States Update Guardianship Laws To Keep Children of Immigrants Out of Foster Care
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Get our weekly newsletter, The Week in Brief, featuring a roundup of our original coverage, Fridays at 2 p.m. ET.
As President Donald Trump’s heightened immigration enforcement continues across the country, some states are updating temporary guardianship laws to keep the children of detained and deported immigrants out of state custody.
Some states have tried to crack down on crisis pregnancy centers, accusing them of deceptive practices. But now conservative lawmakers are pushing legislation to increase protections for the organizations, which work to dissuade women from abortions.
The state recently became the third to offer a public option health plan through its Affordable Care Act marketplace. But researchers said it’s unlikely to fill the gaps left by sweeping changes at the federal level.
Tribal insurance programs give Native Americans access to affordable health care when the Indian Health Service falls short. Those plans are threatened by the expiration of enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies.
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Native American women face higher rates of death than other demographics. In response, Native Americans have been working with state and federal officials to boost tribal participation and leadership in maternal mortality review committees to better track and address pregnancy-related deaths.
The Trump administration has championed its Rural Health Transformation Program as an investment in American families who have been left behind. But Native American tribes, whose communities have a significant presence in rural America and have some of the greatest health needs, are ineligible to apply directly for funding.
As states prepare to implement changes to Medicaid required by President Donald Trump’s recent tax-and-spending law, tribal leaders say they are concerned Native American enrollees could lose their coverage, despite exemptions made by Congress.
Native American groups declare that tribal sovereignty trumps state and federal efforts to restrict or ban gender-affirming care for two-spirit and LGBTQ+ tribal citizens. Tribes are analyzing the risk of opposing Trump’s policies, advocates say.
Rural hospitals would take an outsize hit from Republicans’ proposed cuts to Medicaid and other federal health programs. Researchers say the financial erosion would trigger hospital closures and service cuts, especially in communities where large shares of patients are enrolled in Medicaid.
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The Indian Health Service was mostly spared in the federal government’s widespread staffing cuts, but tribal governments and organizations have lost funding elsewhere in the melee of federal health agency cuts.
Federal cuts are hurting community organizations in California that provide language assistance services to people who speak limited English. Despite President Trump’s executive order declaring English the national language, millions in the U.S. need help navigating the health system.
Food banks nationwide are being pinched by record demand, high food prices, and hundreds of millions of dollars in federal budget cuts. As the economy plods onto shaky ground, food bank leaders hope Congress patches the holes by passing a new farm bill.
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As Congress mulls significant cuts to Medicaid, Native American tribes are bracing for potentially devastating financial fallout. That’s because Medicaid is the largest third-party payer for Native American health programs, funding that has helped address chronic underfunding of the Indian Health Service.
Health leaders say a tool to boost medical coverage for Native Americans, a population that has long faced worse health outcomes than the rest of the nation, has been underused by many states and tribes since it was written into the Affordable Care Act more than a decade ago.
Access to information in languages other than English is protected by various federal, state, and local policies. But researchers tracking them say that as rural America grows more diverse, people not proficient in English face added barriers to critical public health information and services.
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