House Republicans passed a budget bill Tuesday that is the first step toward extending Trump's tax cuts and reducing spending on Medicaid. But Republicans nearly failed, and the two hours of messiness that led to its passage is an early sign of how difficult it will be to enact President Trump's agenda. Republican leadership initially cancelled the vote on the budget resolution after more than an hour of trying to convince GOP holdouts to switch their votes. About 10 minutes later, leadership called for a second vote, and lawmakers schlepped back to the House floor to vote again. The bill passed 217 to 215 with Rep. Tom Massie of Kentucky as the sole Republican no vote. Tie votes fail in the House, so one more Republican no vote would've sunk it. All Democrats voted against the bill.
All states rely on federal matching funds to finance their state Medicaid and CHIP programs. A new analysis from the Center for American Progress explores the potential reach of these cuts by congressional district. Table 1 shows potential federal funding losses by district if the $880 billion in cuts were to be proportional to current Medicaid and CHIP enrollment using 2023 American Community Survey data from the U.S. Census Bureau. On average, each congressional district would lose $2 billion in federal funding over nine years.
The Supreme Court on Monday scheduled arguments for April 21 in a case that could decide the legality of the ACA's requirement that insurers cover certain preventive services. In a surprising move, the Trump administration said it will continue the Biden White House's defense of that requirement. But some legal experts said the arguments being presented by the Justice Department indicate a desire to give HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. substantial control over an independent government task force.
Beyond public relations concerns, the company is facing potential shareholder lawsuits and multiple government investigations, including a DOJ antitrust probe focused on how it uses its physician workforce to benefit its insurance business. While it largely remains in a defensive crouch, UnitedHealth has begun pushing back, enlisting libel attorneys to go after critics on social media, attempting to squelch dissent from shareholders, and publicly blaming hospitals and drug companies for high prices. It is also moving to align itself with the new Trump administration.
Rising health costs are squeezing states' budgets to the point where some are considering raising premiums for hundreds of thousands of teachers and public employees for the first time in more than a decade.
House Republicans are expected to vote on a spending blueprint today that would kickstart the legislative process for enacting President Donald Trump's policy agenda—but nearly $1 trillion in potential cuts to Medicaid has made some Republicans uneasy, threatening to derail its passage.