Welcome back, Monday.

⛅ Weather: Partly sunny, with a high of 70 and a low of 62.

🎂 Happy birthday to our member Jackie Crawford!

Today’s newsletter is 799 words — a 3-minute read.

Nearly 1,000 Iowa refugees could lose Medicaid coverage Thursday under a federal law that Polk County health officials fear could drive more uninsured patients to emergency rooms.

The big picture: Losing routine care can allow chronic conditions to become life-threatening, push patients into emergency rooms and raise costs for hospitals, Polk County Health Department director Juliann Van Liew tells Axios.

Driving the news: Refugees, asylees and several other groups of immigrants legally living in the U.S. without green cards will generally lose federally funded Medicaid under last year's tax and budget law, Iowa HHS says.

By the numbers: The Refugee Alliance of Central Iowa estimates at least 973 Iowa refugees are unlikely to have green cards by the cutoff.

• Children legally residing in the U.S. will remain eligible because Iowa has chosen to continue a federal coverage option for them.

State of play: Polk County recently launched a resource page on Medicaid changes to help people find alternative care options, including free nonprofit clinics.

Zoom out: The Oct. 1 cutoff is one part of broader federal restrictions on health coverage for immigrants.

• Additional Marketplace and Medicare restrictions are expected to increase the number of uninsured immigrants affected by the law to about 1.4 million by 2034.

Context: Republicans say the changes protect Medicaid and taxpayer dollars by narrowing eligibility for immigrants.

• The law rolls back parts of a policy dating to 1996 that allowed refugees, people granted asylum and some other humanitarian immigrants to qualify.

Zoom in: The federal government is expected to save about $131 billion through 2034 from the immigrant health-coverage restrictions, including about $6.2 billion from the Oct. 1 Medicaid change alone, per Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates summarized by KFF.

Yes, but: CBO's estimate does not quantify potential downstream costs for states, counties, hospitals and patients.

What they're saying: A coalition led by the Iowa Catholic Conference is urging Gov. Kim Reynolds to use a federal option already adopted by 32 states to preserve coverage for certain pregnant immigrants.

The latest: As of Friday, the governor's office had only acknowledged receiving the letter, Tom Chapman of the Iowa Catholic Conference tells Axios.

What we're watching: Iowa begins new Medicaid work requirements Dec. 1, with existing members phased in at renewals starting in February 2027.

• An earlier state estimate suggested a similar requirement could reduce average monthly enrollment by about 47,000 people in 2027.

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🎙️ Iowa stands out nationally with four gubernatorial debates scheduled this fall, bucking the broader decline in candidates sharing the stage. (Axios)

🗳️ Senate Republicans' campaign arm is seeking $4.2 million to defend Iowa's U.S. Senate seat as polling shows a tight race. (Axios)

🐍 Spock's Sanctuary has begun bringing animals back home months after a fire, marking a major step in the rescue's recovery. (KCCI)

Jason here: With Apple's new iPhone 18 Pro hitting stores this month, I figured it might be a good time to upgrade — by buying somebody else's old phone.

Why it matters: My Facebook Marketplace experience nearly cost me $480 and taught me a useful lesson.

Zoom in: The seller reluctantly met me at a T-Mobile store and showed me the iPhone was unlocked — meaning it wasn't restricted to one carrier — and had good battery health.

• She wanted cash and urged me to quickly pay because her ride was waiting.

Yes, but: I insisted a store employee check it first.

• The clerk ran its IMEI — the phone's unique identification number — and found it had been reported lost or stolen and couldn't be activated.
• The seller quickly left.

My takeaway: Always meet at a carrier store and have the phone thoroughly checked before paying.

• You can also run the IMEI through sites like StolenPhoneChecker.org or IMEIcheck.com for initial screening.

📱 1 happily ever after: I ultimately found a nearly new phone, also on Facebook Marketplace, from a seller who gladly met me at a phone store and patiently waited for the all-clear before I paid.

• And I saved hundreds of dollars.

📸 Jason thinks DSM's potential refunds stemming from a 16,000-person class action show why traffic-camera revenue shouldn't flow directly to the governments issuing the fines.

🥤 Linh is deep in the iced coffee debate (and would not bring one to an interview).

This newsletter was edited by Chloe Gonzales.