Senate GOP tax bill would hit politically explosive Medicaid provision
The Finance Committee is due to brief members on its megabill draft text Monday night.
Senate Republicans are seeking to ratchet up savings from a politically explosive policy within Medicaid to pay for their megabill, and it’s already setting off shockwaves through Capitol Hill.
The Senate Finance Committee’s forthcoming portion of the party-line tax and spending package would lower the Medicaid provider tax to 3.5 percent, according to three people with direct knowledge of the legislation who were granted anonymity to discuss it.
With the pending dire threat to several of these programs (primarily Medicaid & the ACA) from the House Republican Budget Proposal which recently passed, I'm going a step further and am generating pie charts which visualize just how much of every Congressional District's total population is at risk of losing healthcare coverage.
USE THE DROP-DOWN MENU ABOVE TO FIND YOUR STATE & DISTRICT.
The 4,000 California National Guard soldiers who President Donald Trump surged into Los Angeles remain unpaid due to delays in issuing official activation orders, leaving compensation and benefits in limbo.
According to more than a dozen Guardsmen across four units who spoke to Military.com, none has received formal activation orders, the critical paperwork that not only authorizes their duty status, but also unlocks pay, Tricare health benefits and eligibility for Department of Veterans Affairs services. Without those orders, troops remain in a legal and administrative limbo.
Multiple defense officials with direct knowledge of the situation told Military.com the chaotic and sudden activation of troops has effectively clogged up the flow of administrative work.
16 Million Americans Would Become Uninsured Due to Reconciliation Bill and Loss of Tax Credits; 8.2 Million in Marketplaces Alone
Leaders from State-based Health Insurance Marketplaces, Enrollees, Providers, and Small Business Highlight Potential, Devastating Impacts
(Washington, DC) The Congressional Reconciliation bill and loss of federal tax credits would result in 16 million Americans losing health coverage, including 8.2 million enrolled in Health Insurance Marketplaces. By stripping millions of lives from the Marketplaces, health care will be more expensive, harder to access, create a strain on health care systems, and hurt small businesses.
Governor Kathy Hochul today released new data showing the massive impact the GOP’s ‘Big Ugly’ Reconciliation Bill would have on New York families. The latest bill threatens to severely disrupt health coverage for millions of New Yorkers. In addition to increasing the number of uninsured by 1.5 million and stripping $13.5 billion in annual funding from New York’s healthcare system, the bill would trigger steep increases in private health insurance premiums for vulnerable New Yorkers and impose excessive burdens on consumers enrolling through NY State of Health, the State’s official health plan marketplace.
Each year insurers that sell Individual and Small Group plans in Maine's pooled risk market must submit their proposed forms and rates to the Bureau of Insurance, using the System for Electronic Rate and Form Filing (SERFF). Details of the filings submitted to the state since June 10, 2010 can be viewed in the system.
Anthem Health Plans of Maine:
The proposed rates have been developed from 2024 Individual and Small Group ACA combined experience, and the proposed average annual rate change at the Merged Market level is 18.0%.
The proposed annual rate changes by product for Individual range from 17.9% to 20.6%, with rate changes by plan from 10.1% to 30.0%. These ranges are based on the renewing plans, and are consistent with what is reported in the Unified Rate Review Template. Exhibit A shows the rate change for each plan.
Factors that affect the rate changes for all plans include:
But the plans were on display…”
“On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.”
“That’s the display department.”
“With a flashlight.”
“Ah, well, the lights had probably gone.”
“So had the stairs.”
“But look, you found the notice, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” said Arthur, “yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard.”
The Connecticut Insurance Department has posted the initial proposed health insurance rate filings for the 2026 individual and small group markets. There are 8 filings made by 7 health insurers for plans that currently cover approximately 224,000 people (158,000 individual and 66,000 small group).
Anthem has filed rates for both individual and small group plans that will be marketed through Access Health CT, the state-sponsored health insurance exchange. ConnectiCare Benefits Inc. (CBI) and ConnectiCare Insurance Company, Inc. have filed rates for the individual market on the exchange.
Before I continue, note that yes, I'm aware the 17.8% average shown below doesn't match the 22.9% average in the headline above. There's a reason for this which should be obvious if you read on:
The 2026 rate proposals for the individual and small group market are on average higher than last year:
Tennessee ACA exchange carriers were instructed to provide two sets of rate filings for 2026: One which assumes CSR reimbursement payments won't be reinstated, one which assumes they are reinstated. In addition, both sets of filings assume that IRA subsidies won't be extended; all but one carrier clarified how much extending the IRA subsidies would impact 2026 premium changes.
Alliant Health Plans: Alliant is requesting a nominal 0.3% increase next year if CSR payments aren't reinstated and a 1.0% drop if they are. In both cases, premiums would be 2.8% lower if IRA subsidies were to be extended by Congress:
There was a lot to unpack there, all of it pretty horrible...but I felt one provision in particular was worth its own separate post:
Funding Cost-Sharing Reductions.
Enacting section 44202 would affect the cost-sharing reductions that the ACA requires insurers to offer to eligible people who purchase silver plans through the marketplaces. Those reductions increase the actuarial value—the average share of covered medical expenses paid by the insurer—above the amount in other silver plans, resulting in lower out-of-pocket costs for eligible enrollees. To be eligible for cost-sharing reductions an enrollee’s income must generally fall between 100 percent and 250 percent of the FPL; the subsidy varies with income.
