Like Weekly News Roundup?
Subscribe to our popular podcast Code WACK! and donate to support our work!
New Code WACK! episode
“So often we talk about parts of sexual and reproductive health, in silos, right? We talk about why we need to fight for abortion or there’s this important abortion fight. Some people may talk about sex ed and why sex ed is important, but there isn’t that conversation about why they’re all important together.”
—Jennie Wetter
Sex Ed, Medicaid, & Abortion
Access: A Trio of Policies
Worth Fighting For
Featuring Jennie Wetter
Director, RePROs Fight Back Initiative
The Population Institute
Find us on Apple podcasts, our website or your favorite podcast platform.
________________________________________
Breaking News in Healthcare Reform
“Cuts worth $880bn could leave 13 million Americans without insurance….”
US Health Groups Vow to Fight GOP Cuts to Medicaid and Obamacare
The Guardian | Jessica Glenza | May 19, 2025
“Job-based insurance poses health-related and financial burdens on company employers and employees. These burdens would disappear with universal healthcare.”
A National Single-Payer Healthcare System Would Be Good for Employers, Too
Common Dreams | Kie Shidara, James G. Kahn, Colin Boyle, Wendell Potter | May 17, 2025
“…the changes could have severe implications for the state’s estimated 2.6 million undocumented immigrants.”
Newsom’s Proposed Medi-Cal Freeze for Undocumented Immigrants Sparks Outrage
Axios | Nadia Lopez | May 16, 2025
“…there have been many, many studies on the impacts of work requirements — both in the 90s and today — and the clear consensus is that they deprive people of benefits without increasing employment.”
Trump Cabinet Members Regurgitate Lies About Work Requirements
Common Dreams | Jake Johnson | May 14, 2025
“The chaos of dismantling, temporarily recalling and piecemeal reinstatements of staff has wreaked havoc on workers’ lives, discontinuing services and programs altogether and creating total disruption in the benefits and protections that workers and the public depend on.”
Labor, Workplace Health, and Safety Groups Sue to Restore Programs at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
Public Citizen | May 14, 2025
“In California, Medicaid business in certain cases is taxed at $274 per member/per month, while non-Medicaid business is taxed at just $2 per member/per month. These arrangements allow states to benefit from a budget surplus to reinvest in unrelated programs, including the $8.5 billion program in California to cover more than 1.6 million illegal immigrants and other non-citizens, CMS said.”
CMS Closing Loophole It Says States Exploit to Benefit Illegal Immigrants
Healthcare Finance News | Susan Morse | May 14, 2025
“Loss of drug subsidies after Medicaid disenrollment was associated with higher mortality among low-income Medicare beneficiaries.”
Loss of Subsidized Drug Coverage and Mortality Among Medicare Beneficiaries
New England Journal of Medicine | Eric T Roberts, PhD; Jessica Phelan, MS; Aaron L Schwartz, MD, PhD; Ellen Meara, PhD; Dominic Ruggiero MPH; Lilly Estenson, MSW; Rachel M Werner, MD, PhD; José F Figueroa, MD, MPH | May 14, 2025
“…the DOJ complaint documents how Humana, Elevance Health, and Aetna allegedly hid illegal kickbacks to brokers by disguising them as administrative fees.”
Alleged Kickbacks Further Expose Medicare Advantage Corruption
Center for Economic and Policy Research | Brandon Novick | May 13, 2025
“Gov. Gavin Newsom announced today that he will seek to regulate prescription drug managers that he blames for driving up costs for patients, less than a year after he vetoed similar oversight of these companies.”
Gavin Newsom Says These Middlemen Drive Up Drug Prices. He’s Got a New Plan to Fix It
CalMatters | Alexei Koseff, Kristen Hwang | May 13, 2025
____________________________________________
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.
Our Weekly News Roundup shares news and views about health policy, health equity and healthcare reform (from non-paywalled news sources)
Our Media page connects you to doctors, advocates and experts in health economics and health policy.
Our Resources page provides a wealth of additional resources including links to legislation and studies.
Keep up with the Medicare for All movement
Subscribe to Code WACK!
Apple Google Amazon Spotify Subscribe
Podcasts Podcasts Music for emails
Or wherever you find your favorite podcasts!
And follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Subscribe for email updates.