In a First, Trump and GOP-Led Congress Prepare To Swell Ranks of US Uninsured
Fewer Americans will likely have health insurance, compromising their physical and financial health, as the Trump administration and GOP-controlled Congress weigh major changes to the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid. “The effects could be catastrophic,” one policy analyst predicts.
‘We Need To Keep Fighting’: HIV Activists Organize To Save Lives as Trump Guts Funding
While Congress fails to stave off cuts to HIV care, community leaders in Mississippi and beyond race to limit the damage.
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.
With Property Seized and Federal Funding Uncertain, Montana Asbestos Clinic Fights for Its Life
The Center for Asbestos Related Disease in Libby, Montana, closed in May after a court judgment allowing BNSF Railway to seize its assets. Now, the clinic’s federal funding is in jeopardy, too.
Trump Team’s Reworking Delays Billions in Broadband Build-Out
A Trump administration reworking of a $42 billion broadband expansion program will trigger delays as millions of rural Americans wait for promised connections and the telehealth services they bring.
The Price You Pay for an Obamacare Plan Could Surge Next Year
An estimated 4 million Americans will lose health insurance over the next decade if Congress doesn’t extend enhanced subsidies for Affordable Care Act marketplace coverage, which expire at the end of the year. Florida and Texas would see the biggest losses, in part because they have not expanded Medicaid eligibility.
El precio que pagas por un plan del Obamacare podría aumentar el próximo año
Los subsidios mejorados durante la pandemia expiran a fines de 2025. Esto podría generar una catarata de aumentos que afectarían a los consumidores.
‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ Would Batter Rural Hospital Finances, Researchers Say
Rural hospitals would take an outsize hit from Republicans’ proposed cuts to Medicaid and other federal health programs. Researchers say the financial erosion would trigger hospital closures and service cuts, especially in communities where large shares of patients are enrolled in Medicaid.
In a Dusty Corner of California, Trump’s Threatened Cuts to Asthma Care Raise Fears
The Trump administration wants to shutter the CDC’s National Asthma Control Program, which provides millions in funding to state-administered initiatives aimed at fighting the disease. The program’s closure, combined with massive cuts to environmental programs, could put the 28 million Americans with asthma at increased risk.
Native Americans Hurt by Federal Health Cuts, Despite RFK Jr.’s Promises of Protection
The Indian Health Service was mostly spared in the federal government’s widespread staffing cuts, but tribal governments and organizations have lost funding elsewhere in the melee of federal health agency cuts.
Ballad Health’s Hospital Monopoly Underperformed. Then Tennessee Lowered the Bar.
Ballad Health, a state-sanctioned hospital monopoly in Tennessee and Virginia, can now be deemed a “clear and convincing” benefit to the public with performance that would earn a “D” on most grading scales, according to Tennessee state documents.
Watch: In a ‘Dead Zone,’ Doctors Don’t Practice and Telehealth Doesn’t Reach
Chief rural health correspondent Sarah Jane Tribble explains how millions of rural Americans live in counties with doctor shortages and where high-speed internet connections aren’t adequate to access advanced telehealth services.
Journalists Draw Link Between Internet Dead Zones, Threatened Medicaid Cuts, and Health
KFF Health News journalists made the rounds on national or local media recently to discuss topical stories. Here’s a collection of their appearances.
Feds Chop Enforcement Staff and Halt Rules Meant To Curb Black Lung in Coal Miners
The Trump administration has paused implementation of a rule limiting miners’ exposure to airborne silica dust days after a federal court agreed to put it on hold to hear an industry challenge. The protections are meant to head off a surge in cases of black lung disease. Meanwhile, any enforcement of new standards might be meager due to workforce cuts.
A Medicaid Patient Had a Heart Attack While Traveling. He Owed Almost $78,000.
Federal law says Medicaid must cover out-of-state emergency care. But a Florida man got a five-figure bill after a South Dakota hospital declined to charge his state’s Medicaid program.
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.
Federal Cuts Ripple Through a Bioscience Hub in Rural Montana
The National Institutes of Health’s Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, Montana, is one of only a few dozen research facilities of its type. The threat of staffing and grant cuts has town leaders worried and has added to long-standing tension around the lab’s presence in this politically conservative region.
How Trump Aims To Slash Federal Support for Research, Public Health, and Medicaid
One thing experts agree on: The damage from the funding cuts will be varied and immense.
Rural Patients Face Tough Choices When Their Hospitals Stop Delivering Babies
More than 100 rural hospitals have stopped delivering babies since 2021, including a South Dakota hospital that serves small towns, farming communities, and a Native American reservation. Patients there now travel at least an hour to give birth.
Housing, Nutrition in Peril as Trump Pulls Back Medicaid Social Services
About half of states have broadened Medicaid, the state-federal low-income health care program, to pay for social services such as housing and nutritional support. The Trump administration, however, views these experiments as distractions from the core mission to provide health care.
