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“Everyday voters and working people all want their healthcare to be more affordable. There is no one I’ve heard from that says, ‘I wanna pay more for my healthcare’ and ‘I wanna … talk to my health insurance company more on the phone.’”
–Rachel Madley
How Big Insurance Rigs
the Rules — and What We
Can Do About It
Featuring Rachel Madley
Director, Center for Health & Democracy
Find us on Apple podcasts, our website or your favorite podcast platform.
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Breaking News in Healthcare Reform
“…cuts to Medicaid or reductions in eligibility could now pose a political risk for Republicans. People who could lose benefits would not just be Democratic voters in blue states, but Republicans in red states and swing districts who supported Trump last year.”
Democrats’ Big Bet on the Big Beautiful Bill
Politico | Jessica Piper, Elena Schneider, Holly Otterbein | June 9, 2025
“Over the past century, U.S. health care developed not from a shared vision of universal care, but from compromises that prioritized private markets, protected racial hierarchies and elevated individual responsibility over collective well-being.”
US Health Care is Rife with High Costs and Deep Inequities, and That’s No Accident – A Public Health Historian Explains How the System Was Shaped to Serve Profit and Politicians
The Conversation | Zachary W. Schulz | June 6, 2025
“The politics of the health insurance program for low-income Americans are changing, and Republicans now risk alienating their own voters. Lower-income, working-class people who rely on Medicaid are now a major part of the GOP base, which has become more populist since the emergence of Trump.”
4 in 10 Republicans Worried Medicaid Cuts Would Hurt Their Communities: Poll
The Hill | Nathaniel Weixel | June 6, 2025
“The health and human services secretary is shrinking staff at health agencies and reshaping the mission of his department to focus more on alternative medicine.”
How RFK Jr. is Quickly Changing U.S. Health Agencies
NBC News | Julie Tsirkin, Olympia Sonnier | June 6, 2025
“Created in the 1970s, IHSS pays providers — typically family members — to deliver the kind of labor-intensive, long-term and loving care that would otherwise fall to the state to handle.”
Budget Cuts Threaten In-Home Assistance Workers and Medi-Cal Recipients
Capital & Main | Mark Kreidler | June 5, 2025
“A new analysis from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates a staggering 16 million people would lose health insurance under the House-passed budget reconciliation bill. This includes nearly 11 million Americans who would lose Medicaid and five million who would lose access to Affordable Care Act (ACA) policies.”
Official House Bill Analysis Confirms Devastating Coverage Losses
Medicare Rights Center | Lindsey Copeland | June 5, 2025
“Employer-sponsored health insurance coverage costs have ballooned to $35,119 for an average family of four and $7,871 for an individual in 2025, according to this year’s Milliman Medical Index.”
Health Insurance Coverage Costs Soar 6% in 2025
Tech Target | Sara Heath | June 4, 2025
“This direct transfer of income from vulnerable families to the richest can be summarized in a striking symmetry: If the bill becomes law, the annual cuts to Medicaid would average over $70 billion in coming years — the same amount millionaires and billionaires would gain in tax cuts each year.”
House Budget Bill Would Kick 15 Million People Off Health Insurance and Damage Local Economies
Economic Policy Institute | Josh Bivens | June 3, 2025
“This article points to the important role that claim denials play in reducing MA spending and in driving outcome differences between MA and traditional Medicare.”
Medicare Advantage Denies 17 Percent of Initial Claims; Most Denials Are Reversed, But Provider Payouts Dip 7 Percent
Health Affairs | Boris Vabson, Andrew L. Hicks, Michael E. Chernew | June 2025
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Shining a light on ongoing inequities in health care
and the impact they have on vulnerable individuals and communities.
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