Health disparities

“An influential group of House Republicans has invited a chief architect of the hard-right push for deep Medicaid spending cuts to brief congressional aides Thursday as GOP leaders quietly map out a possible second party-line reconciliation package.

“Colorado is hoping a just-under-the-wire application to the federal government will help soften the blow of Medicaid cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the recently signed tax and spending measure.

“Veterans hospitals are struggling to replace hundreds of doctors and nurses who have left the health care system this year as the Trump administration pursues its pledge to simultaneously slash Department of Veterans Affairs staff and improve care.

“When there’s a maternal health emergency, Jessica Wheat springs into action.

“When President Donald Trump signed a law adding work requirements for some Medicaid recipients, he may have undercut lawmakers in at least 14 states who were designing their own plans, according to health industry observers.

Six more states have banned junk food purchases from being bought with Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced.

"States must begin verifying millions of Medicaid enrollees’ monthly work status by the end of next year — a task some critics say states will have a hard time carrying out. A provision in the tax and spending bill President Donald Trump signed into law July 4 will require the 40 states plus Washington, D.C., that have expanded Medicaid to check paperwork at least twice a year to ensure those enrollees are volunteering or working at least 80 hours a month or attending school at least half time. The new law provides states $200 million for fiscal year 2026 to get their systems up and running. But some experts say states will have difficulty meeting the deadline with that funding and worry enrollees might lose their health benefits as a result. A year and a half to comply is likely not going to be enough time for most states, especially since the federal government must craft guidance on how they should implement their programs, said Dr. Benjamin Sommers, a health economist at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He predicted it will be difficult to create technology simple enough — such as a phone app — to streamline the process for all enrollees. “Two hundred million [dollars] is not going to cover the 40 expansion states that we have,” he told Stateline. “There is not a silver bullet here, and there isn’t a single app out there that’s going to keep people who should be in Medicaid from losing coverage. That’s just not realistic.”