June 2025
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Medicaid: A Lifeline for Women’s Health Across the Lifespan
Medicaid is a critical source of health care for millions of US women, supporting them through every stage of life. Nearly 1 in 5 women aged 19-64 rely on Medicaid or CHIP. The Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansions allowed states to cover all adults up to 138% FPL, covering millions more low-income women regardless of…
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Congressional Budget Office Confirms Senate Republican Reconciliation Bill’s Medicaid Cuts Are More Draconian than the House-Passed Bill
In the late evening of Saturday, June 28th, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) issued preliminary estimates of the current version of the Senate Republican budget reconciliation bill now being debated on the Senate floor. The CBO estimates confirm that the Senate Republican reconciliation bill as it now stands would cut Medicaid to an even harsher…
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Webinar: Medicaid is a Critical Health Insurer for Small Businesses
As Congress considers the largest cuts to Medicaid in history, a new report from the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families and the Small Business Majority explains the importance of Medicaid to small businesses. One-third of Medicaid enrollees are owners, workers or family members in small businesses like childcare centers, restaurants, construction trades, and…
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One Big Beautiful Bill Act: Winners and Losers in the Medicaid Provisions
Federal legislation almost always creates winners and losers. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, now before the Senate, is no exception. Overall, the OBBBA as passed by the House will redistribute resources from the poorest children and families (the losers) to the wealthiest (the winners). That’s according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget…
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Medicaid is a Critical Insurer for Small Business
In Partnership with: This issue brief examines the prevalence of Medicaid as a source of insurance for small business owners, employees, and their family members using 2024 data from the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement (CPS ASEC). Small businesses are defined as those with under 100 employees. Our analysis of…
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Senate OBBB Continues House Overreach on Immigrant Health Coverage by Imposing Restrictions on How States Can Spend Their Own Funds
As we have already written, the House-passed reconciliation bill section 44111 would penalize expansion states for providing coverage with state-only funds to noncitizens otherwise ineligible for Medicaid, including some lawfully present immigrants, as well as for adopting the state plan option to cover lawfully residing children and pregnant women without a 5-year waiting period in…
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Women Depend on Medicaid Across the Lifespan
Women comprise the majority of the adult Medicaid population, covering 19% of women ages 19-64 compared to 14% of men in 2023. Medicaid and CHIP cover pregnant women at higher income levels than other adults, with a median income eligibility across states of 213% of the federal poverty level (FPL). The Affordable Care Act (ACA)…
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Things Just Got Worse for Children and Families in the Senate Version of OBBB
The Wallstreet Journal and other news outlets previously reported that some Republican moderates in the House who expressed concerns about the deep Medicaid cuts in the budget reconciliation bill were reassured by House Republican leaders: “Don’t worry about the Senate. They’ll fix it.” In other words, the Senate would mitigate the draconian Medicaid cuts in…
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Senate Finance Committee Reconciliation Bill Would More Harshly Restrict State Use of Provider Taxes by Targeting Expansion State Financing
On June 16, the Senate Finance Committee unveiled preliminary bill language for its section of the Senate Republican budget reconciliation bill. Senate Republican leaders could have chosen to moderate the draconian cuts to Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) included in the House-passed budget reconciliation bill (H.R. 1 or the “One Big Beautiful…
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Medicaid Managed Care: Work Reporting Requirements in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act
Centene Corporation is the nation’s largest Medicaid managed care company, with nearly 13 million Medicaid enrollees in Q1 2025. At the company’s April 25 earnings call, a financial analyst asked Centene’s CEO about the implications of work reporting requirements for the company’s Medicaid business: AJ Rice (UBS): “…You also mentioned the work rules which does…
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Here’s What’s Really at Stake in the Fight for Medicaid Funding
The raging battle over Medicaid funding is really a fight about the soul of Medicaid and our progress as a society. The broader objective of the House legislation is clear – to reverse decades of progress and take us back to 1965, when health care was welfare, and many people simply were considered undeserving of…
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The “One Big Beautiful Bill” is an Attack on the Affordable Care Act’s Vision of a Health System that Works for Everyone
For over 100 years, the unfinished business of creating a health care system that covers all Americans has raged on. With President Obama making this a top priority, in 2010 this effort took an unprecedented and giant step forward with passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The ACA’s two main strategies to enable more…
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Factchecking The White House “Mythbuster” on Medicaid Cuts and Immigrants
On June 2, 2025, The White House posted a “Mythbuster” fact sheet in defense of the House-passed reconciliation bill. However, the sheet is full of inaccuracies and advances more myths than facts—too many to cover in just one blog. This blog will focus on one prominent false claim, namely that 1.4 million undocumented immigrants will…
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The One Big, Beautiful Bill Act will Mean Big Budget Hits for Families
Last month, Congress rushed through the night to pass the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act with last minute changes that would further increase cuts to many federal programs. In the health care sections, the bill primarily targets adults – including many parents and caregivers – who gained health coverage from the Affordable Care Act (ACA)…
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Fraud and Abuse Against Medicaid: Rhetoric and Reality in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act
We have not cut Medicaid, and we have not cut SNAP. What we’re doing…is working on fraud, waste, and abuse. And everyone in Louisiana and around the country understands that that’s a responsibility of Congress….[Medicaid] is intended for vulnerable populations, for young single pregnant women and the elderly and the disabled and people who desperately…
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More Fact Checking on Medicaid Spending for Immigrants
Last week, a member of the Trump administration repeated a claim that the Administration was “kicking illegal immigrants off Medicaid to protect Medicaid for AMERICANS!” This is consistent with misleading talking points that the House-passed reconciliation bill, now under consideration by the Senate, targets cuts on Medicaid spending to undocumented immigrants. But is any of…
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What Does the One Big Beautiful Bill Act Do to CHIP?
The Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) has a long history of bipartisan support. But CHIP is not spared by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (HB 1). It’s quite possible bipartisan CHIP supporters were not aware of the impact the bill rammed through the House in the wee hours of night would have on children…
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Doula Medicaid Reimbursement by State
The U.S. has the highest maternal mortality rate among high-income countries and over 80% of maternal deaths are preventable. Birth outcomes are even worse for Black women, who are three to four times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications compared to white women. Over the past decade or so, doulas have become an increasingly…
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Medicaid Matters for Young Children and Their Families
Medicaid, along with the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), covers more than 40% of the nation’s young children under age six, including three quarters (75%) of young, low-income children (below 200% of the federal poverty level).In seven states, Medicaid/CHIP covers at least half of children under age six (AL, AR, KY, LA, MS, NM, OK)…
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House Bill Takes Health Care Away From Immigrants, Including Lawfully Present Children and Pregnant Women
Misinformation and confusion (even among lawmakers, more on that below) about immigrant eligibility and enrollment in Medicaid and CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program) continues to dominate the dialogue about the proposed changes in the House-passed reconciliation bill (see bill text as considered by the Rules Committee, alongside the manager’s amendment that was adopted before final…
