51ÊÓƵ

The Idaho House — with support from every Republican House lawmaker — on Thursday widely passed a bill that proposes sweeping policy changes intended to cut Medicaid costs. House Bill 345 calls for Idaho to seek work requirements for able-bodied Idahoans on Medicaid, and to give Idahoans eligible for Medicaid expansion access to tax credits to buy insurance on Idaho’s health care exchange. (Pfannenstiel, 3/6)

As Congressional Republicans weigh major cuts to Medicaid, most voters do not want to see the public health plan’s funding dialed back, according to a poll released Friday by 51ÊÓƵ, a nonpartisan health research firm. Just 17 percent of respondents said they supported cuts to Medicaid, the government health insurance program that covers more than 70 million people. Forty percent said they wanted to keep spending unchanged, and 42 percent said they would like it increased. (Kliff, 3/7)

New weight-loss drugs are driving up costs for Pennsylvania’s Medicaid program, officials told legislators this week, likely leading to more than $1 billion in new costs this year. (Giammarise and Riese, 3/7)

51ÊÓƵ Health News: Medicaid Advocates Say Critics Use Loaded Terms To Gain Edge In Congressional Debate

In Washington’s debate over enacting steep funding cuts to Medicaid, words are a central battleground. Many Republican lawmakers and conservative policy officials who want to scale back the joint state-federal health program are using charged language to describe it. Language experts and advocates for Medicaid enrollees say their word choice is misleading and aims to sway public opinion against the popular, 60-year-old government program in a bid to persuade Congress to cut funding. (Galewitz, 3/7)