Throughout the decades, Medicaid has expanded from practically an afterthought to a program that provides health care coverage to approximately 1-in-5 people across the country. The combined federal and state spending on Medicaid totals around $880 billion each year. It also represents nearly $1 in every $5 spent on health care in the U.S.

"The Pitt" is following up the success of its debut season with a second that addresses President Trump's recently passed "big, beautiful bill," whose cuts to Medicaid could affect millions of people.

Over the next decade, nearly $1 trillion will be cut from Medicaid. Here is what America’s more than 71 million recipients of the health care program need to know about the changes under the 'One Big Beautiful Bill.

Some of the changes to the program under the One Beautiful Bill Act include imposing stricter eligibility requirements — the most significant being 80-hour monthly work requirements for many adults on Medicaid.

Last month, President Trump signed into law the “Big Beautiful Bill,” which includes a 12% cut to Medicaid spending. For Season 2, the creative team has relied on their calls with hundreds of medical professionals to predict the immediate concerns for hospitals within the next year.

An estimated 1.3 million people in New York are at risk of losing their Medicaid coverage in the next decade due to Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill."

"You don’t have to take a political position to discuss what the impact is actually going to be," executive producer John Wells says about The Pitt's next outing.

Noah Wyle is back with executive producers John Wells and R. Scott Gemmill to revisit the state of the healthcare system. They wanted to show how much has changed, and worsened, especially after the pandemic and a wave of misinformation that has led many people to distrust medical experts.