- Low-Income, Elderly, and Disabled Likely to Be Hit Hard by GOP Medicaid Cuts NPR by Ashley Lopez—Many in Texas are keeping a close eye on the Republican bid to replace the Affordable Care Act. One of the big changes is how it would affect low-income people, seniors, and people with disabilities who get help from Medicaid. And people on both sides of the political spectrum say the Lone Star State is not going to fare well.
- Obamacare Repeal Could Hurt Rural Areas — A Key Trump Constituency Boston Globe by Astead W. Herndon and Victoria McGrane—Republicans from rural states increasingly are worried that their party's plan to replace the Affordable Care Act would inflict damage on vulnerable communities, especially the poor and middle-aged in isolated areas whose votes helped catapult Donald Trump into the White House. The concerns are a byproduct of this week's nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office analysis of the GOP replacement, which highlighted multiple ways that the health care plan falls far short of Trump's campaign promise to keep Medicaid intact and to create a system that provides "insurance for everybody.''
- GOP Health Overhaul Puts Pressure on State Governments Associated Press by Geoff Mulvihill—The Republican health care plan means less money for states and gives them a tough choice: Find a pot of cash to make up the difference or let coverage lapse for millions of lower-income Americans. Governors and state lawmakers analyzing the Republican plan to replace former President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act fear a return to the past, when those without health coverage used emergency rooms for their medical needs. That uncompensated care that was written off by hospitals or billed to the state.