Katherine Hempstead

As Republicans Eye Sweeping Medicaid Cuts, Missouri Offers a Preview - KFF Health News Congressional Republicans are looking to cut at least $880 billion from a pool of federal funding that includes Medicaid — and the program is likely to take a major hit. A previous budget crunch in Mi...

Great story about the bad old days in MO Medicaid. kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

How Congressional Republicans’ Health Care Plans Will Spike Health Insurance Premiums for Older Adults Congressional Republican plans to slash Medicaid funding and allow the enhanced Affordable Care Act premium tax credits to expire will significantly raise insurance costs for older Americans with mark...

www.americanprogress.org/article/how-...

Marketplace Pulse: What if Enhanced Premium Tax Credits Expire in 2026? Marketplace enrollees will have to choose between record premium increases or less coverage if enhanced premium tax credits expire in 2026.

Great new interactive data tool out from @khemp.bsky.social at RWJF - congressional district level estimates of what might happen to ACA premiums if the enhanced tax credits expire.

www.rwjf.org/en/insights/...

Marketplace Pulse: What if Enhanced Premium Tax Credits Expire in 2026? Marketplace enrollees will have to choose between record premium increases or less coverage if enhanced premium tax credits expire in 2026.

Without enhanced premium tax credits ACA enrollees will pay higher premiums for less coverage next year. Check out @khemp.bsky.social and I's calculator and map of tax credits and premiums by congressional district for 2025 premiums.

www.rwjf.org/en/insights/...

How cutting Medicaid would affect long-term care and family caregivers The federal program is the biggest source of money for long-term care for the elderly and disabled. Republican proposals to cut its budget could jeopardize supports family and caregivers rely on.

Really?
"Trimming Medicaid's payments could encourage more people to buy long term care insurance for themselves."
Unrealistic given cost of policies and need to pass underwriting. Should we have better LTC policy? Yes - but this is not how we get there.
www.npr.org/2025/04/14/g...

Where Oscar Health plans to be a 'market maker'  - Becker's Payer Issues | Payer News Complacency is one thing holding back the growth of the individual coverage health reimbursement arrangement, or ICHRA, market, according to Janet Liang, president of insurance at Oscar Health.  Oscar...

Exciting to see all this enthusiasm around ICHRA - the appeal to employers will be much greater if the enhanced PTCs are extended.
www.beckerspayer.com/leadership/w...

Hospital Revenue Losses And Increased Uncompensated Care If Medicaid Funding Is Cut Cutting federal Medicaid funding provided to states that expanded their Medicaid program under the ACA could lead to substantial losses in revenue for healthcare providers and spikes in uncompensated ...

Big trouble for hospitals if Medicaid cuts are implemented. New analysis from Urban tells the story. In many rural states the financial hit would be huge, with ripple effects on workers and the local economy.
www.rwjf.org/en/insights/...

Marketplace Pulse: Congressional Districts Where Affordable Care Act Enrollees Face the Highest Premium Increases in 2026, Ranked IF Congress fails to extend the enhanced premium tax credits for ACA marketplace enrollees, residents in high-cost states could pay more other people in America pay in 2026.

New report with Matt Valeta shows impact of lapse of ePTCS by congressional district. Lots of impact would be felt in many rural districts where Medicaid cuts would also be catastrophic.
www.rwjf.org/en/insights/...

Child in West Texas reported as first measles death by Texas Tech hospital A West Texas person who was hospitalized with measles has died, marking the first death from the illness in Texas.

First death from the measles outbreak in TX.
www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston...

The Republican House Budget Resolution's Potential $880 Billion in Medicaid Cuts by Congressional District The Republican House budget resolution would cost congressional districts an average of $2 billion each and could eliminate coverage for 15.9 million people.

Here is a helpful breakdown of the CD level impact of proposed Medicaid cuts. www.americanprogress.org/article/the-...

Eddy Bresnitz on LinkedIn: Op-Ed: How NJ, other states can resist worst impacts of RFK Jr. Now that RFK Jr has been confirmed, states need to be proactive in defending pediatric immunizations. They cannot rely on the federal government to protect the…

Great analysis of what’s at stake for states re: vaccines. www.linkedin.com/posts/eddy-b...

Mortality Trends Among Early Adults in the United States, 1999-2023 This cross-sectional study examines trends in mortality rates among adults aged 25 to 44 years across the pre–COVID-19 pandemic, pandemic, and postpandemic periods.

This new paper in JAMA Open has some very troubling findings about trends in mortality among young or "early" adults. jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Commentary: If Federal Healthcare Spending Is a Target, Then So Is Rural America | The Daily Yonder Lists of potential healthcare spending cuts to include in a reconciliation bill are circulating on Capitol Hill, and healthcare is getting star billing.

The impact of cuts to Medicaid and the ACA marketplace would be devastating in rural communities where residents and providers depend on these programs. dailyyonder.com/commentary-i...

Indiana Governor Appoints Business Leader To Shake Up Health Care - KFF Health News Gloria Sachdev, a pharmacist by training, has spent years taking on the health care establishment in Indiana, working to pull down high hospital prices and make information public to patients. Now, in...

Great development in Indiana and nice recognition of Gloria! Exciting! kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

Indiana bill puts prior authorization in the crosshairs An Indiana lawmaker has reintroduced legislation that would cap all prior authorization rates at 1%.

Interesting proposal out of IN re: prior auth. www.beckerspayer.com/payer/indian...

Trump Drive to Cut Safety Net Could Hit His Voters The new administration wants to slash aid for health, food and housing, but many of those programs now reach the struggling working class he is courting.

Nice overview of the risks to the safety net. www.nytimes.com/2025/01/23/u...

NIH In Your State - United For Medical Research Select a state on the map to see the impact of NIH funding across America.

This map shows how much NIH funding goes to your state. I used the info on my state when I called officials to ask them to push back against the freeze. And if I can do it when my senators are Katie Britt and Tommy Tuberville...well, I mean...

www.unitedformedicalresearch.org/nih-in-your-...

Marketplace Pulse: Preferred Provider Organizations Remain Rare in the Individual Market Adequate provider access is a fundamental aspect of health insurance, but many coverage markets fall short in delivering on this feature.

New piece looks at trend in PPO availability in individual and small group market.
www.rwjf.org/en/insights/...

Trends in Obesity Care Among US Adults, 2010–2021 : Medical Care th obesity care from 2010 to 2021 in the United States. Research Design: This multiyear cross-sectional study was conducted using Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) data, covering respondents ...

New data on baseline levels of treatment for obesity pre-GLP1s - TLDR - very low journals.lww.com/lww-medicalc...

Baystate's health plan sale collapses Baystate Health's planned sale of insurance subsidiary Health New England to Point32Health falls through.

Interesting turn of events as this plan goes off the rails.
www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/bays...

The first state to cover Ozempic under the ACA

Interesting development as ND adds GLPs to list of EHBs...
www.beckerspayer.com/payer/the-fi...

NCOA Receives Funds to Create Best Practices for Benefits Enrollment A one-year grant of $250,000 from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation will fund a project to study what's going right in counties that have high benefits participation rates among older adults.

Exciting new project with NCOA just kicking off! Goal is to maximize take-up of benefits by older adults by highlighting best practices!
www.ncoa.org/article/brid...

Doctors Seethe Over Insurance Companies’ “Out of Control” Tactics Nothing can justify the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, but providers agree that America’s insurance system is off the rails. “I am kind of surprised this hasn’t happened earlier,” say...

Nice piece on the rising dissatisfaction with our health care system in the wake of the recent killing. Calls to mind the HMO backlash as well as more historical attacks on excessive corporate power and lack of accountability. www.vanityfair.com/news/story/a...

Hospitals, Physicians, and Other Stakeholders Face Billions of Dollars in Uncompensated Care Costs and Lost Revenue if Enhanced ACA Tax Credits Expire This brief focuses on the implications of allowing the enhanced PTCs to expire for providers by providing estimates on the projected reduction in revenue and increase in uncompensated care costs.

New report for Urban details significant financial consequences for providers if expanded PTCs are allowed to lapse. www.urban.org/research/pub...

The Effects of Not Extending the Expanded Premium Tax Credits for the Number of Uninsured People and the Growth in Premiums CBO provides estimates on how not extending the expanded premium tax credit will affect the number of people without health insurance and average gross benchmark premiums for plans purchased through t...

Massive coverage loss forecast if expanded PTCs are not renewed www.cbo.gov/publication/...