Colorado Dropped Medicaid Enrollees as Red States Have, Alarming Advocates for the Poor
Colorado defended its high disenrollment rates following the covid crisis by saying that what goes up must come down. Advocates and researchers disagree.
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Colorado defended its high disenrollment rates following the covid crisis by saying that what goes up must come down. Advocates and researchers disagree.
Idaho’s law criminalizing abortion drove a high-profile exodus of OB-GYNs from the state more than a year ago. Now, two years after the U.S. Supreme Court rolled back abortion protections enshrined by Roe v. Wade, patients in rural Idaho are forced to leave their community for gynecological care.
In what will certainly be remembered as a landmark decision, the Supreme Court has overruled a 40-year-old precedent that gave federal agencies, rather than judges, the power to interpret ambiguous laws passed by Congress. Administrative experts say the decision will dramatically change the way key health agencies do business. Also, the court decided not to decide whether a federal law requiring hospitals to provide emergency care overrides Idaho’s near-total ban on abortion. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Victoria Knight of Axios, and Joanne Kenen of Johns Hopkins University and Politico Magazine join KFF Health News chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more. Plus, for “extra credit,” the panelists suggest health policy stories they read this week they think you should read, too.
Torn between a base that wants more restrictions on reproductive health care and a moderate majority that does not, it seems many Republicans would rather take an off-ramp than a victory lap when it comes to abortion. But they can’t escape talking about it.
As the Affordable Connectivity Program runs out of money, millions of people face a jump in internet costs or lost connections if federal lawmakers don't pass a funding extension.
June is when the Supreme Court typically issues rulings in the major cases it hears during that year’s term. This year, those interested in health policy are awaiting decisions in two abortion-related cases and one that could reshuffle the way health policies (and all other federal policies) are made. In this special episode, KFF’s Laurie Sobel, associate director for women’s health policy, joins Julie Rovner for a review of the cases and a preview of how the court might rule.
A federal program that helped pay for more than 23 million low-income households’ internet access runs out of money soon. The end of the subsidy launched earlier in the pandemic could have profound impacts on health care access.
A 25-year-old state Supreme Court ruling protects abortion rights in conservative Montana. That hasn’t stopped Republicans and anti-abortion advocates from trying to institute a ban.
For-profit groups own more than 70% of U.S. nursing homes. Industry leaders and researchers wonder whether corporations and investors can succeed where not-for-profit organizations have struggled. Or, will quality of care suffer in the name of making money?
Lawmakers in Congress and state legislatures are scrambling to react to the ruling by the Alabama Supreme Court that frozen embryos created for in vitro fertilization are legally children. Abortion opponents are divided among themselves, with some supporting full “personhood” for fertilized eggs, while others support IVF as a moral way to have children. Rachel Cohrs of Stat, Riley Griffin of Bloomberg News, and Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins University schools of nursing and public health and Politico Magazine join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews University of Pittsburgh law professor Greer Donley, who explains how a 150-year-old anti-vice law that’s still on the books could be used to ban abortion nationwide. Plus, for “extra credit,” the panelists suggest health policy stories they read this week that they think you should read, too.
State lawmakers are resurrecting and expanding efforts to prohibit transgender people from using public restrooms and other spaces that match their gender. Some have sought to ban trans people from “sex-designated spaces,” including domestic violence shelters and crisis centers, which experts say could violate anti-discrimination laws and jeopardize federal funding.
A lack of oversight and standards for pregnancy care in jails is becoming more problematic as the number of incarcerated women rises and abortion restrictions put medical care further out of reach.
A soon-to-be-finalized legal settlement would offer transgender women in Colorado prisons new housing options, including a pipeline to the Denver Women’s Correctional Facility. The change comes amid a growing number of lawsuits across the country aimed at improving health care access and safety for incarcerated trans people.
After the U.S. Supreme Court ended the federal right to an abortion and many states banned the procedure, reproductive health care organizations hired dozens of people to help patients arrange travel and pay for care.
As climate change-driven wildfires increasingly choke large parts of the United States with smoke each summer, new research shows residents in long-term care facilities are being exposed to dangerously poor air, even those who don’t set foot outside during smoke events.
As Medicaid programs across the nation review enrollees' status in the wake of the pandemic, patients struggle to navigate the upheaval.
After three decades of declines in teen pregnancies, data shows the rates are starting to plateau. The reversal of "Roe v. Wade," coupled with efforts to suspend sex education in schools and higher rates of youth mental health issues post-pandemic, could culminate in a perfect storm.
As states review their Medicaid rolls after the expiration of a pandemic-era prohibition against kicking recipients off the government insurance program, experts say the lack of help available to rural Americans in navigating insurance options puts them at greater risk of losing health coverage than people in metropolitan areas.
Prior authorization is a common tool used by health insurers for many tests, procedures, and prescriptions. Frustrated by the process, patients and doctors have turned to social media to publicly shame insurance companies and elevate their denials for further review.
The state now requires Medicaid to cover midwife services and has expanded the list of prescription drugs midwives can administer.
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