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President Donald Trump and Republicans pledged not to touch Medicare, but the massive tax law enacted over Democratic objections set up more than $500 billion in Medicare cuts — unless Democrats bail the GOP out. Because Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” is projected to balloon the federal budget deficit by $3.4 trillion over 10 years, it triggered automatic spending cuts under the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010, known as the PAYGO Act. The White House Office of Management and Budget must find $340 billion a year in spending reductions. (McAuliff, 7/10)

Two regional Planned Parenthood affiliates have stopped accepting Medicaid, citing a provision in the GOP’s massive tax-and-spending bill signed into law by President Trump earlier this month. The move has sparked legal challenges, patient confusion and warnings of widespread health care disruption. Planned Parenthood locations in Washington, D.C., and Colorado posted notices this week alerting patients that Medicaid coverage is no longer accepted at their health centers. (Kaplan, 7/11)

Republicans’ first major policy bill this year was a partisan affair: They cut Medicaid funding by some $1 trillion to help fund tax cuts prized by President Trump. (Wilkerson, 7/11)

�鶹Ů�� Health News’ ‘What The Health?’ Podcast: Digesting Trump’s Big Budget Law

As he had wanted, President Donald Trump signed his big budget bill into a big budget law in a White House ceremony on July 4, cementing, among other things, billions of dollars in cuts to health programs such as Medicaid. The new law will also reshape rules for the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, and other health programs. Meanwhile, the threat of layoffs continues to hang over the heads of employees at the Department of Health and Human Services, and funding for health-related contracts and grants remains stalled. (Rovner, 7/10)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: The Foster Care System Has A Suicide Problem. Federal Cuts Threaten To Slow Fixes

Elliott Hinkle experienced depression and suicidal thoughts even before entering the foster care system in Casper, Wyoming, at age 15. At the time, Hinkle, who is transgender, struggled with their sexual identity and gender issues, and their difficulties continued in foster care. They felt like they had no one to confide in — not their foster parents, not church leaders, not their caseworker. (Platzman Weinstock, 7/11)

As Congressional Republicans wrangled final votes for the federal budget that became law last week, a harsh reality was setting in for Molly De Marco, a research scientist at the UNC Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education, or SNAP-Ed, was one of the federally funded initiatives on the chopping block. (Blythe, 7/11)