STAT+: Why an influential GOP health policy expert still backs the Medicaid cuts — and which policy target is next — SkimNews
Get the Health newsletter
Daily health & science — research, biotech, public health, the studies worth knowing. Free.
- Brian Blase, president of Paragon Health Institute, has become a trusted adviser to Republicans in Congress who passed sweeping changes to federal health care funding last year.
- The Medicaid program is expected to pay out roughly $1 trillion less than projected over the coming decade thanks to policies Blase supported.
- The One Big Beautiful Bill Act enacted the Medicaid cuts and used them to offset the cost of tax cuts.
- Preliminary estimates from the Congressional Budget Office project the changes will cause 7 million people to lose Medicaid coverage.
- Health providers are scrambling to rethink how they deliver care in response to the new funding landscape.
Why it matters: Medicaid providers are already restructuring care delivery in response to $1 trillion in projected cuts and 7 million anticipated coverage losses — legislation shaped by an influential outside adviser who retains significant sway over the congressional Republicans driving the agenda.
Ask SkimNews
