�Թϲ�����

The attorneys general for New York and Minnesota are suing the Trump administration for abruptly cutting off federal funding for health care coverage for more than 800,000 low-income residents in the two states. New York’s Eric Schneiderman and Minnesota’s Lori Swanson announced Friday that the lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court accuses the Department of Health and Human Services of withholding more than $1 billion. (1/26)

The U.S. Health and Human Service Department waited until a day before Affordable Care Act payments were due to notify New York and Minnesota by email that more than $1 billion in annual funding was being cut off, according to a complaint filed Friday in federal court in Manhattan. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman called the state’s health plan a "lifeline" for 700,000 residents. "The abrupt decision to cut these vital funds is a cruel and reckless assault on New York’s families,” he said in a statement. (Larson, Tracer and Recht, 1/26)

The 2010 health care law gave states the option to set up a Basic Health Program for people who make between 133 percent and 200 percent of the federal poverty level. New York and Minnesota — the only states to have set up such programs — receive federal funding equal to 95 percent of what would have been provided to qualified individuals through premium tax credits and cost-sharing reduction payments if they purchased coverage on the law's insurance exchanges. In the lawsuit, the states say the administration informed them in December it would end the component of that funding related to the CSR payments. (McIntire, 1/26)

Minnesota is challenging the Trump administration’s decision to cut funding for the state’s public health care program for the working poor. Attorney General Lori Swanson announced a lawsuit Friday against the federal government to halt an expected $130 million cut to MinnesotaCare, which provides insurance to low-income Minnesotans. The state of New York, which has a similar program, is also a plaintiff in the case. (Magan, 1/26)

MinnesotaCare enrollees will not be affected in the short run, but the cuts could create a long-term funding shortfall with the potential to threaten the future of the program. “Minnesota may be forced, in the future, to reduce benefits or increase out-of-pocket costs for its enrollees,” according to the federal lawsuit, which was filed Friday in partnership with the state of New York. But any changes would need to be approved by the federal government and the Minnesota Legislature, which could take up the issue this session because of the federal cutbacks. (Howatt, 1/26)

Republicans on the campaign trail this year will be eager to tout the potential benefits of their tax cut plan.Voters like Jeanine Limone Draut, a freelance technical writer in Denver, have something else in mind: health care. Failed efforts by congressional Republicans last year to repeal former President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act exposed not only deep divisions within the party but also revealed core benefits of the law that millions of Americans now take for granted. Draut is tired of the attacks and the uncertainty surrounding the law's future. (Anderson, 1/28)

Only a third of the public is aware that Congress repealed ObamaCare's individual mandate, according to a new poll released Friday. Of those surveyed by the Kaiser Family Foundation, 36 percent said they're aware Congress repealed the requirement that most have insurance or pay a tax penalty, while 46 percent incorrectly said it has not been repealed. (Hellmann, 1/26)

The billionaire Koch brothers’ political organization spent more than $200 million in the past decade on what official Tim Phillips calls “without question our biggest policy defeat,” the quest to kill the Affordable Care Act. Now, the network of donors is turning its attention to the more urgent matter of protecting Republican majorities in both chambers of Congress this fall. “You can’t pout; you have to move on,” said Mr. Phillips, the longtime president of Americans for Prosperity, the Kochs’ primary vehicle for advocating on health care and other state and federal policies. “We won’t hold the majority forever, and we have many more policy goals.” (Bykowicz, 1/28)

Washington state isn’t waiting for the federal government to tweak, fix or repeal Obamacare. Health-insurance bills are surfacing in Olympia this session with the goal of insuring more Washingtonians and stabilizing the individual-insurance market. The bills are a response to President Trump’s and Congress’ continued efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The ACA, also known as Obamacare, took a significant hit when Congress passed and President Trump signed a new tax bill into law. The tax bill eliminates the penalty for not buying health insurance, therefore crippling the individual mandate that was an essential piece to propping up the ACA with a pool of healthy people. (Blethen, 1/27)

Democratic candidates for governor weighed in on health care issues Saturday in a public forum, addressing topics such as BadgerCare and hospital emergency room costs. In a format loosely modeled after the game show Jeopardy, candidates supported the idea of allowing anyone, regardless of income, to buy into BadgerCare, the state health program currently reserved for the most needy. (Barrett, 1/27)