Medscape January 16, 2026
Tightened Medicaid eligibility rules under the 2025 Budget Reconciliation Bill could result in more than 1 million missed cancer screenings within 2 years and over 150 avoidable cancer deaths, new findings suggested.
“Clinicians should be genuinely concerned,” corresponding author Adrian Diaz, MD, MPH, a surgical oncology fellow at the University of Chicago, Chicago, told Medscape Medical News. “These projections suggest that Medicaid eligibility restrictions are likely to translate into delayed diagnoses, more advanced disease at presentation, and worse outcomes.”
The new law, which significantly reduces federal Medicaid funding, introduces mandatory work or community-engagement requirements for working-age adults as well as more frequent recertification starting in 2027.
In the study, a Research Letter published online on January 8 in JAMA Oncology,...
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