After last year's passage of H.R.

1, or what President Trump called the Big Beautiful Bill, hundreds of thousands of Washingtonians who rely on Medicaid could lose their coverage.

Multimedia journalist Venice Buhain talked with the Washington Health Care Authority to find out who the changes will affect and what the long term impacts could be.

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.

That means about 200,000 people in Washington state will lose their free or low cost health coverage.

We believe out of the 600,000 people that will be impacted, that we can preserve coverage for at least 400,000 individuals through this process that the state has built.

But let us make no mistake, there will absolutely be coverage losses.

One change is that adults age 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 January 1st.

Furthermore, people in the program will have to prove their eligibility every six months instead of every year.

The Health Care Authority alone is hiring 100 staff to support these more increased eligibility checks.

Another change is that noncitizen adults, like refugees and asylees, who had been eligible for coverage, will no longer be covered by Medicaid.

The changes require states to reduce additional funding to medical providers contracted to provide care to Medicaid patients.

That is estimated to be a loss of 1.5 billion to Washington hospitals starting in 2028.

Tomorrow, we'll learn how rural hospitals in Washington are planning for anticipated cuts.

I'm Paris Jackson.

Thanks for watching The Newsfeed.