Hospital’s across the country are in line to lose billions in Federal funding that will cause cuts in services for Americans….
This is NOT an abstract media story.
This IS something piled on top of rising consumer prices and almost $5 a gallon gas….
Good Economy?
Affordability?
Only person happy about this is RightWingNut’s who have drank the MAGA Kool-Ad?
Millions of Americans appear to be dropping Obamacare coverage in the months since Congress failed to extend the generous subsidies that had become a defining feature of the Affordable Care Act.
Initial sign-ups had already fallen by about 1.2 million people. But insurance companies, state officials and industry analysts are reporting that many more have lost Obamacare coverage now that people are facing long-term higher costs. The federal government has yet to report current enrollment data.
Many insurers and analysts are estimating overall declines of about 20 percent, dropping to around 19 million from the 24 million who were covered under the A.C.A. last year. Other indications suggest there could be even larger potential losses by the end of the year, a deep retrenchment for Obamacare coverage and a reversal of significant gains in the last several years.
The rising cost of health care has shown up as a top concern among Americans in several public opinion polls. Premiums are rising for Americans who get insurance through work, too, as health care costs have been increasing nationwide. Out-of-pocket costs are growing too, as plans with high deductibles have become popular….
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In many states, around 10 percent of people who are still insured have chosen less generous coverage by picking so-called bronze plans, which carry deductibles as high as $10,600 a year.
The Trump administration has downplayed the losses. Officials at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversees the marketplaces, have characterized the current enrollment as a success. “The marketplace remains strong and resilient, continuing to provide millions of Americans with access to high-quality, affordable health care coverage options,” said Chris Krepich, the agency’s director of communications.
In testimony before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce last month, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the nation’s health secretary, attributed the initial reductions to an administration crackdown on fraud….
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But a swath of Americans are paying much more. The escalating cost of insurance — and the expected coverage losses — was a major Democratic theme this winter, and Democratic lawmakers’ effort to extend the financing was a central demand during the record 43-day government shutdown….
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Medicaid cuts threaten hundreds of hospitals, new report finds
More than 400 hospitals across the United States are at high risk of closing or cutting services because of the Medicaid cuts in President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” according to an analysis from the progressive watchdog group Public Citizen.
The fallout could make it harder for millions of people to get care and put thousands of health care workers’ jobs at risk as hospitals lose a key source of federal funding. Medicaid covers about a fifth of all hospital spending.
The Medicaid cuts come in phases, with more significant changes, including work requirements, in 2027 and limits on how states raise funds in 2028. Overall, the law is expected to reduce federal Medicaid funding by roughly $1 trillion over the next decade.
“We’re seeing hospitals that are already under severe financial strain having to make decisions about how to stay financially solvent,” said Eileen O’Grady, a researcher in Public Citizen’s Congress Watch division and the report’s author. “That has pretty clear implications for people who live in that community. It also has ripple effects on other hospitals in those communities.”
The analysis draws on hospital financial data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services from 2022 through 2024, covering about 95% of U.S. hospitals. The group defined at-risk hospitals as those in which Medicaid and other low-income government programs made up at least 20% of revenue and that have been operating at a loss in recent years.
The report doesn’t estimate when hospitals could close or cut services.
“Closure is the worst-case scenario, but it also doesn’t preclude hospitals from having to make really tough decisions about cutting services that might be essential to those communities but are just no longer financially viable,” O’Grady said.
Across the country, hospitals have already made statements warning they may need to lay off staff or scale back care, including maternity and mental health care, because of the Medicaid cuts.
For many patients, hospitals are the last place to turn when there are few or no other options for care.
“When hospitals close, patients have less access to the care that they need,” said Gideon Lukens, director of research and data analysis on the health policy team at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan research group. “They have to travel further or wait longer in other hospitals that become overcrowded. That additional time can be the difference between success and failure of time-sensitive, potentially life-saving treatments.”…
Note….
Trump IS asking for $1.5 Trillion for bombs and weapons…..
And trying to get Lindsey Graham to front him $400 Million for his East White House Wing ‘Ballroom’, eh?
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