#medi-calmedicare-funding

#medi-calmedicare-funding

"There are people who have come here after escaping violence and persecution and torture. These are communities that we have historically said, 'You are welcome here. We have the support for you. We're going to help you get established in our country.' And now, the federal government is abandoning them."

"This argues for the need to sustain such policies and shows that it is possible to right the wrongs retroactively, which is a powerful idea," said Kenneth Michelson, MD, MPH, associate professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Emergency Medicine and a co-author of the study.

"Many times I find myself having to set aside other basic needs my children have in order to prioritize buying food," Garcia said in Spanish.

Eight individuals were arrested and 15 charged in a scheme to defraud Medicare of over $50 million by running sham hospice facilities across Southern California. Federal officials described the actions as brazen efforts to commit fraud, with many billed patients not being terminally ill.

Congress has kept key drug assistance funding at $900.3 million annually since 2014. New enrollments for state programs jumped 30% from 2022 to 2024, in part because states cut off pandemic-era Medicaid assistance. As of January, at least 18 states have pulled back their Ryan White AIDS Drug Assistance Programs, known as ADAPs, in some way.

Because of budget cuts, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health has ended clinical services at seven of its public health clinic sites. As of Feb. 27, the county is no longer providing services such as vaccinations, sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment, or tuberculosis diagnosis and specialty TB care at the affected locations, according to county officials and a department fact sheet.

In light of the systemic dismantling of America's public health agencies, these moves essentially create a shadow infrastructure to maintain some of what is being lost. While this is a promising development, it does nothing to stop a troubling trend that has been emerging for some time: The country is quickly becoming fragmented along partisan lines when it comes to public health.

The most significant immediate change arrived Jan. 1 with the expiration of enhanced premium tax credits, which help defray the cost of monthly premiums for Americans enrolled in plans sold by health insurance exchanges such as Covered California. RELATED: Bay Area Affordable Care Act policyholders brace for price hikes With Congress not renewing these subsidies, which arrived in 2021 and are in addition to the initial income-based credits made available under the Affordable Care Act, enrollees will see their payments increase significantly this year.

Enrollment in Obamacare is slowing down in California after Republicans in Congress opted not to extend a policy that beefed up financial assistance for patients, a move that led to the longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history. About 175,000 people statewide have newly enrolled in Covered California, the state's Affordable Care Act marketplace, so far for 2026. That's a 31% decrease from this time last year, data shows. Health experts expect bigger declines in the coming months, as more enrollees receive notice of price hikes and cancel their plans.

In 2026, the US healthcare system is changing. Enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies have expired, causing premiums for marketplace plans to spike - and pricing some families out of health insurance entirely. President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act will reduce coverage for some patients with Medicaid and funding for hospitals, especially those in rural areas. Costs for Medicare and private insurance are also rising: Employer-based healthcare premiums have increased by 9%, the largest rise in more than a decade.