Category: Government Programs
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Medicaid’s new work test will cover about 18.5 million people, and the budget office expects roughly 5.2 million of them to lose coverage.
Starting January 1, 2027, millions of adults who get Medicaid through the program’s expansion group will have to prove they are working, training, volunteering or in school for at least 80 hours a month to keep their coverage. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the requirement will touch about 18.5 million people nationwide, and…
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Twenty-six drugmakers have now agreed to charge Medicaid the lower prices Europe pays, covering 89 percent of the branded drug market.
The Trump administration says 26 pharmaceutical manufacturers have now agreed to sell drugs to state Medicaid programs at the same reduced prices those companies already charge buyers in other wealthy countries. The latest round, announced August 31, 2026, added nine more drugmakers to the list and pushed the share of the U.S. branded prescription drug…
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Veterans’ disability claims are moving 46 percent faster than in January 2025, and the backlog is down more than 70 percent
The Department of Veterans Affairs says the average time it takes to process a disability compensation claim has fallen 46 percent since January 20, 2025, and the backlog of veterans waiting on decisions is down more than 70 percent over the same stretch. VA released both figures in a September 1, 2026 press release that…
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The Medicaid rule would scrap an alternative test that lets states tax hospitals past the usual 6 percent limit
A second piece of the same Medicaid financing overhaul targets a technical rule that has quietly let some states tax hospitals more heavily than the usual federal limit allows. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services wants to eliminate what regulators call the 75/75 test, an alternative path that can let a provider tax exceeding…
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A proposed federal rule would limit the taxes states charge hospitals to fund Medicaid, worth $246 billion over ten years
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has proposed a rule that would tighten how much states can tax hospitals, nursing homes and other health care providers to help pay for Medicaid. CMS estimates the change would cut federal Medicaid spending by roughly $246 billion over the next ten years, mostly by closing financing arrangements…
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Rural Alaska’s smallest food stamp payment is $49, twice the lower 48’s
When USDA sets next year’s food stamp numbers, most of the attention goes to the maximum a household can get. But the program also has a floor, and starting October 1, 2026, that floor is not the same everywhere. In the 48 states and Washington, D.C., the smallest monthly SNAP payment a one- or two-person…
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The largest food stamp household the government pays is capped at $3,887 a month no matter its size
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has told every state SNAP office exactly what a household can receive starting October 1, 2026, and for the biggest households, the number stops climbing. A household of 18 people gets the same monthly maximum as a household of 30: $3,887, loaded onto an EBT card whether it’s feeding two…
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Medicaid’s new work rule gives a person 30 days to fix a missed report before the coverage ends
The federal government has finalized how it will decide whether a Medicaid enrollee loses coverage for missing the new work requirement, and the answer turns on a single number most people haven’t heard yet: 30 days. States can’t verify hours from every enrollee automatically, so when they can’t confirm someone met the requirement, they have…
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USDA still has not written the food stamp work rules states are already enforcing
A caseworker in Ohio has to decide this week whether a 61-year-old grocery clerk who lost her hours keeps her food assistance past three months. The law says she now counts as an able-bodied adult without dependents. The federal guidance on exactly how to screen her for an exception does not exist yet. A Law…
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Food stamp households paying high rent can shelter up to $769 a month from the benefit math on October 1
A single-parent household in Ohio paying $1,400 a month in rent and utilities looks, on paper, like it should get almost nothing in food stamps once its income is counted. Starting October 1, the math changes: the government will let that household subtract up to $769 of its housing costs before benefits are calculated, the…
