The GOP's new bill is structural racism at its deadliest
This isn't just policy. It's punishment.
Cutting Medicaid while attacking Planned Parenthood isn't fiscal responsibility. It's a targeted cruelty that hurts women nationwide. But particularly for women in the South — where health systems are already under-resourced, rural clinics are vanishing and maternal mortality rates are similar to those in developing nations — it's nothing short of a death sentence for them and their babies.
Let's talk facts.
In 2023 in Mississippi, 57% of births were covered by Medicaid. In Louisiana, it was 64%. These aren't just statistics. These are lives — sisters, daughters, mothers and aunties — trying to survive a system designed to abandon them.
In many rural ZIP codes, Planned Parenthood is the only accessible provider of cancer screenings, contraception, prenatal maternal care and postpartum care. Gutting its funding while simultaneously choking Medicaid is like setting fire to the only lifeboat in a flood. Let's be even more real: If you are a woman living in rural Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas or Alabama, this bill doesn't just inconvenience your access to care. It incinerates it.
In rural Southern counties, hospitals have shut down their labor and delivery units in droves. Some counties don't have a single practicing OB-GYN. That's not a policy failure — that's an egregious policy choice being carried out with surgical precision.
Imagine being six months pregnant, with no car and no public transit and with the closest provider two hours away — if it's even taking Medicaid patients. That's not health care. That's sanctioned neglect.
Rural women — especially Black, Indigenous and Latina women — have been treated like afterthoughts for generations. But now, they're being treated like collateral damage in a culture war they didn't ask to be in. This is structural racism at is deadliest.
If you're a lawmaker who's gutting access to women's reproductive while smiling for photo ops at church on Sunday, understand this: Every rural woman who dies from a preventable complication, every baby born undernourished because its mother couldn't access prenatal care, every ZIP code that loses a clinic because of these budget cuts is your fault.
These attacks aren't incidental. They are ideological. They are part of a long game to control women's bodies while criminalizing their autonomy — especially in Black and brown communities. It's no coincidence that the same states eager to shred Medicaid expansion are the ones leading the charge against abortion rights, denying gender-affirming care to trans youths and standing opposed to the very notion of care as a public good.
That's exactly why we released 'Shift the South,' groundbreaking report rooted in the lived realities and leadership of women and girls of color across the American South. It maps the merciless, maniacal movement to suppress autonomy, erase reproductive justice and underfund communities into silence. But it also lifts up the blueprint for transformation — investing in Southern women as agents of change, not casualties of policy. It's more than data — it's our declaration. And in the face of cruelty disguised as governance, we offer clarity, courage and counterstrategy.
What's left when the clinic closes, the OB-GYN relocates and the Medicaid card is worthless?
Silence. Suffering. Stillbirths.
We've been here before. But we refuse to die quietly this time.
At the Women's Foundation of the South, we refuse to act as if women are disposable. We know that maternal health, reproductive access and community wellness aren't luxuries — they are basic rights.
This bill? It's not just bad policy. It's a betrayal.
We will fight it — not just with data and dollars, but with the righteous rage of every grandmother who buried a daughter too soon, every mother who had to drive 200 miles for care and every young girl growing up in a state that sees her more as a womb than a whole human being.
Republicans Thursday passed their bill that cuts Medicaid and defunds Planned Parenthood, and Friday, President Trump signed it into law. They should all be aware, though, of the rage they've unleashed in women — in the South and across the country — who don't plan to sit around silently and die.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
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Associated Press
37 minutes ago
- Associated Press
Molina Healthcare Announces Preliminary Second Quarter Financial Results and Updates Fiscal Year 2025 Earnings Per Share Guidance
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Business Wire
an hour ago
- Business Wire
Molina Healthcare Announces Preliminary Second Quarter Financial Results and Updates Fiscal Year 2025 Earnings Per Share Guidance
LONG BEACH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Molina Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE: MOH) today announced preliminary financial results for the second quarter of 2025 and updated its full year 2025 adjusted earnings per share guidance. The Company's announcement of preliminary results was driven by recent market dynamics and off-cycle disclosures from others in the managed health care sector. The Company now expects its second quarter 2025 adjusted earnings to be approximately $5.50 per share (1), which is modestly below its prior expectations. This preliminary result reflects medical cost pressures in all three lines of business. The Company expects these medical cost pressures to continue into the second half of the year. As a result, the Company now expects its full year 2025 adjusted earnings to be in the range of $21.50 to $22.50 per share (1), reflecting a consolidated pre-tax margin of just under 4%, the low-end of its long-term guidance range. 'The short-term earnings pressure we are experiencing results from what we believe to be a temporary dislocation between premium rates and medical cost trend which has recently accelerated,' said Joseph Zubretsky, President and Chief Executive Officer. 'As we are still performing near our long-term target ranges, nothing, including the potential impacts of the budget bill, has changed our outlook for the long-term performance of the business.' As previously announced, the Company expects to report its full second quarter results after the market closes on Wednesday, July 23, 2025, and will host a conference call and webcast to discuss the earnings release on Thursday, July 24, 2025, at 8:00 a.m. Eastern Time. About Molina Healthcare Molina Healthcare, Inc., a FORTUNE 500 company, provides managed healthcare services under the Medicaid and Medicare programs and through the state insurance marketplaces. For more information about Molina Healthcare, please visit (1) Income tax effect calculated at the statutory tax rate of approximately 23.7%. (2) Computations assume approximately 53.7 million diluted weighted average shares outstanding. Expand (3) Income tax effect calculated at the statutory tax rate of approximately 23.7%. (4) Computations assume approximately 54.1 million diluted weighted average shares outstanding. The Company believes that certain non-GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) financial measures are useful supplemental measures to investors in comparing the Company's performance to the performance of other public companies in the health care industry. The non-GAAP financial measures are also used internally to enable management to assess the Company's performance consistently over time. These non-GAAP financial measures, presented below, should be considered as supplements to, and not as substitutes for or superior to, GAAP measures. Adjustments represent additions and deductions to GAAP net income as indicated in the table below, which include the non-cash impact of amortization of acquired intangible assets, acquisition-related expenses, and the impact of certain expenses and other items that management believes are not indicative of longer-term business trends and operations. Adjusted net income represents GAAP net income recognizing the adjustments, net of tax. The Company believes that adjusted net income is helpful to investors in assessing the Company's financial performance. Adjusted net income per diluted share represents adjusted net income divided by weighted average common shares outstanding on a fully diluted basis. Expand Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 This press release contains forward-looking statements. The Company intends such forward-looking statements to be covered under the safe harbor provisions for forward-looking statements contained in Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the Company's 2025 preliminary second quarter financial results, our 2025 guidance and our long-term performance. Actual results could differ materially due to numerous known and unknown risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties are discussed under the headings 'Forward-Looking Statements,' and 'Risk Factors,' in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10‑K for the year ended December 31, 2024, which is on file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the 'SEC'), and in the Company's other filings with the SEC, including its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended March 31, 2025. These reports can be accessed under the investor relations tab of the Company's website or on the SEC's website at Given these risks and uncertainties, the Company can give no assurances that its forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, or that any other results or developments projected or contemplated by its forward-looking statements will in fact occur, and the Company cautions investors not to place undue reliance on these statements. All forward-looking statements in this release represent the Company's judgment as of July 7, 2025, and, except as otherwise required by law, the Company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statement to conform the statement to actual results or changes in its expectations. Financial Disclosure Advisory All financial data in this press release is preliminary and represents the most current information available to the Company's management, as financial closing procedures for the quarter ended June 30, 2025 are not yet complete. These estimates are not a comprehensive statement of the Company's financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2025 and actual results may differ from these estimates as a result of the completion of normal quarter-end accounting procedures and adjustments, including the preparation and review of the Company's financial statements for the quarter ended June 30, 2025 and the subsequent occurrence or identification of events prior to the formal issuance of our second quarter financial results.


The Hill
an hour ago
- The Hill
Medicaid cuts could define midterms
Medicaid is set to become a key issue in the battle over control of Congress in next year's midterm elections now that President Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' has passed. Congress passed the largest Medicaid cuts in the program's 60-year history through the GOP's megabill right before the July 4th holiday, a $1 trillion reduction that's projected to push more than 12 million low-income individuals off their health insurance over the next decade. Republicans argue the moves are necessary to address waste and fraud in the program, ensuring that 'able-bodied' adults aren't taking advantage of the system. But with 1 in 5 Americans enrolled in Medicaid, Democrats hope this massive slash spells political poison for Republicans in the midterms. GOP holdouts voiced concerns along these lines leading up to the vote. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who voted against the bill and won't be seeking reelection, reportedly told Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) that the Medicaid cuts could cost Republicans control of both the House and Senate. Heading into the 2026 election cycle, Republicans will have to get ahead of Democratic messaging on health coverage. 'The key here for Republicans going into the midterms is to clearly go on offense and define the debate around Medicaid in particular today, not tomorrow, not next month, not in the fall, not next year. They need to do it in a unified and aggressive way today, because Americans' public opinion is on [the] Republican side,' Kristin Davison, partner at the GOP consulting firm Axiom Strategies, told The Hill. She pointed to polling that showed most Americans — 62 percent, per polling from earlier this year — are in favor of measures like adding work requirements to Medicaid. The legislation makes a wide range of changes to Medicaid, though the Senate's parliamentarian struck some more extensive ones for being noncompliant with Senate rules. The law is set to require Medicare beneficiaries to prove for the first time they are working or in school at least 80 hours per month, equal to part-time employment, to keep their health insurance. That will take effect on Dec. 31, 2026, just after the midterms take place. It will also require more frequent eligibility checks and Medicaid recipients living above the poverty line to pay out-of-pocket copays for most services, including doctor visits and lab tests. Throughout the bill's legislative process, Democrats have been quick to go after Republicans over the changes in Medicaid, as they have long warned that Trump and the GOP would seek to make cuts if they took power in Washington. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) gave a preview of what Democratic messaging could look like in his record-breaking House floor speech Thursday. 'Almost $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid. This runs directly contrary to what President Trump indicated in January, which was that he was going to love and cherish Medicaid. Nothing about this bill loves and cherishes Medicaid,' said Jeffries. 'It guts Medicaid in a way that it's going to hurt children, hurt families, hurt seniors, hurt people with disabilities, hurt women, hurt everyday Americans.' Senate Democrats' campaign arm rolled out an ad in May, pulling together various news clips discussing the effects of potential Medicaid cuts. House Majority Forward, a PAC that works to elect Democrats to the House, launched digital ads at the same time in 26 congressional districts led by potentially vulnerable Republicans who will be targeted next year. The ads argued that the Republicans voted to increase grocery costs and cut health care. The Democratic National Committee highlighted effects of Medicaid cuts across the country in a release in late June, accusing the party of playing 'political games with Americans' lives.' The House Democrats' campaign arm said a vote for the bill would be the 'defining contrast' of the midterms and cost the GOP its majority. The organization also appears likely to hammer lawmakers for alleged hypocrisy, pointing in a memo to a letter that a dozen GOP lawmakers signed in April saying they wouldn't support big cuts to Medicaid before they eventually supported the bill on Thursday. 'Let's be clear — vulnerable Republicans have admitted time and time again that even they know their bill would obliterate access to health care, raise costs, cut jobs, threaten rural hospitals, and lead to families going hungry, but they voted to pass it anyway,' said Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.), the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), in a statement. 'The DCCC will make sure every battleground voter knows how vulnerable House Republicans abandoned them by passing the most unpopular piece of legislation in modern American history, and we're going to take back the House majority because of it,' she said. Democratic consultant Martha McKenna, who previously served as political director for Senate Democrats' campaign arm, said the party must communicate to voters that the legislation will affect everyone's health care costs regardless of whether they're on Medicare. 'People who are on Medicaid will still show up in hospitals and ERs, and they're still going to get sick. It's just going to drive the cost of health care up for everyone,' she said, arguing this will ensure that Republican arguments that the moves were necessary will fail. The impacts on health coverage are likely to be immense. Roughly 40 percent of U.S. births are paid for by Medicaid, and among children under 6 years old, more than 40 percent are either covered by Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program. According to estimates from the National Rural Health Association, rural hospitals will lose $70 billion over the next 10 years as a result of the 'big, beautiful bill,' losing 21 cents from every Medicaid dollar they receive. A June KFF poll found that 74 percent of U.S. adults viewed the legislation unfavorably when informed that it would increase the number of uninsured people by 10 million, and 79 percent had the same view when informed it would decrease funding for local hospitals. Polling from The Washington Post found that roughly a third of Americans, including 42 percent of independents, had no opinion on the reconciliation package. Whichever party has the most convincing campaign message stands to claim this undecided cohort. A GOP operative acknowledged the bill gives Democrats a 'silver bullet' in the upcoming elections but argued Republicans will be able to 'neutralize' Medicaid concerns with the numerous other provisions passed in the legislation. 'If you break it down into all these provisions that we're actually pushing for with the legislation, you know, I do think it's a win for us,' the operative told The Hill. 'We can at least level the playing field, right? If that makes sense, where you can kind of neutralize the issue by talking about all those key provisions that we have.' These various provisions, most notably the work requirements, won't take effect immediately, which will present an uphill battle for Democrats. Democrats acknowledged it may pose an extra challenge but expressed confidence they'll still be able to communicate the pending changes to voters. One Democratic strategist who works on House races cited the 2010 and 2018 midterms, during which legislation either not yet in effect or that failed dominated the cycle. They noted that many provisions of the Affordable Care Act weren't yet in effect by November 2010, but Democrats still sustained major losses because of its unpopularity at the time. And though congressional Republicans failed to repeal the law in 2018, they argued that year's cycle was still about GOP efforts to repeal it, for which the party suffered. 'There's an argument to be made here that if voters believe, and it is true that the unpopular bill is really bad for them, it doesn't matter if it's going to be bad for them tomorrow or next year,' the strategist said. 'If they believe it is bad for them, they will act on that opinion.'