After years of study and strong public support, the federal Office of Management and Budget finalized updates to federal standards for collecting race and ethnicity data, known as Statistical Policy Directive No. 15 (SPD 15). SPD 15 is perhaps the most important federal policy supporting demographic data collection, as federal agencies must align their data collection policies according to its specified language, instructions, and measures. Alignment to SPD 15 is intended to result in more accurate and useful data on differences in population data based on race and ethnicity. The resulting dat ..read more

On March 11, 2024 President Biden released his proposed budget for fiscal year 2025. While the proposal is not binding and unlikely to pass a divided Congress, it is a clear statement of the Biden Administration’s priorities and values. NHeLP appreciates the President’s commitment to protect and strengthen Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in his budget plan. This blog post will highlight key health care provisions in the President’s budget as discussed in the HHS Budget in Brief, particularly within Medicaid and CHIP, the ACA, the HHS ..read more

Introduction  It is no secret that the U.S.South – home to a significant portion of Black, Indigenous, and other people of color – has been shouldering the brunt of legislative restrictions in health care and reproductive freedoms. The repeal of Roe v. Wade in June 2022 has effectively led to complete abortion bans in 15 states, 11 of which are in the South. The repercussions of eliminating the constitutional right to abortion are becoming increasingly apparent, as exemplified by a recent Supreme Court decision in Alabama. However, while much attention is rightly given to abortion access ..read more

Over the past four years, the Biden-Harris Administration has pursued an ambitious health-policy agenda. Yet, heading into the 2024 election year, several critically important rules proposed by HHS remain unfinished. Regulators are now working against a ticking clock to ensure that these rules are finalized in time to insulate them from potential Congressional Review Act (CRA) challenges. Enacted in 1996, the CRA was designed to give Congress greater oversight of agency rulemaking. The law requires executive branch agencies to report their rulemaking activities to Congress and creates a proces ..read more

NHeLP’s Doula Medicaid Project has been tracking Medicaid coverage for doula care legislation since 2018. Each year since then has seen a steady increase in legislation as well as other efforts. 2023 was a very busy year for expanding access to doula care, as we’ll see, not just in the Medicaid context but in private insurance as well. Last year saw four states rolling out Medicaid coverage for doula care (Michigan, California, Oklahoma, Massachusetts); three states issue standing statewide orders for Medicaid coverage for doula care for all pregnant Medicaid enrollees in the state (Michigan ..read more

This week, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued a final rule, “Safeguarding the Rights of Conscience as Protected by Federal Statutes” (“2024 Final Rule”), which partially rescinds the Trump administration’s unlawful, unethical, and discriminatory 2019 health care refusal regulations (“2019 Final Rule”). Federal health care refusal laws, such as the Weldon Amendment and the Church Amendments, govern when and how covered health care entities, providers, and professionals can refuse to deliver or provide information to patients on medically necess ..read more

I’m thinking this year about courage.  We are going to need it in the year ahead.  Courage to speak truth, to stand up for what matters, to be our genuine selves and let others see us, to take on challenges.  All of us will be needed.  I want to say to my grandchildren that I did what I could to leave them a world still filled with wonder, with air they can breathe, with friends of many backgrounds who are thriving as they are, with peace so they can be children. My musings about courage started a couple of months ago when Bishop Gene Robinson joined a group for conversatio ..read more

After the pandemic-related moratorium on Medicaid terminations ended on March 31 2023, states returned the pre-pandemic operations, including terminations of those who either fail to complete the renewal on time or who the state determines are no no longer be eligible. This year long process is also called “the Medicaid unwind.”   Between May and November, almost a million Florida Medicaid recipients lost coverage;  and hundreds of thousands more will lose coverage in the coming months.  While the State’s official website proudly boasts about the number texts and emails sent; c ..read more

On October 4, 2023, the Departments of Treasury, Labor, and Health and Human Services issued a Request for Information (RFI) regarding the potential benefits of requiring insurance coverage of over-the-counter (OTC) preventative items, including contraception, without cost-sharing and without a prescription. This RFI is an opportunity to eliminate barriers to contraceptive access and expand contraceptive equity. The RFI recognizes that access to OTC contraception is crucial in the wake of the Dobbs decision, growing provider and contraceptive deserts, and the FDA’s recent approval of O-Pill. O ..read more

Deanna Hartog. NHeLP LegaI Intern, Summer 2023; J.D. Candidate, George Washington University Law School Sexism shapes the U.S. health care system in many ways, such as providers’ failure to seriously consider women and gender-expansive peoples’ pain. For example, research shows that they are much more likely to prescribe women in pain sedatives rather than pain medication relative to their prescriptions for men in pain. Because providers are half as likely to prescribe Black patients pain medication than their white counterparts, Black women experience compounded discrimination. This discrimin ..read more