As Congress reviews budget slashes to health care in President Donald Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill Act," a new evaluation from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projects 16 million Americans, including 1.8 million Medicaid and Healthy Indiana Plan recipients, would go without health insurance.
If the bill passes as is, said Josh Bivens, chief economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, health providers would see a sharp increase in what is known as uncompensated care, when people without coverage get sick but are unable to pay.
"And it means hospitals and doctors no longer receive that income stream from Medicaid payments," he said. "And lots of them are going to be forced out of business, and there's going to be closures of hospitals, especially in rural counties."
Republicans question the Congressional Budget Office projections, believing that cutting $715 billion from Medicaid eliminates fraud. They want to add specific work mandates for healthy working-age adults. The GOP bill aims to fund Trump administration priorities, including more immigration raids and border wall construction, and extending tax cuts passed in 2017.
According to the research site KFF, nearly 569,000 Hoosiers are enrolled through the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion.
Bivens said he fears that if the bill becomes law, he sees the measure as a transfer of income from vulnerable families to already wealthy Americans. He noted that the average cuts to Medicaid, which would take effect after the 2026 midterm elections, would be more than $70 billion per year.
"And then if you look at the tax cuts that will be received by just people making over $1 million per year, those are $70 billion as well," he said. "We're going to take $70 billion away from poor families on Medicaid, and we're going to give it to families who are making more than $1 million per year."
Six Nobel laureate economists have signed an open letter opposing cuts to safety-net programs in the budget reconciliation bill, warning the measure would add $5 trillion to the national debt.
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If you have an extra five minutes, you can save a life because you can learn cardiopulmonary resuscitation at no cost from a new mobile, hands-only CPR kiosk.
The new kiosk is in the lobby of Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica. The machine's touch screen gives a brief overview of hands-only CPR and you can practice right there, on a mannequin.
Dr. Rigved Tadwalkar, cardiologist at St. John's, said it is an easy way for people to get more comfortable giving chest compressions in an emergency.
"It's a lot like a video game but of course, a lot more important than a video game," Tadwalkar pointed out. "It gives real-time feedback about the depth and rate of compressions, proper hand placement, which are all factors that influence the effectiveness of CPR."
The American Heart Association operates the St. John's mobile kiosk and a stationary model at L-A-X with support from the hospital. Santiago Canyon College in Orange County also has a mobile hands-only C-P-R kiosk now through September, sponsored by Edwards Lifesciences.
Steven Munatones, an Orange County business owner, said he survived what's known as a "widowmaker" heart attack which led to cardiac arrest nine years ago, thanks to his 17-year-old son, who gave him immediate CPR with instructions from a 911 operator.
"You don't have to put your mouth to anybody's mouth," Munatones explained. "You just put your hand on their chest and pump. He saved me, and others can do the same, anywhere. So, it's absolutely a lifesaving, heroic act that anybody can do."
Statistics show 350,000 Americans suffer from cardiac arrest outside a hospital each year and about 90% die, in part because they do not receive CPR. About 70% of those cardiac arrests happen at home, so people often depend on family or friends to give CPR before an ambulance arrives.
Disclosure: The American Heart Association Western States Region contributes to our fund for reporting on Health Issues. If you would like to help support news in the public interest,
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As federal Medicaid cuts loom, consumer advocates are celebrating Washington's new bill limiting hospital prices for state and public school employees.
Senate Bill 5083 caps reimbursement rates for nearly 700,000 people covered by the Public Employees Benefits Board and School Employees Benefits Board.
Sam Hatzenbeler, legislative director for the Economic Opportunity Institute, said public and school employees pay more than twice what the federal government said is a fair price for Medicare, with some hospitals charging up to four times more.
"At a time when everyone is going to be asked to tighten their belts due to federal cuts, it's more important than ever to be prudent with our health care resources," Hatzenbeler contended.
Washington hospitals pushed hard against the bill, warning it will add pressure to their already stretched budgets. Hatzenbeler pointed to a similar law passed in Oregon in 2019, which saved the state more than $100 million and cut out-of-pocket costs for patients by nearly 10%.
Adam Zarrin, director of state government affairs for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, said large hospitals consolidating through buying up their competitors is one of the reasons health care costs have grown out of control.
"States can and should take action to try to increase competition in this health care space," Zarrin argued. "Because we know that those market factors can help drive and keep costs down."
Public and school employee health insurance rates have risen more than 6% annually since 2021, compared to roughly 10% annually for other plans. Hatzenbeler added while the cap is a step forward for public workers, lawmakers must expand the relief statewide.
"The data tell us that there are plenty of ways to trim excessive spending," Hatzenbeler emphasized. "For example, we can look at healthcare CEO salary data. But we simply can't shift more costs onto the backs of people who are already struggling to get health care."
Disclosure: The Economic Opportunity Institute contributes to our fund for reporting on Budget Policy & Priorities, Education, Livable Wages/Working Families, and Senior Issues. If you would like to help support news in the public interest,
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Nearly 1,000 New Mexicans have already accessed a new online portal which provides transparency about how much the cost of prescriptions and medical procedures vary from one location to another.
Introduced in 2024, the state service now has been updated to include costs in Spanish for the first time.
Ervin Garcia, health systems epidemiology program manager for the New Mexico Department of Health, said in addition to prescriptions, the portal shows the average costs for doctor visits and medical procedures.
"They can compare how much it would cost in one city versus the other because when you search you can put in your ZIP code and it tells you the closest around you," Garcia explained.
Research suggests health care quality is enhanced when people know what they will pay ahead of time. It also shows most people take at least one prescription drug, and lower prices help people better maintain overall health and wellness.
Garcia noted the online service could be a lifesaver for folks prescribed medicines or procedures who do not feel comfortable revealing their financial or insurance status to medical professionals.
"This kind of helps ease the health care procedures that way, so that they can kind of get a familiarity on how much it would cost," Garcia added.
Americans do not necessarily take more medications than people in other wealthy countries but federal government data from 2022 show U.S. prices across all drugs including generics were three times as high as prices in comparable countries.
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