expire, Consumers Could Face Higher Obamacare Costs
Get our weekly newsletter, The Week in Brief, featuring a roundup of our original coverage, Fridays at 2 p.m. ET.
KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': Supreme Court Upholds Bans on Gender-Affirming Care
The Supreme Court this week said Tennessee may continue to enforce its law banning most types of gender-affirming care for minors. The ruling is likely to greenlight similar laws in two dozen states. And the Senate is preparing to vote on a budget reconciliation bill that includes even deeper Medicaid cuts than the House version. Victoria Knight of Axios, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, and Sandhya Raman of CQ Roll Call join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more.
Q&A: What Does the Budget Bill Mean for Your Health?
KFF Health News chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner answers listeners’ questions about how the “One Big Beautiful Bill” could affect health care in Washington, D.C., and beyond.
‘MAGA’ Backers Like Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ — Until They Learn of Health Consequences
A new poll finds that most adults oppose the GOP bill that would extend many of President Donald Trump’s tax cuts while reducing spending on domestic programs including Medicaid. Most Trump backers support the plan until they learn that millions would lose health coverage and local hospitals would lose funding.
KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': RFK Jr. Upends Vaccine Policy, After Promising He Wouldn’t
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. this week did something he had promised not to do: He fired every member of the scientific advisory committee that recommends which vaccines should be given to whom. And he replaced them, in some cases, with vaccine skeptics. Meanwhile, hundreds of employees of the National Institutes of Health sent an open letter to the agency’s director, accusing the Trump administration of policies that “undermine the NIH mission.” Anna Edney of Bloomberg News, Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet, and Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico Magazine join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more.
Four Ways Trump’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ Would Undermine Access to Obamacare
The combination of the House-passed spending and tax bill and the Trump administration’s regulatory action could change Affordable Care Act enrollment and the cost of insurance. The result, according to the Congressional Budget Office, is that millions of people may become uninsured.
The House’s gigantic tax-and-spending budget reconciliation bill has landed with a thud in the Senate, where lawmakers are divided in their criticism over whether it increases the deficit too much or cuts Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act too deeply. Meanwhile, the Congressional Budget Office’s estimate that the bill, if enacted, could increase the ranks of the uninsured by nearly 11 million people over a decade won’t make it an easy sell. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Jessie Hellmann of CQ Roll Call, and Lauren Weber of The Washington Post join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews KFF Health News’ Arielle Zionts, who reported and wrote the latest “Bill of the Month” feature, about a Medicaid patient who had an out-of-state emergency.
Trump’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ Continues Assault on Obamacare
The domestic policy legislation the House advanced in May includes the most substantial rollback of the Affordable Care Act since President Donald Trump and his Republican allies tried to pass legislation in 2017 that would have largely repealed President Barack Obama’s signature domestic accomplishment.
KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': Live From AHCJ: Shock and Awe in Federal Health Policy
This episode was taped live on Friday, May 30, at the annual conference of the Association of Health Care Journalists in Los Angeles. Host Julie Rovner moderated a panel featuring Rachel Nuzum, senior vice president for policy at The Commonwealth Fund; Berenice Núñez Constant, senior vice president of government relations and civic engagement at AltaMed Health Services; and Anish Mahajan, chief deputy director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. The panelists discussed the national, state, and local implications of funding cuts made over the first 100 days of the second Trump administration and the potential fallout of reductions that have been proposed but not yet implemented. The panelists also took questions from health reporters in the audience.
In Arizona County That Backed Trump, Conflicted Feelings About Cutting Medicaid
Medicaid plays a vital role in many rural communities that favored President Donald Trump in the 2024 election. But residents still seem open to Republican proposals to cut perceived waste in the program.
KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': Bill With Billions in Health Program Cuts Passes House
The House narrowly passed a budget reconciliation bill, including billions of dollars in tax cuts for the wealthy along with billions of dollars in cuts to health program spending. But the Senate is expected to make major changes to the measure before it can go to President Donald Trump for his signature. This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of KFF Health News, Anna Edney of Bloomberg News, Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet, and Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico.
Republicans Aim To Punish States That Insure Unauthorized Immigrants
A GOP tax-and-spending bill the House approved Thursday would slash federal Medicaid reimbursement for states that offer health coverage to immigrants without legal status.
