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Obamacare Insurers Seek Double-Digit Premium Hikes

July 18, 2025 at 9:37 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“If you buy your own health insurance, you are probably going to pay more next year—a lot more,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Insurers are seeking hefty 2026 rate increases for Affordable Care Act marketplace plans, the coverage known as Obamacare. Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Illinois wants a 27% hike, while its sister Blue Cross plan in Texas is asking for 21%. The largest ACA plans in Washington state, Georgia and Rhode Island are all looking for premiums to surge more than 20%.”

“The companies say the big increases are needed because of higher healthcare costs and changing federal policy, including cuts to subsidies that help consumers pay for plans.”

Filed Under: Health Care

1,000 Could Die from Trump’s Medicaid Cuts

July 17, 2025 at 8:50 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

A report in JAMA Health Forum found the Medicaid cuts in the “big, beautiful bill” could lead to as many as 1,000 additional deaths and 100,000 more hospitalizations annually.

Filed Under: Health Care

Medicaid Cuts Already Starting to Bite

July 16, 2025 at 1:50 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

The Prospect: “Hospitals are closing or actively considering doing so, cutting programs, and laying off staff. Planned Parenthood is warning patients it can no longer accept Medicaid insurance and in one region says it can’t provide services to Medicaid recipients at all, even if the patient doesn’t use Medicaid to pay.”

“And lawmakers in at least five states are planning special sessions to revamp their already-enacted budgets and determine how to handle the cuts, including what cuts they should enact and how to administer the new Medicaid work requirement.”

Filed Under: Health Care


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Justice Department Demands Trans Patient Details

July 10, 2025 at 8:34 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The Justice Department has issued subpoenas demanding confidential patient information from more than 20 doctors and hospitals that provide gender-related treatments to minors,” the New York Times reports.

“The action marks a new turn in the Trump administration’s efforts to limit transgender medical care. Most of the subpoenas, issued through a unit that typically investigates health care fraud, attempt to pierce powerful federal confidentiality protections for patients and their medical providers.”

Filed Under: Health Care

‘It Could Be His Obamacare”

July 9, 2025 at 6:08 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Before Republican Sen. Thom Tillis bucked his own party and voted against President Donald Trump’s agenda last week, he warned the president how its toxic political ripple effect could soon wipe out Congress’ GOP majority,” CNN reports.

Said Tillis: “As I told the president, if we don’t get this right, he’s probably going to have two of the most miserable years of his life if Democrats take the gavels in the House. And I’m trying to avoid that.”

He added: “I told the president, I really do believe it could be his Obamacare.”

Earlier for members: Trumpcare Claims Its First Victim

Filed Under: Health Care, White House

Rural Hospitals Brace for Painful Choices

July 9, 2025 at 12:00 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Rural hospitals across the U.S. say they’re being forced to consider tough choices — like cutting services for children or cancer patients — after President Donald Trump signed into law a sprawling domestic policy bill that includes sweeping cuts to not only Medicaid but the Affordable Care Act, as well,” NBC News reports.

For members: Trumpcare Claims Its First Victim

Filed Under: Health Care

ICE May Have Your Medical Records

July 9, 2025 at 10:26 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement have gained access to a massive database of health and car insurance claims and are using it to track down people they want to deport,” 404 Media reports.

“The database, which contains details on more than 1.8 billion insurance claims and 58 million medical bills and growing, includes peoples’ names, addresses, telephone and tax identification numbers, license plates, and other sensitive personal information.”

Filed Under: Health Care, Immigration

How RFK Jr. Is Gutting the FDA

July 8, 2025 at 9:15 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

New York Times: “Since RFK Jr. was confirmed as President Trump’s health secretary in February, the Food and Drug Administration has been buffeted by staff cuts that have crippled divisions and gutted the agency. Thousands of scientists and other experts have left or been let go, putting the storied agency’s mission at risk.”

“The FDA was created to protect consumers from contaminated food and unsafe or ineffective medical products. But in recent years, American confidence in the agency has plummeted, as mis- and disinformation further undermine the agency’s authority.”

Filed Under: Health Care

U.S. Measles Cases Reach 33-Year High

July 7, 2025 at 9:23 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The United States has reached its highest annual measles case tally in 33 years, hitting at least 1,277 confirmed cases across 38 states and the District of Columbia,” the Washington Post reports.

“The milestone marks a public health reversal in defeating a highly contagious, vaccine-preventable disease as the anti-vaccine movement gains strength.”

Filed Under: Health Care

Medicaid Cuts Won’t Be Felt Until After Midterms

July 7, 2025 at 6:35 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“President Trump’s tax and spending bill sets in motion nearly $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid and other health policy changes that could loom over the midterm elections. But the real effects likely won’t be felt until well after the ballots are cast,” Axios reports.

“Despite negative polls and headlines, bill supporters could be insulated from political blame by a slow drip of policy changes that will play out over the next decade — a contrast to when the GOP tried to repeal Obamacare in 2017.”

Filed Under: 2026 Campaign, Health Care

Louisiana Girds for Megabill Fallout

July 3, 2025 at 7:39 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Politico: “Louisiana is poorer, sicker and hungrier than most states, and the deep cuts to Medicaid have a growing number of Republicans in Louisiana worried that Congress and the White House are going too far. They are anxious that rural hospitals whose finances are highly dependent on federal Medicaid funds would face crippling revenue losses and be forced to shut down, depriving all residents of accessible health care.”

“The blowback over Medicaid represents the most significant crack between GOP leaders in Washington and in the states so far in this administration, according to interviews with nearly two dozen Louisiana state leaders.”

Filed Under: Health Care

Judge Says Layoffs at HHS Were Likely Illegal

July 1, 2025 at 10:44 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“A federal judge has ruled that recent mass layoffs at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services were likely unlawful and ordered the Trump administration to halt plans to downsize and reorganize the nation’s health workforce,” the AP reports.

Filed Under: Health Care

Trump Cut Rape Survivor Kits for Congo

July 1, 2025 at 3:30 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“President Donald Trump’s administration cancelled a major contract to supply emergency kits for rape survivors in Congo as violence surged in the east this year, leaving thousands without access to life-saving medication,” Reuters reports.

“The emergency kits include medication to prevent HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, as well as unwanted pregnancies. The decision to cancel the contract for around 100,000 post-rape kits has not been reported previously.”

Filed Under: Foreign Affairs, Health Care

Morale Plunges at Veterans Affairs Hospitals

July 1, 2025 at 3:00 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

CNN: “They say supplies have gone unordered, appointments go unscheduled, and medical staff fear that these conditions might not only encourage doctors and nurses now working in the over-strained system to quit, but dry up the pipeline for future talent.”

Filed Under: Health Care

Nearly 12 Million Would Lose Their Health Care Coverage

June 29, 2025 at 10:58 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Republicans’ marquee domestic policy bill that is making its way through the Senate would result in deeper cuts and more Americans losing health insurance coverage than the original measure that passed the House last month, according to new estimates from the Congressional Budget Office,” the New York Times reports.

“According to a report published late Saturday night, the legislation would mean 11.8 million more Americans would become uninsured by 2034. Federal spending on Medicaid, Medicare and Obamacare would be reduced by more than $1.1 trillion over that period — with more than $1 trillion of those cuts coming from Medicaid alone.”

“The fresh estimates make official what many analysts had already predicted and some Republican lawmakers had feared.”

Filed Under: Health Care

Louisiana Hospitals Predict ‘Devastation’

June 29, 2025 at 4:17 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Every major health system in Louisiana is warning Speaker Mike Johnson and the rest of the state’s congressional delegation that the Senate GOP’s planned Medicaid cuts “would be historic in their devastation,” Politico reports.

Filed Under: Health Care

Trump’s Pollster Warns Over Deeper Medicaid Cuts

June 28, 2025 at 3:19 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Jim McLaughlin, one of President Donald Trump’s top pollsters, said Hill Republicans should nix Senate Republicans’ deeper Medicaid cuts in the megabill or risk deep backlash from voters,” Politico reports.

Filed Under: Health Care

RFK Jr.’s Advisers Rescind Recommendations for Vaccines

June 27, 2025 at 5:10 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“An advisory panel recently appointed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. voted on Thursday to walk back longstanding recommendations for flu vaccines containing an ingredient that the anti-vaccine movement has falsely linked to autism,” the New York Times reports.

“The vote signaled a powerful shift in the way federal officials approach vaccines, putting into action Mr. Kennedy’s deep skepticism about their safety and delivering the first blows to a scientific process that for decades has provided effective vaccines to Americans.”

Filed Under: Health Care

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About Political Wire

goddard-bw-snapshotTaegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.

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