With the House approving a plan to slash $880 billion from the federal budget, all eyes are turning to Medicaid as the most likely source of cuts. I asked former North Carolina Health Secretary Kody Kinsley, KFF’s Larry Levitt and California Health Care Foundation’s Katie Heidorn to join me to discuss the likely shape and impact of proposed cuts, and take questions from UC Berkeley students. 

Kody called it a “self-licking ice cream cone”—cuts that destabilize the government, leading to further cuts. Larry warned of formula battles that will soon erupt. Katie laid out the devastating effects on state budgets.

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Watch the full VIDEO version of this episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X110GShMTtE&t=52s

Relevant Links

• KFF: The Public’s View on Potential Changes to Medicaid
• KFF: Impact of Medicaid Per Capita Cap 
• Kody Kinsley testimony to Congress on Medicaid
• Pre-election episode with Larry Levitt
• KFF: Can Republicans cut $880 Billion without Slashing Medicaid?
• CBPP: Impact of Medicaid Cuts
• CHCF: Defending Medi-Cal in 2025

About Our Guests

Katie Heidorn is the director of state health policy at CHCF, where she leverages the foundation’s data, expertise, and partnerships to help California’s state government make informed decisions about health care. Katie is based in CHCF’s Sacramento office.

Katie has nearly two decades of experience working in health policy, government, and nonprofits and is a skilled leader, facilitator, and communicator. She comes to CHCF after more than two years as executive director for the Insure the Uninsured Project (ITUP). Before that, Katie was the government affairs advocate for Health Net and the development director and policy lead at the nonprofit California Coverage and Health Initiatives. Katie spent a decade in California state government, including as a deputy secretary for the California Health and Human Services Agency and principal consultant in the Senate Appropriations Committee. She is also an alumna of the California Senate Fellows Program.

Katie received her master’s degree in Public Administration from the University of Southern California and bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Comparative Literature from the University of California, Davis.

Source: https://www.chcf.org/person/katie-heidorn/

Kody Kinsley served as Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services from January 2022 to January 2025. In his role, he led operational aspects of COVID-19 response, including purchasing and distribution of personal protective equipment, scaling access to testing, and contact tracing. In addition to the COVID-19 response, Kinsley leads North Carolina's behavioral health and intellectual and developmental disability policies and systems. His work focuses on re-designing the public insurance system, combating the opioid epidemic, and improving operations of state organizations and the broader delivery system. His policy efforts have focused on supporting trauma-informed and resilient communities and schools, diverting and treating justice-involved populations, and increasing community levels of care. Kinsley’s past experience spans the public and private sectors, including positions at the White House, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, leading operations for a behavioral health care service provider in western North Carolina, and most recently serving as the presidentially-appointed Assistant Secretary for Management for the United States Department of the Treasury. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Brevard College and his master of public policy from the University of California, Berkeley.

Source: https://www.sog.unc.edu/about/faculty-and-staff/kody-kinsley

Larry Levitt is the executive vice president for health policy, overseeing KFF’s policy work on Medicare, Medicaid, the health care marketplace, the Affordable Care Act, racial equity, women’s health, and global health. He previously was editor-in-chief of kaisernetwork.org, which was KFF’s online health policy news and information service and directed KFF’s communications. Levitt, along with Dr. Mollyann Brodie, work with KFF’s founding President and CEO, Dr. Drew Altman, to oversee the organization.

Prior to joining KFF, Levitt served as a senior health policy adviser to the White House and the Department of Health and Human Services, working on the development of the Clinton Administration’s Health Security Act and other health policy initiatives. Earlier, he was the special assistant for health policy with California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi, a medical economist with Kaiser Permanente, and served in a number of positions in Massachusetts state government. Levitt holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of California, Berkeley, and a master’s degree in public policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Source: https://www.kff.org/person/larry-levitt/

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