Have insurance through work, or Medicare? The One Big Beautiful Bill Act still reaches you.

In Part 4 of our OBBBA series, Jamie and Melissa Anne explain why you don't need a Medicaid card to depend on Medicaid. We cover CBO's projection of 10 million more uninsured by 2034, what expiring marketplace tax credits did to premiums and enrollment in 2026, and why insurers like Aetna and Cigna are leaving the marketplace.

Then we follow the money to places you know: the nursing home where Medicaid pays for 63% of residents, the end of the federal 24/7 registered nurse requirement, the school nurse and counselor your kids rely on, and health care jobs in your community. You will learn through the nurse's lens how these changes impact us all.

Head over to our Substack to join the conversation.

The views and opinions expressed on Nursing the Nation are our own and do not represent those of our employers, academic institutions, or any organization we're affiliated with.

Nurses are the most trusted profession in America, so why are we so rarely the ones quoted on health? This week Nursing the Nation floats to a different unit: Jamie sits down with nurse editor Leslie H. Nicoll, PhD, MBA, RN, FAAN, founder of Writer's Camp Journal.

Dr. Nicoll has spent five decades helping nurses get what they know into print. She explains why even top nursing journal articles draw only about 28% of their citations from nursing sources, and why public trust in nurses hasn't turned into public authority. Studies of health news found nurses quoted in about 4% of stories in 1997, and 2% twenty years later.

Writer's Camp is free to join and open to anyone who wants to write well: writers-camp.org

We will return to our "home unit" next week and resume our Big Beautiful Healthcare series.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act cuts an estimated $137 billion in federal Medicaid funding from rural America over ten years. Congress answered with a $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program. Does it close the gap?

In Part 3 of our OBBBA series, Jamie Bourgeois (MSN, APRN, PMHNP-BC, CNM) and Melissa Anne DuBois (PhD, RN) break down how the program works, why an "equal" split leaves a Texas resident with about $66 and a Rhode Island resident with over $6,000, and why the rules limit what struggling hospitals can spend on.

We look at who gets hit hardest: pregnant people facing longer drives as birthing units close, and people with mental illness and substance use disorders facing new work requirements and a narrower exemption. We cover what supporters and critics say, where nursing organizations stand, and our nursing take on why a one-time grant can't replace coverage.

Full show notes and sources: nursingthenation.substack.com

The views and opinions expressed on Nursing the Nation are our own and do not represent those of our employers, academic institutions, or any organization we're affiliated with.

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