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House Republicans passed a budget bill Tuesday that is the first step toward extending Trump’s tax cuts and reducing spending on Medicaid. But Republicans nearly failed, and the two hours of messiness that led to its passage is an early sign of how difficult it will be to enact President Trump’s agenda. (Wilkerson, 2/25)

The House passed a budget resolution Tuesday night after the speaker, Mike Johnson, persuaded several Republican lawmakers, including those who have expressed reservations about possible Medicaid cuts, to support the bill. In theory, the budget, which kicks off the process of passing an extension of tax cuts enacted in 2017 and up to $2 trillion in spending cuts meant to partly offset them, could become law without significant cuts to Medicaid. But it won’t be easy. (Sanger-Katz and Parlapiano, 2/25)

The change could leave the 40 states that participate in the Obamacare program with a difficult set of choices. They could shoulder the extra costs to preserve Medicaid coverage for millions, make cuts to coverage or look for cuts from other large government programs to offset the reduction in federal funds. (Weiland and Kliff, 2/25)

All states rely on federal matching funds to finance their state Medicaid and CHIP programs. A new analysis from the Center for American Progress explores the potential reach of these cuts by congressional district. Table 1 shows potential federal funding losses by district if the $880 billion in cuts were to be proportional to current Medicaid and CHIP enrollment using 2023 American Community Survey data from the U.S. Census Bureau. On average, each congressional district would lose $2 billion in federal funding over nine years. (Estep, Murphy, and Ducas, 2/24)

Most President Trump voters say they oppose any cuts to Medicaid as Republican lawmakers wrestle with how to reach up to $2 trillion in budget cuts through their reconciliation bill, a poll released Monday found. The poll from Hart Research conducted for the nonprofit Families Over Billionaires, which advocates in opposition to tax cuts for the wealthy, found 71 percent of voters who backed Trump said cutting Medicaid would be unacceptable. Voters overall were even more opposed to it, with 82 percent saying so. (Gans, 2/25)

A North Idaho lawmaker pushing for Medicaid expansion reform introduced a new bill meant to contain expansion’s costs — without the threat of repealing the voter-approved law. ... the new bill proposes Idaho submit to the federal government a plan for “comprehensive medicaid managed care,” which is when private companies manage Medicaid benefits, and end Idaho’s use of doctor-managed care, which is commonly called value based care. (Pfannenstiel, 2/25)

Thirty-year-old Kiana George works at a child care program in Camden, Alabama. She makes too much to qualify for Medicaid and too little to qualify for federal subsidies to help buy health insurance. Without insurance, she tried to avoid going to the doctor. ... In the 10 states that have not expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, roughly 1.4 million people like George fall in the coverage gap — earning too much to qualify for Medicaid and too little to get federal subsidies to help buy insurance, according to numbers released Tuesday by �鶹Ů��, a health policy research organization. (Chandler, 2/26)

Almost 1 million Texas children and teens went without health insurance at some point over the most recent year recorded. Many of them live in Houston, which has a higher rate of uninsured children than any other major metropolitan area in the nation. Overall, Texas has the worst coverage rate for kids in the country, with nearly 12% going uninsured in 2023 — up from nearly 11% in 2022. Among the issues is a backlog of thousands of families who applied for Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program, known as CHIP. (Krisberg, 2/26)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Listen To The Latest '�鶹Ů�� Health News Minute'

Jackie Fortiér reads this week’s news: Some states are turning to laundromats to reach people who could qualify for programs including Medicaid and food assistance, and cross-border telehealth is helping Spanish-speaking farmworkers get care. (2/25)