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In response to recent federal legislation that cuts billions of dollars to Medicaid, Santa Clara County supervisors on Thursday unanimously voted to add a ballot measure to November’s special election that would increase local sales tax by five-eighth cent (0.625%) for five years to try to backfill some of the projected lost federal revenue. The federal legislation HR 1 was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Trump in July. It includes the biggest cuts to Medicaid, the joint federal-state health insurance program for low-income Americans, in the program’s history. (Ho, 8/7)

North Carolina’s first-in-the-nation Healthy Opportunities Pilot, which sought to address the nonmedical health needs of rural residents on Medicaid, faces a bleak future after state lawmakers failed to extend funding for the program in their stripped-down “mini budget” passed last month. (Baxley, 8/8)

Few in the US healthcare sector are immune to the effects of Washington’s recent cuts to Medicaid, even the cash-rich teaching hospitals affiliated with top-notch medical schools. These facilities, often known as academic medical centers or AMCs, are usually seen as the cream of the industry crop for their top-tier credit ratings and ability to churn out revenue. But federal cuts to the public health insurance program for low-income and disabled people will lead to less funding for teaching hospitals around the country. In response, they’ve already started to reduce staff and scale back operations. (Hudson and Rembert, 8/7)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Even In States That Fought Obamacare, Trump’s New Law Poses Health Consequences

GOP lawmakers in the 10 states that refused the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion for over a decade have argued their conservative approach to growing government programs would pay off in the long run. Instead, the Republican-passed budget law that includes many of President Donald Trump’s priorities will pose at least as big a burden on patients and hospitals in the expansion holdout states as in the 40 states that have extended Medicaid coverage to more low-income adults, hospital executives and other officials warn. (Chang and Whitehead, 8/8)

Noah Wyle, the star of "The Pitt," has lobbied for legislation to improve the lives of health care professionals, tackling staffing shortages and burnout. (Lalljee, 8/7)