Each week on The Newsfeed, host Paris Jackson and a team of veteran journalists dive deep into one topic and provide impactful reporting, interviews and community insights from sources you can trust. Each day this week, this post will be updated with a new story from the team.
How Medicaid cuts will affect Washington’s Apple Health
By Lizz Giordano, story published 11/10/2026
After last year's passage of HR1, the One Big Beautiful Bill put in place several changes that will decrease enrollment in Apple Health, Washington’s Medicaid program. Congress made changes to Medicaid to offset tax cuts in the 2025 bill.
One change is that adults aged 19 to 64 will have to work, train, or perform community service for at least 80 hours per month to keep their Apple Health coverage. Exceptions include being pregnant, being a primary caregiver, or having a medical condition. That requirement starts on Jan. 1. Furthermore, people in the program will have to prove their eligibility every six months, instead of every year.
Another change is that noncitizen adults like refugees and asylees who had been eligible for coverage will no longer be covered by Medicaid.
That means about 200,000 people in Washington state will lose their free or low-cost health coverage.
Ryan Moran, director of the Washington Health Care Authority, said that the state has taken measures to help people navigate the increased requirements, which will help about 400,000 of the 600,000 adults who would be affected stay on the program.
“But let us make no mistake, there will absolutely be coverage losses,” Moran said.
“The full effect of this will not be known until the end of 2027, and we at the state are trying to do everything that we can to preserve and mitigate coverage loss as these changes take effect,” he said.
And that’s not all. The changes also require states to reduce their supplemental funding to medical providers that are contracted to provide care to Medicaid patients. That is estimated to be a loss of $1.5 billion to Washington hospitals starting in 2028 -- which could mean higher costs for other patients either due to private insurance costs going up or hospitals having to rely more on charity care.
“That's more expensive for everyone, right?” Moran said.
How federal changes impact Washingtonian’s health coverage
By Venice Buhain, story published 11/09/2026
Open enrollment for 2027 on the Washington Health Benefit Exchange is open and in the past few years, federal changes have made big impacts to health coverage accessibility in Washington state.
The first is the cuts to Medicaid, which provides health coverage for about 1.5 million adults and children in Washington state. Those cuts were included in what Trump called the One Big Beautiful Bill, which passed in 2025. Another is the continued impact of the loss of tax credits for people who purchase insurance through the Washington Health Benefit Exchange.
Recently, Sen. Patty Murray held a press conference to address these changes and how it will affect people as they sign up for health insurance in open enrollment.
“We've been knowing this coming. I've been talking to doctors and providers and health care clinics and hospitals all over our state about what that was going to mean to them. And now we are going to see the impact on people's health insurance when they pay for them,” Murray said.
The press conference was held a few days before the election.
At the press conference, Washington Insurance Commissioner Patty Kuderer added that on top of the loss of tax credits for marketplace health insurance, premiums are also rising, with an average increase of 22%.
“Nearly 280,000 people buy health coverage here if they don't get insurance through their employer, and most do so through our own state-based exchange,” Kuderer said. “And today, many people are feeling the sticker shock of the increased premiums.”
Murray said addressing health care costs would be one priority for Democrats in Congress.
“When we get back, we have to make sure that we work to reinstate the tax credits and fight to take these Medicaid cuts back,” she said.
