Latest news with #LeightonKu
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Health care has been a job market bright spot, but Trump's budget bill looms over the industry
Proposed cuts to health insurance programs in the budget bill being pushed through Congress by President Donald Trump could put hundreds of thousands of health care jobs at risk — jeopardizing one of the few notably strong areas of the U.S. job market. Congressional Republicans are advancing a budget plan that would cause nearly 8 million people on Medicaid to lose their health insurance coverage, according to estimates by the Congressional Budget Office, with an additional 2 million people to lose coverage through the Affordable Care Act if Congress remains on track to let health insurance tax subsidies expire at the end of the year. Less funding for Medicaid and fewer people with health insurance would mean a drop-off in doctor's office visits, prescription refills and medical procedures — and, as a result, fewer workers needed to support those types of services. It could lead to the loss of nearly 500,000 health care jobs over the next decade, according to an analysis by George Washington University and the Commonwealth Fund. The expiration of the ACA tax subsidies, which were enacted in 2021, would result in the loss of an additional 140,000 jobs, a separate analysis from George Washington University found. 'Hospitals will close, health centers will close, pharmacies in some parts of the country will close because they will lose revenue,' said Leighton Ku, director for the Center for Health Policy Research at George Washington University, who worked on the analyses. 'There are going to be job losses, and we're talking about middle class jobs being lost.' That would be a blow to one of the strongest, steadiest areas of the job market in recent years. Health care accounted for nearly half of the jobs added in the U.S. in May, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Last year, around half of the 2.2 million jobs added to the economy were in health care-related sectors, according to an analysis by S&P Global. That has helped offset job cuts and stagnant growth in other sectors of the labor market, like retail and manufacturing. 'Right now, a lot of what is driving these positive headline numbers and bolstering the labor market is the health care sector,' said Allison Shrivastava, an economist with job listing site 'It's something that has been a constant. The health care sector has been a pretty big mainstay as the rest of the labor market has cooled.' The health insurance provisions are part of a broader spending bill that has passed the House and is currently making its way through the Senate. The legislation, which Republicans have dubbed the "Big Beautiful Bill Act," would cut around $800 billion from Medicaid, the health insurance program for the poor and disabled, in order to help offset some of the $4 trillion in tax cut extensions in the bill for individuals and corporations. A version of the bill currently in the Senate, which plans to start voting on the legislation next week, would go even further in reducing spending on Medicaid, by including a provision to limit states' use of taxes on hospitals and other health care providers that help states fund their share of the Medicaid program. The cuts would take a particular toll on health care providers in rural areas, where patients are more likely to be insured through Medicaid than those in metro areas. Researchers at Georgetown University found that 40% of children in small and rural towns receive their health insurance from Medicaid. Already, one-third of all rural hospitals in the country are at risk of closing because of financial difficulties, according to a report this month from the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform. Also at risk are Community Health Centers, which employ more than 300,000 workers and receive a portion of their funding from the federal government. Those centers, which serve at least 32 million mostly lower-income patients a year, get about 40% of their revenue from Medicaid. 'Our health centers operate on razor-thin margins, so any kind of disruption in payments or reimbursements, even for a short time, can have a significant impact,' said Joe Dunn, chief policy officer for the National Association of Community Health Centers. 'About 40% of health centers are in rural America, and oftentimes they are the only primary care in that community. We have health centers in towns of a few hundred people, and there may not be any other kind of health care network there.' Absent any policy changes from Congress, the health care sector had appeared to be on track for continued growth — and largely isolated from wider concerns about tariffs and an economic slowdown. The number of job postings for doctors and surgeons on are about 90% higher than their pre-pandemic levels, listings for home health aides are up 46%, and openings for nurses are up 16%, Shrivastava said. Health care job postings on represent 27% of all active job listings and health care postings are beginning to make up a larger share of new job postings, according to data from ZipRecruiter. A loss of that hiring momentum from funding cuts would leave one less positive driver for the job market. 'Right now, the labor market as a whole is arguably in a stagnant position,' said Shrivastava. 'People are not wanting to leave their jobs, they're nervous about whether or not they'll be able to find another job, and companies aren't really looking to hire. Health care has been the exception to that.' This article was originally published on
NBC News
8 hours ago
- Business
- NBC News
Health care has been a job market bright spot, but Trump's budget bill looms over the industry
Proposed cuts to health insurance programs in the budget bill being pushed through Congress by President Donald Trump could put hundreds of thousands of health care jobs at risk — jeopardizing one of the few notably strong areas of the U.S. job market. Congressional Republicans are advancing a budget plan that would cause nearly 8 million people on Medicaid to lose their health insurance coverage, according to estimates by the Congressional Budget Office, with an additional 2 million people to lose coverage through the Affordable Care Act if Congress remains on track to let health insurance tax subsidies expire at the end of the year. Less funding for Medicaid and fewer people with health insurance would mean a drop-off in doctor's office visits, prescription refills and medical procedures — and, as a result, fewer workers needed to support those types of services. It could lead to the loss of nearly 500,000 health care jobs over the next decade, according to an analysis by George Washington University and the Commonwealth Fund. The expiration of the ACA tax subsidies, which were enacted in 2021, would result in the loss of an additional 140,000 jobs, a separate analysis from George Washington University found. 'Hospitals will close, health centers will close, pharmacies in some parts of the country will close because they will lose revenue,' said Leighton Ku, director for the Center for Health Policy Research at George Washington University, who worked on the analyses. 'There are going to be job losses, and we're talking about middle class jobs being lost.' That would be a blow to one of the strongest, steadiest areas of the job market in recent years. Health care accounted for nearly half of the jobs added in the U.S. in May, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Last year, around half of the 2.2 million jobs added to the economy were in health care-related sectors, according to an analysis by S&P Global. That has helped offset job cuts and stagnant growth in other sectors of the labor market, like retail and manufacturing. 'Right now, a lot of what is driving these positive headline numbers and bolstering the labor market is the health care sector,' said Allison Shrivastava, an economist with job listing site 'It's something that has been a constant. The health care sector has been a pretty big mainstay as the rest of the labor market has cooled.' The health insurance provisions are part of a broader spending bill that has passed the House and is currently making its way through the Senate. The legislation, which Republicans have dubbed the " Big Beautiful Bill Act," would cut around $800 billion from Medicaid, the health insurance program for the poor and disabled, in order to help offset some of the $4 trillion in tax cut extensions in the bill for individuals and corporations. A version of the bill currently in the Senate, which plans to start voting on the legislation next week, would go even further in reducing spending on Medicaid, by including a provision to limit states' use of taxes on hospitals and other health care providers that help states fund their share of the Medicaid program. The cuts would take a particular toll on health care providers in rural areas, where patients are more likely to be insured through Medicaid than those in metro areas. Researchers at Georgetown University found that 40% of children in small and rural towns receive their health insurance from Medicaid. Already, one-third of all rural hospitals in the country are at risk of closing because of financial difficulties, according to a report this month from the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform. Also at risk are Community Health Centers, which employ more than 300,000 workers and receive a portion of their funding from the federal government. Those centers, which serve at least 32 million mostly lower-income patients a year, get about 40% of their revenue from Medicaid. 'Our health centers operate on razor-thin margins, so any kind of disruption in payments or reimbursements, even for a short time, can have a significant impact,' said Joe Dunn, chief policy officer for the National Association of Community Health Centers. 'About 40% of health centers are in rural America, and oftentimes they are the only primary care in that community. We have health centers in towns of a few hundred people, and there may not be any other kind of health care network there.' Absent any policy changes from Congress, the health care sector had appeared to be on track for continued growth — and largely isolated from wider concerns about tariffs and an economic slowdown. The number of job postings for doctors and surgeons on are about 90% higher than their pre-pandemic levels, listings for home health aides are up 46%, and openings for nurses are up 16%, Shrivastava said. Health care job postings on represent 27% of all active job listings and health care postings are beginning to make up a larger share of new job postings, according to data from ZipRecruiter. A loss of that hiring momentum from funding cuts would leave one less positive driver for the job market. 'Right now, the labor market as a whole is arguably in a stagnant position,' said Shrivastava. 'People are not wanting to leave their jobs, they're nervous about whether or not they'll be able to find another job, and companies aren't really looking to hire. Health care has been the exception to that.'
Al Jazeera
25-05-2025
- Health
- Al Jazeera
Fact-checking Trump's claims about Medicaid cuts in GOP bill
A Medicaid bill pushed by Republicans proposes significant cuts to the health insurance programme for lower-income Americans. But United States President Donald Trump has claimed the legislation would change Medicaid in ways that only combat 'waste, fraud and abuse', a phrase he repeated seven times over a couple of minutes. 'We're not doing any cutting of anything meaningful,' the Republican president said. 'The only thing we're cutting is waste, fraud and abuse. … We're not changing Medicaid, and we're not changing Medicare, and we're not changing Social Security.' The House of Representatives passed the bill on Thursday, and it now moves to the Senate, where it could be changed. The House version doesn't directly target Social Security or Medicare. But it changes Medicaid, including in ways that align with Republican priorities. Congress's nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has projected that at least 8.6 million people will lose coverage because of the changes. 'Relatively little of the bill is clearly related to trying to reduce fraud or error,' said Leighton Ku, director of George Washington University's Center for Health Policy Research. 'There are some minor provisions about things like looking for dead people who are enrolled or checking addresses. But the major provisions are not fraud, waste or error by any means. They're things that reflect policy preferences of the Republican architects.' Robin Rudowitz, vice president and director of the Program on Medicaid and the Uninsured at the health policy research group KFF, agreed that the scope of the bill's changes go further than Trump said. 'The magnitude of the federal spending reductions and resulting coverage loss go well beyond rooting out fraud and abuse,' she said. The bill's key provisions could be removed before the final votes and enactment while others may be added. The White House did not respond to an inquiry for this fact check. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the federal agency that runs Medicaid, offers official definitions for these three terms: One provision in the bill requires states to confirm recipients' Medicaid eligibility at least every six months rather than every year under current law. Another would set stricter requirements for verifying enrollees' addresses and other information. Such efforts could save expenditures on ineligible people and could be classified as a waste-prevention measure. Other provisions are more ideological than focused on waste, fraud and abuse Several of the bill's highest-profile provisions are driven more by ideology – differences in how expansive the programme should be and what types of people should benefit. One of these provisions involves people in the US without documentation. Because it's already against the law to spend federal Medicaid funds on undocumented people, the bill takes a different approach: It seeks to make it harder for states to exclusively rely on state funds to cover immigrants in the US. Currently, 14 states and the District of Columbia cover children regardless of their immigration status, and seven states plus Washington, DC, cover at least some adults living in the US without documents too. For these states, the bill reduces the federal government's share of Medicaid payments from 90 percent to 80 percent. In other words, if a state wants to keep covering undocumented people, it will face a cut in the federal reimbursement rate for the coverage of US citizens, not just immigrants in the country without documents. Budgetary pressures in these states could mean that some citizens also lose some of their benefits or all of their Medicaid coverage. Another provision involves work requirements. The bill would require individuals aged 19 to 64 receiving Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act expansion, which was passed during former President Barack Obama's Democratic administration, to be working or participating in qualifying activities (such as having a disability, being a caretaker for family members or attending school) for at least 80 hours per month. Research has found that the vast majority of people who would be required to work under similar requirements are already employed or have a qualifying exemption — yet many get thrown off Medicaid because they fail to keep up with the mandatory paperwork. 'Work requirements are not about waste, fraud, and abuse. They are fundamentally changing the rules of who is eligible for the programme, and they are adding an immense set of bureaucratic obstacles and red tape for eligible people to keep coverage,' said Benjamin D Sommers, a professor of healthcare economics and medicine at Harvard University's TH Chan School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School. A KFF analysis in March found that fraud occurs in Medicare and Medicaid mostly by providers. 'There are checks on fraud, waste, and abuse at both the federal and the state levels,' KFF wrote. Another bill provision bans Medicaid funds spent on nonprofit organisations primarily engaged in family planning or reproductive services, which would affect Planned Parenthood and other organisations that provide abortions. Finally, at least two provisions focus on saving money. One would require, for the first time, that states impose $35 copays for many types of care. The other would limit retroactive coverage after applying for Medicaid to one month before application, down from 90 days. These provisions don't specify how they'd root out waste, fraud and abuse. 'The 'Medicaid savings' in this bill are primarily from reducing programme enrolment,' Sommers said. Trump said the House bill is 'not changing Medicaid,' only cutting 'waste, fraud and abuse'. The legislation includes provisions that could improve the detection of beneficiaries who aren't eligible for coverage. But other provisions would change Medicaid to align with Trump's ideology and Republican priorities. The bill would incentivise states to stop using their own funds to cover undocumented people in the US; it requires people to work or do other approved activities to secure benefits; and it bans Medicaid payments to nonprofits such as Planned Parenthood, which provide abortions among other services. Other changes aim to cut expenses, including the imposition of copays and a shorter window for retroactive coverage. Those provisions don't specify how they'd cut waste, fraud or abuse. We rate the statement false.
Yahoo
07-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Prof. Leighton Ku on how federal cuts to Medicaid and SNAP could trigger the loss of a million jobs
Leighton Ku, lead author and Director of the Center for Health Policy Research and professor of health policy and management at GWU's Milken Institute School of Public Health (Courtesy photo) As NC Newsline has reported at length recently, Republicans in Congress are seeking to enact massive and unprecedented cuts to two of the nation's core social safety net programs — Medicaid and SNAP food assistance. And while it's not hard to show how such cuts will impact the people in need who depend on those programs, a new report from the Commonwealth Fund and The George Washington University School of Public Health points to another big and worrisome likely impact. It warns that the proposed cuts could trigger severe economic consequences — including the loss of a million jobs, a $113 billion decline in the gross domestic products of U.S. states, and $8.8 billion in lost state and local tax revenue in 2026 alone. And recently, to learn more, Newsline caught up with the report's lead author, the Director of the Center for Health Policy Research at The George Washington University, Professor Leighton Ku. Click here to listen to the full interview with Leighton Ku.
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Medicaid, SNAP cuts could create a massive hole in Missouri budget, cost thousands of jobs
Medicaid cuts could result in 21,600 jobs lost, with SNAP cuts costing another 2,400 jobs, according to a report released Tuesday from the Commonwealth Fund and George Washington University (). Proposed federal cuts to Medicaid and food assistance could blow a $2 billion hole in Missouri's budget and cost the state more than 20,000 jobs and hundreds of millions in tax revenue, according to a pair of reports released this week. Congressional Republicans approved a budget resolution last month to reduce federal spending by $2 trillion as they seek $4.5 trillion in tax cuts. The resolution tasks the committee overseeing Medicaid to cut at least $880 billion over 10 years and the committee overseeing the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to cut at least $230 billion. Medicaid cuts could result in 21,600 jobs lost, with SNAP cuts costing another 2,400 jobs, according to a report released Tuesday from the Commonwealth Fund and George Washington University. Those would include jobs in health care and food-related industries. Federal Medicaid cuts could leave Missouri with huge budget shortfall In addition to job losses, the report estimates Missouri in 2026 could lose over $1.6 billion in federal Medicaid funding and $356 million in federal SNAP funding. 'The ripple effect will hit the entire health care system and impact everyone — not just those with Medicaid,' said Joseph Betancourt, president of the Commonwealth Fund, in a statement, 'driving more people to emergency rooms and further straining an already overburdened system.' The budget reductions, job losses and ripple effects could result in $4 billion in lost economic output for the state, the report estimates, and over $500 million in reduced tax revenue. 'Cuts of this magnitude will not be harmless,' said Leighton Ku, lead author of the report and director of the Center for Health Policy Research and professor of health policy and management at George Washington University's Milken Institute School of Public Health, in a statement. 'In fact, such drastic reductions would harm millions of families and also trigger widespread economic instability and major job losses,' Ku said. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Another report out this week, by the health policy organization KFF, focuses on the potential magnitude of Medicaid cuts on state budgets. If the $880 billion in cuts were distributed evenly across states over 10 years, that would represent a cut of 39%, as a share of state Medicaid spending per Missouri resident, according to KFF. The impact of those cuts would be felt more acutely in rural areas of Missouri. Timothy McBride, co-director of the Center for Health Economics and Policy at the Institute for Public Health at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, said during a briefing on Medicaid in mid-March that financial margins for rural hospitals are 'razor-thin.' 'Even in the urban hospitals, they're probably just a few percentage points, but in rural hospitals, they can be just a percentage point or 2 or negative,' McBride said. 'So if you take away the Medicaid dollars, they're certainly going to go negative. And if you wonder why rural hospitals close, that's why.' Medicaid cuts rippling through rural America could bring hospital closures, job losses States' options would be to increase taxes, cut other spending programs, cut benefits or pay providers less, according to KFF. Missouri expanded Medicaid to low-income adults in an initiative petition, enshrining eligibility in the constitution, and significant tax increases must be placed on the ballot, meaning either option would require a statewide vote. Congress hasn't yet decided on specific proposals to achieve the proposed cuts. Some Republicans have opposed cuts to Medicaid, citing the effect on their constituents. That includes U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, who told reporters earlier this month: '… I'm not going to vote for something that ends up cutting benefits for people who are working and who qualify for Medicaid.' According to a KFF survey last year, roughly 70% of Americans want Medicaid to continue as it is today. Last month, the director of the state Medicaid program told lawmakers the changes could 'present a challenge' for the state budget. One in every five Missourians is enrolled in Medicaid, or over 1.2 million people. Nearly 40% of all Missouri children are covered by Medicaid, which also pays for two-thirds of all nursing home care and 38% of all births. Medicaid pays for two-thirds of all nursing home care in the state and 38% of all births. There are 321,003 families receiving SNAP benefits as of January. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
