Trending News Today: Democrats Gear Up to Challenge Medicaid Work Requirements

More than 2 dozen Democratic senators are questioning the legality of newly-proposed Medicaid work requirements, according to ABC News. Last week, the Trump administration rolled out a new policy that would allow states to implement work requirements for Medicaid beneficiaries and approved Kentucky’s request to impose the guidelines. The Democrats’ letter to the acting health secretary was framed similarly to a legal memo preparing for a lawsuit to challenge the new rules on behalf of Medicaid beneficiaries, according to the article.

The CDC has said that this year’s influenza season has been the worst in recent history. This past week alone, 1600 New Yorkers have been hospitalized with the flu, according to The Wall Street Journal. New York Gov Andrew Cuomo said that new cases of the flu increased by 54% within the last week and there were new diagnoses in all counties of the state, according to the article. The state’s health department is advising that all residents receive a vaccine if they haven’t already.

President Donald Trump recently announced plans to slash the budget of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), Politico reported. This plan would redirect a grant from the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas to the Department of Justice and redirect a grant from the Drug Free Communities Act to the Department of Health and Human Services. Notably, this proposal would reduce the ONDCP budget by 95% ($340 million), according to the article.