Breaking News in Healthcare Reform
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“…why should healthcare have anything to do with employment? This is really dumb. What about people who aren’t employed or whose employers don’t give them good health insurance? What about people who stay with an abusive husband because they’re on his insurance and they don’t want to lose it?”
Fighting From the Grave for The New York Health Act
Featuring Susan Karbiner, NYS Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival and Carly Paris, New York Activist for LGBTQ Rights, Health Care, Environmental and Immigration Justice.
Code WACK! | Podcast Episode 333 | June 8, 2026
“The Trump administration released a final rule saying Medicaid recipients exempted from the employment requirements for medical frailty must prove every six months that they remain too ill to work. The federal work mandate goes into effect Jan. 1.”
How Sick Is Sick Enough? New Medicaid Work Rule Worries Patient Advocates, States.
Politico | Alice Miranda Ollstein, Robert King | June 7, 2026
“…among employers with 50 or fewer employees, 30% said that healthcare costs are worsening their business situation, compared to 22% of employers with a greater number of employees. Because these smaller firms are not required to offer coverage, they may choose to adapt to the costs by dropping benefits altogether.”
Small Businesses Feel the Squeeze as Healthcare Costs Rise: Morgan Health
Fierce Healthcare | Paige Minemyer | June 4, 2026
“The condition or the disease needs to be actively interfering with your ability to work. So people with early stage cancer who are in radiation treatment but still have the capacity to work, or people who have HIV but can still technically work, are not exempted from the work requirement.”
People with Cancer or HIV Could Lose Medicaid Under New Work Rules, Advocates Say
NPR | Selena Simmons-Duffin | June 3, 2026
“The average premium charged by insurers this year for a Covered California plan rose by more than 10% due to rising medical costs.”
Here’s Why 374,000 Californians Have Dropped Their Covered CA Insurance This Year
KTLA | Jocelyn Fiset, David Lazarus | June 2, 2026
“…the final rule adds documentation requirements and tightens criteria for exemptions to the requirements, which will make it harder for individuals who need coverage to secure exemptions they may qualify for.”
Industry Groups Say Final Medicaid Work Requirements Rule Imposes Onerous Documentation Burden
Fierce Healthcare | Paige Minemyer | June 2, 2026
“Starting on Jan. 1, 2027, Americans who receive Medicaid coverage due to their state’s expansion under the Affordable Care Act will have to work, volunteer or attend school for 80 hours a month in order to stay enrolled in the insurance program.”
CMS Releases Medicaid Work Requirements Guidance for States
Healthcare Dive | Rebecca Pifer Parduhn | June 2, 2026
“What we found is we are now at the highest level of uninsurance for children under the age of 6 in nearly a decade.”
Number of Young U.S. Children Without Health Insurance Is Growing Fast, Says Report
NPR | June 1, 2026
“States have had to be strategic in targeting specific populations to help fill the gaps in insurance subsidies and maximize the impact of limited resources.”
Some States Blunted the Impact of Lost Federal Marketplace Subsidies, But Efforts Will Be Hard to Sustain
Center on Health Insurance Reforms | Stacey Pogue, Justin Giovannelli, Jalisa Clark | June 1, 2026
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Shining a light on ongoing inequities in health care
and the impact they have on vulnerable individuals and communities.
Our podcast Code WACK! brings to life the failures of America’s healthcare system with stories, commentary and analysis.
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