This week on Paging America, Miles and Dr. Rob catch up on the latest research on the impact of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.” New data from JAMA Health Forum predicts nearly 1,500 unnecessary deaths and 94,000 preventable hospitalizations every year due to massive Medicaid cuts. Together, they break down what these numbers really mean and how these policy choices are shaping real-world hospital capacity and care.

Miles and Dr. Rob welcome Kim Lewis, Managing Director at the National Health Law Program, for an eye-opening discussion about a new policy that allows federal health officials to share Medicaid data with ICE agents. Kim walks through the history of privacy in Medicaid (and why this data-sharing move is unprecedented), the legal and ethical implications, and how this policy undermines public trust in health care, especially for the most vulnerable

Background reading:

• JAMA Health Forum: Projected Health System and Economic Impacts of 2025 Medicaid Policy Proposals

• STAT: GOP tax law will increase overdose deaths by 1,000 each year, analysis finds

• AP: Trump administration hands over Medicaid recipients’ personal data, including addresses, to ICE

• AXIOS: Undocumented immigrants barred from Head Start, other federal benefits

• AXIOS: Community clinics squeezed by immigration checks

• Nurse.org: ICE Concerns May Be Keeping Some Patients From Hospitals, Nurses Say

• MedPage Today: Trump Admin Hands Over Nation’s Medicaid Enrollee Data to ICE

• CT Mirror: Lamont urges CT residents to keep using health centers, despite Trump policy shift

• AP: Lawsuit challenges restrictions on Head Start for kids in the US illegally

• AXIOS: RFK Jr.’s PAC stirs, fueling speculation on a 2028 campaign

• Washington Post: West Virginia’s near-total abortion pill ban upheld by federal court

• WUSF/NPR: Florida’s surgeon general calls for more study of people injured by COVID mRNA vaccines

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Have thoughts, questions, or your own rural healthcare story? Email us at [email protected].