US farm agency to allow three more states to bar some items from food aid
By Ahmed Aboulenein and Leah Douglas
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on Tuesday signed waivers allowing Arkansas, Idaho and Utah to bar participants in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program from using their benefits to buy certain processed foods like soda and candy.
The administration of President Donald Trump has encouraged all states to request such waivers as part of its Make America Healthy Again initiative fronted by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Rollins had previously signed waivers from Indiana, Iowa and Nebraska to restrict SNAP purchases of soft drinks, energy drinks or candy.
"It's about nutrition, and there's no nutrition in these products. We shouldn't be paying for them with taxpayer money," Kennedy told reporters at a press conference alongside Rollins.
Additional waivers from Colorado, Kansas, West Virginia, Texas, Ohio, Florida and Louisiana are under review, Rollins said.
Kennedy and Rollins also reiterated earlier statements that they plan to release an updated version of the nation's dietary guidelines this summer. Rollins said the guidelines will be released "very soon" and emphasize whole, nutritious foods.
More than 41 million people receive SNAP benefits, sometimes known as food stamps.
The tax and spending bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in May and being considered by the Senate would shrink SNAP enrollment by hiking work requirements to receive the benefits and moving significant costs for the program to states.
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Miami Herald
39 minutes ago
- Miami Herald
As health grants shrink, memory cafes help dementia patients and caregivers
Rob Kennedy mingled with about a dozen other people in a community space in Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania. The room, decorated with an under-the-sea theme, had a balloon arch decked out with streamers meant to look like jellyfish and a cloud of clear balloons mimicking ocean bubbles. Kennedy comes to this memory cafe twice a month since being diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's disease in his late 50s. Everyone here has a degree of memory loss or is a caregiver for someone with memory loss. Attendees colored on worksheets with an underwater theme. They drank coffee and returned to the breakfast bar for seconds on pastries. A quick round of trivia got everyone's minds working. 'We start out with just little trivia — many of us cannot answer any of the questions,' Kennedy said with a laugh. 'We all have a good time going around,' he added. 'You know, we all try to make it fun.' The northeastern Pennsylvania memory cafe Kennedy attends is one of more than 600 around the country, according to Dementia Friendly America. The gatherings for people with cognitive impairment and their caregivers are relatively cheap and easy to run — often the only expense is a small rental fee for the space. As state and local health departments nationwide try to make sense of what the potential loss of $11 billion of federal health funding will mean for the services they can offer their communities, memory cafe organizers believe their work may become even more important. Losing memory, and other things, too Kennedy's diagnosis led him to retire, ending a decades-long career as a software engineer at the University of Scranton. He recommends memory cafes to other people with dementia and their families. 'If they're not coming to a place like this, they're doing themselves a disservice. You got to get out there and see people that are laughing.' The memory cafes he attends happen twice a month. They have given him purpose, Kennedy said, and help him cope with negative emotions around his diagnosis. 'I came in and I was miserable,' Kennedy said. 'I come in now and it's like, it's family, it's a big, extended family. I get to meet them. I get to meet their partners. I get to meet their children. So, it's really nice.' More than 6 million people in the U.S. have been diagnosed with some form of dementia. The diagnosis can be burdensome on relationships, particularly with family members who are the primary caregivers. A new report from the Alzheimer's Association found that 70% of caregivers reported that coordinating care is stressful. Socializing can also become more difficult after diagnosis. 'One thing I have heard again and again from people who come to our memory cafe is 'all of our friends disappeared,'' said Beth Soltzberg, a social worker at Jewish Family and Children's Service of Greater Boston, where she directs the Alzheimer's and related dementia family support program. The inclusion of caregivers is what distinguishes memory cafes from other programs that serve people with cognitive impairment, like adult day care. Memory cafes don't offer formal therapies. At a memory cafe, having fun together and being social supports the well-being of participants. And that support is for the patient and their caregiver — because both can experience social isolation and distress after a diagnosis. A 2021 study published in Frontiers in Public Health indicated that even online memory cafes during the pandemic provided social support for both patients and their family members. 'A memory cafe is a cafe which recognizes that some of the clients here may have cognitive impairment, some may not,' said Jason Karlawish, a geriatrics professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine and the co-director of the Penn Memory Center. Karlawish regularly recommends memory cafes to his patients, in part because they benefit caregivers as well. 'The caregiver-patient dyad, I find often, has achieved some degree of connection and enjoyment in doing things together,' Karlawish said. 'For many, that's a very gratifying experience, because dementia does reshape relationships.' 'That socialization really does help ease the stress that they feel from being a caregiver,' said Kyra O'Brien, a neurologist who also teaches at Penn's Perelman School of Medicine. 'We know that patients have better quality of life when their caregivers are under less stress.' An affordable way to address a growing problem As the population grows older, the number of available family caregivers is decreasing, according to the AARP Public Policy Institute. The report found that the number of potential caregivers for an individual 80 or older will decrease significantly by 2050. In 2024, the Alzheimer's Association issued a report projecting a jump in dementia cases in the U.S. from an estimated 6.9 million people age 65 or older currently living with Alzheimer's disease to 13.8 million people by 2060. It attributed this increase primarily to the aging of the baby boom generation, or those born between 1946 and 1964. As cases of memory loss are projected to rise, the Trump administration is attempting to cut billions in health spending. Since memory cafes don't rely on federal dollars, they may become an even more important part of the continuum of care for people with memory loss and their loved ones. 'We're fighting off some pretty significant Medicaid cuts at the congressional level,' said Georgia Goodman, director of Medicaid policy for LeadingAge, a national nonprofit network of services for people as they age. 'Medicaid is a program that doesn't necessarily pay for memory cafes, but thinking about ensuring that the long-term care continuum and the funding mechanisms that support it are robust and remain available for folks is going to be key.' The nonprofit MemoryLane Care Services operates two memory cafes in Toledo, Ohio. They're virtually free to operate, because they take place in venues that don't require payment, according to Salli Bollin, the executive director. 'That really helps from a cost standpoint, from a funding standpoint,' Bollin said. One of the memory cafes takes place once a month at a local coffee shop. The other meets at the Toledo Museum of Art. MemoryLane Care Services provides the museum employees with training in dementia sensitivity so they can lead tours for the memory cafe participants. The memory cafe that Rob Kennedy attends in Pennsylvania costs about $150 a month to run, according to the host organization, The Gathering Place. 'This is a labor of love,' said board member Paula Baillie, referring to the volunteers who run the memory cafe. 'The fact that they're giving up time — they recognize that this is important.' The monthly budget goes toward crafts, books, coffee, snacks, and some utilities for the two-hour meetings. Local foundations provide grants that help cover those costs. Even though memory cafes are inexpensive and not dependent on federal funding, they could face indirect obstacles because of the Trump administration's recent funding cuts. Organizers worry the loss of federal funds could negatively affect the host institutions, such as libraries and other community spaces. Memory cafe hot spot At least 39 states have hosted memory cafes recently, according to Dementia Friendly America. Wisconsin has the most — more than 100. The state has a strong infrastructure focused on memory care, which should keep its memory cafes running regardless of what is happening at the federal level, according to Susan McFadden, a professor emerita of psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. She co-founded the Fox Valley Memory Project, which oversees 14 memory cafes. 'They've operated on the grassroots, they've operated on pretty small budgets and a lot of goodwill,' she said. Since 2013, Wisconsin has also had a unique network for dementia care, with state-funded dementia care specialists for each county and federally recognized tribe in Wisconsin. The specialists help connect individuals with cognitive impairment to community resources, bolstering memory cafe attendance. McFadden first heard about memory cafes in 2011, before they were popular in the United States. She was conducting research on memory and teaching courses on aging. McFadden reached out to memory cafes in the United Kingdom, where the model was already popular and well connected. Memory cafe organizers invited her to visit and observe them in person, so she planned a trip overseas with her husband. Their tour skipped over the typical tourist hot spots, taking them to more humble settings. 'We saw church basements and senior center dining rooms and assisted living dining rooms,' she said. 'That, to me, is really the core of memory cafes. It's hospitality. It's reaching out to people you don't know and welcoming them, and that's what they did for us.' After her trip, McFadden started applying for grants and scouting locations that could host memory cafes in Wisconsin. She opened her first one in Appleton, Wisconsin, in 2012, just over a year after her transformative trip to the U.K. These days, she points interested people to a national directory of memory cafes hosted by Dementia Friendly America. The organization's Memory Cafe Alliance also offers training modules — developed by McFadden and her colleague Anne Basting — to help people establish cafes in their own communities, wherever they are. 'They're not so hard to set up; they're not expensive,' McFadden said. 'It doesn't require an act of the legislature to do a memory cafe. It takes community engagement.' This article is part of a partnership with NPR and WVIA. KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.
USA Today
an hour ago
- USA Today
Medicaid churn: How working Americans could mistakenly lose coverage under Trump tax bill
Medicaid churn: How working Americans could mistakenly lose coverage under Trump tax bill Show Caption Hide Caption President Trump gives his thoughts on Elon Musk amid clash on bill President Donald Trump responded to Elon Musk's criticism of his "big, beautiful bill" with disappointment as Musk responded on X. A centerpiece of Donald Trump's tax bill would make millions of Medicaid recipients work, volunteer or study to maintain their publicly-financed health insurance. Republicans say the work requirement is vital to protect taxpayers while motivating nondisabled Medicaid recipients to take charge of their physical and fiscal health. Dr. Mehmet Oz challenged this population to "prove that you matter." But health advocacy groups and analysts say most recipients already work in jobs that don't provide affordable health insurance or pay enough for people to afford their own insurance. They say mandating a Medicaid work requirement − combined with more frequent eligibility checks − would create an administrative nightmare that drops coverage for many who qualify for the public health insurance program for low-income and disabled residents. What is Medicaid churn? Medicaid rolls vary from month to month as people lose eligibility due to a new job, a raise or other income source that disqualifies them for coverage. A job loss or change in life circumstances could make someone newly eligible. The constant change of Medicaid rolls is what health policy experts call churn. A person who temporarily loses coverage due to a paperwork issue or mistake then must again sign up. "Churn is what happens when these eligibility systems become difficult to navigate," said Jennifer Tolbert, deputy director of the program on Medicaid and the uninsured for KFF, a health policy nonprofit. The federal government requires state Medicaid programs to check enrollees eligibility once a year. The Trump tax cut legislation would mandate states double eligibility checks to twice a year. And states would have the added duty of verifying a person's employment or exemption status. The legislation, which passed the House and awaits Senate approval, mandates Medicaid recipients who are "able-bodied" adults without children work 80 hours per month or qualify for an exemption such as being a student, caregiver or having a disability. The bill defines able-bodied as people who are not medically certified as physically or unfit for employment. The legislation also would strip coverage from undocumented immigrants who get Medicaid through state-funded programs. Health policy experts say more frequent eligibility checks and red tape will add administrative costs and cut off people who qualify but fall through the cracks due to administrative miscues. "People are going to have to document work status or exemption status multiple times a year, and at each point there's a risk that someone who is eligible could lose coverage," Tolbert said. Thousands lost coverage under Arkansas work requirement During the first Trump administration, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services gave states the option of implementing a work requirement for nondisabled adults on Medicaid. Arkansas' work requirement cut more than 18,000 residents from Medicaid within the first seven months of the program. People were removed often because people were unaware of paperwork requirements to keep their coverage, research shows and analysts said. In April, a study by researchers from the Urban Institute and Loyola University Chicago found the Arkansas uninsured rate jumped 7.4 percentage points among low-income adults age 30 to 49 after the state's work requirement began. The policy's impact on employment among that age group was "negative, small and statistically insignificant," the study said. Arkansas adults who didn't have access to the internet at home were disproportionately harmed by the policy, a sign adults might've had trouble accessing the state's online portal to report work histories or exemptions, the Urban Institute said. If the work requirement for Medicaid recipients is adopted nationwide, health experts say millions of working poor Americans will inevitably lose coverage. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated 10.9 million Americans would lose health insurance coverage through 2034 under the legislation. Most would lose coverage due to the Medicaid work requirement and the twice-a-year eligibility checks, but about 3.1 million would become uninsured from tweaks to Affordable Care Act enrollment, according to a KFF analysis. The ranks of the uninsured could grow larger if Congress doesn't extend the COVID-19 pandemic-era tax credits that have made ACA plans more affordable for consumers. If the tax credits expire and Congress passes the current version of the Trump tax bill, as many as 16 million Americans would lose coverage , according to CBO. "Coverage loss from work requirements should actually be very small," said Kathy Hempstead, a senior policy officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. "But we anticipate it will be very large, because people will not be able to comply with the requirements and will lose their coverage." Dr. Oz: Medicaid spending is 'crippling the system' The Trump administration's top Medicaid official has defended the House legislation as a necessary step to slow spending for the federal health program that covers nearly 80 million low-income and disabled Americans. In a June 4 interview with Fox Business, Dr. Oz challenged Medicaid recipients who would face work requirements should "prove that you matter." Oz, the Trump-appointed administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, said the work requirement asks "able-bodied individuals who are able to go back to work at least try to get a job or volunteer or take care of a loved one who needs help or go back into school. Do something to show you have agency over your future." In a Fox News interview posted on the social media site X, Oz said Medicaid spending has surged 50% since 2019, a pace that is "crippling the system." However, some Republicans have pushed back on the proposed cuts. In a May opinion piece in the New York Times, Sen. Josh Hawley, R- Missouri, said "slashing health insurance for the working poor" is "morally wrong and politically suicidal." Survey: Americans worried about Medicaid cuts The public is paying attention to the proposed Medicaid cuts. Slightly more than half of adults said they're worried significant cuts in Medicaid spending would negatively affect their family's ability to obtain and afford health care, according to a KFF health tracking poll released June 6. The survey this survey of 2,539 U.S. adults was conducted online and by telephone over three weeks in May. The survey said nearly 6 in 10 adults said the Trump administration's policies would weaken Medicaid, but there is a stark divide based on party affiliation. Nine in 10 Democrats but just 2 in 10 Republicans expect the administration's policies would weaken Medicaid. Republicans also were far more likely than Democrats to say that the Trump's policies would strengthen Medicaid. Still, while the survey suggests people are tracking the news, many likely wouldn't know whether their coverage has changed until they try to get medical care. "People don't often know that they've lost coverage until they try and fill a prescription or see a doctor," Tolbert said.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Editorial: Ax to the vax — RFK Jr. continues on his anti-vaccine warpath
It's time for President Donald Trump, despite his own casual relationship with the truth, to stop putting American lives at risk and get rid of his dangerous quack in chief, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. In his latest broadside against science, Kennedy is removing all 17 members of the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices, the CDC's main advisory body, to ostensibly restore 'public trust above any specific pro- or anti-vaccine agenda.' God protect us, as RFK won't. This is how a society becomes undone. Science and reason get stepped on by half-truths and conspiracy theories. Next comes preventable death and disease. The problem is that there is no anti-vaccine side in the legitimate practice of science and medicine. The department's accompanying press release denigrated 'public health ideology' as if the practice of public health wasn't the CDC's only function. Researchers and doctors should be biased in favor of evidence-based therapeutics that save lives. Railing against bias towards vaccines is like a politician condemning researchers biased in favor of seatbelts in cars or keeping lead out of household paint. It's idiotic. We understand that the Make America Healthy Again movement Kennedy leads is all about questioning medical and nutritional practice. On a really abstract level, we are in agreement that no scientific truisms should be entirely above questioning — such a perspective would be anti-science. But there is a specific and long-standing methodology for actually answering those questions, and it is not debate club or who can most incite crowds of followers. It is the scientific method, under which hypotheses can be rigorously tested in ways that are replicable and based on clear and clearly laid out evidence. In that arena — really the only arena that actually matters when it comes to public health — the safety and efficacy of vaccines has been conclusively established. There is no additional discussion necessary or appropriate, particularly when it comes to immunizations that have now been standard-issue for decades and have by all measures radically decreased illness and mortality where they've been successfully deployed. The measles vaccine will always be better for individuals and public health than getting the measles. The same is true for polio, tetanus, COVID and all else. Preying on public skepticism of the pharmaceutical and health industries to hawk alternative approaches that are often unregulated and don't work is damaging it enough. Yet a true believer like RFK is more dangerous, especially now that he stands at the pinnacle of our nation's public health bureaucracy, a position that allows him to substantively impose his own anti-science view on an unsuspecting public and take the choice away from the American people. If RFK's new picks for ACIP — which the secretary falsely promised Sen. Bill Cassidy he wouldn't touch during his confirmation process — step back from recommending various crucial vaccines, this could substantially prevent even those who want to make the informed decision to receive inoculations or have their children vaccinated from being able to do so. As much as Kennedy and his followers emphasize the need for people to be able to make individual choices about their health, they seem hell-bent on taking that choice away entirely, especially given that insurance is not required to cover vaccines that are not CDC-recommended. We wonder what RFK will have to say for himself as once-eradicated diseases begin cutting through the U.S. population again. Is there anything that will get him to veer off this disastrous course? If the answer is no, and we suspect it is, then he must be removed before he can further damage public health. _____
