With the president’s domestic policy law signed, states will have to administer many of the cuts and decide how much they can spend to keep their citizens insured and fed.

One health policy professor said cutting Medicaid and similar programs "will be devastating" to millions of Americans.

Now, federal officials say help may be on the way. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that several of the country’s largest insurers have pledged to overhaul the ...