January 27 Update

In This Week’s Update:

  • Health Policy at a Crossroads series
  • Medicaid Beneficiary Advisory Council Reporting Toolkit
  • The Corporate Transformation of Healthcare
  • 36 Million People at Risk of Losing Medicaid Coverage
  • Yardstick for Medicaid Budget Targets: What Potential Numbers Mean
  • State updates: CO, ID, MD, ME, MI, MN, NJ, NY, PA, TN & WA

 

Health Policy at a Crossroads series
Last week, Health Affairs Forefront published the first in a new series of articles, Health Policy at a Crossroads. Articles in the series will provide analysis of prominent regulatory, legislative, and judicial developments in health policy under the Trump-Vance Administration and the 119th Congress. Last week’s article highlights the healthcare issues to watch and examines the implications for healthcare policy of the first executive orders issued by the new administration.

 

Medicaid Beneficiary Advisory Council Reporting Toolkit
Also last week, State Health and Value Strategies (SHVS) published a Medicaid Beneficiary Advisory Council Reporting Toolkit. The process of publicly and transparently documenting and reporting activities of Beneficiary Advisory Councils  is key to building trusted relationships, as well as documenting and measuring success of these groups. States can customize the content of these materials, which include data collection templates for: member composition, meeting data, discussion topics, recommendations, and member engagement. Updates follow.

 

The Corporate Transformation of Healthcare
In recent years, healthcare mergers and acquisitions have ramped up, more corporate entities have entered the market, and maximizing profit has risen as a priority for many healthcare systems. The Georgetown Center on Health Insurance Reforms is hosting a three-part webinar series examining the corporate transformation of healthcare, every other Friday at 1:00 p.m. ET from Jan. 31 through Feb. 28. Participants will learn about how rapid corporatization is impacting providers, patients, and communities; what is driving the increase in profit-driven strategies in healthcare; and how policymakers can stop abusive practices and protect consumers.

 

36 Million People at Risk of Losing Medicaid Coverage
Recent proposals from congressional leaders would cut Medicaid by taking coverage away from people who don’t meet unnecessary and burdensome work requirements. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) estimates that 36 million people enrolled in Medicaid—including people in every state—could be at risk of losing their coverage under various proposals. A CBPP report builds on past evidence that work requirements impose administrative barriers and red tape that lead to coverage losses among people who are working and people with caregiving responsibilities, disabilities, or illnesses that keep them from paid work.

 

Yardstick for Medicaid Budget Targets: What Potential Numbers Mean
To inform the fiscal year 2026 budget developments, an analysis for The Century Foundation translates potential federal Medicaid budget reduction targets of $100 billion, $250 billion, and $500 billion over ten years, into various metrics for lawmakers, state officials, healthcare providers, and the public. These three hypothetical targets and their equivalent metrics can serve as a yardstick for smaller or larger proposed federal Medicaid spending reductions. The analysis also translates the budget targets to demonstrate the impact on the people and services covered by Medicaid.

 

State updates: CO, ID, MD, ME, MI, MN, NJ, NY, PA, TN & WA

  • Colorado – The Department of Health Care Policy & Financing has released its annual, statutorily required reports. These reports measure Colorado hospital profits, reserves, costs, expenses and the level of community benefit that tax-exempt hospitals offer their communities in lieu of paying taxes.
  • Maine – The Maine Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Health Insurance Marketplace announced that nearly 65,000 people signed up for coverage in 2025 through CoverME.gov, the state’s official health insurance Marketplace, during open enrollment. The state saw a record number of new enrollees, with 11,285 new consumers who didn’t previously have insurance through the Marketplace.
  • Maryland
    • The Maryland Department of Health received CMS approval for reentry services and statewide expansion of housing supports. The first approval allows Maryland to provide targeted Medicaid services for incarcerated individuals who have substance-use disorders or serious mental illnesses up to 90 days before their release, starting July 1, 2025. The second approval enables the statewide expansion of the Assistance in Community Integration Services program, adding 1,240 participant spaces to provide housing and tenancy-based case management services.
  • Michigan – Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed 16 bills that will expand reproductive freedom in the state, including a bill that allows pharmacists to directly prescribe and dispense contraceptives to patients. These efforts follow an announcement by the Department of Health and Human Services that the state continues to offer free contraception supplies through the Take Control of Your Birth Control program and has shipped 34,300 doses of emergency contraceptive, 34,300 doses of oral birth control pills and 171,500 condoms to date.
  • New York – NY State of Health (NYSOH), the state’s official health insurance Marketplace, released the 2024 Health Insurance Coverage Update, a detailed summary of NYSOH enrollment, including demographics, quality measures, a summary of unwinding activities, and an update on the first year of implementation of New York’s section 1332 state innovation waiver. The report highlights that as of September 2024, NYSOH enrollment is nearly 6.7 million, or more than one in three New Yorkers across the state.