The Biden administration shut off federal family planning grants to Tennessee and Oklahoma after the states directed clinics not to provide abortion counseling. The Trump administration restored the money, claiming two lawsuits were settled. They weren’t.
The Affordable Care Act requires most insurance plans to cover preventive care, including many forms of contraception, without cost to patients — but not if they’re “grandfathered” plans, which predate the law.
With just days to go before the official launch of a new administration, the GOP-led Congress is putting together plans on how to enact incoming President Donald Trump’s agenda, with a particular emphasis on cutting spending on the Medicaid program. Meanwhile, the Biden administration makes major moves in its last days, including banning a controversial food dye and ordering cigarette companies to minimize their nicotine content. Joanne Kenen of Johns Hopkins University and Politico Magazine, Anna Edney of Bloomberg News, and Sandhya Raman of CQ Roll Call join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews Harris Meyer, who reported and wrote the latest KFF Health News “Bill of the Month” feature, about a colonoscopy that came with a much larger price tag than estimated.
The Right to Reproductive Freedom amendment would enshrine in the state constitution a right “to make and effectuate decisions to prevent, continue, or end one’s own pregnancy.”
Small-town doctors may not offer IUDs and hormonal implants because the devices require training to administer and are expensive to stock.
The vice presidential debate showcased the very different views of Ohio Republican Sen. JD Vance, Donald Trump’s running mate, and Democratic Governor Tim Walz, Kamala Harris’s VP pick, on health policies past and present.
Anti-abortion groups and their allies secured a generational victory in 2022 when the Supreme Court overturned “Roe v. Wade.” A lawsuit in Texas demonstrates how those same forces threaten access to other health services, including birth control and screenings for cancer and sexually transmitted infections.
Former President Donald Trump has distanced himself from a Heritage Foundation document that outlines positions on abortion and a range of other social issues. But Democrats view it as a window into the far right’s to-do list and a clear opening for political attack.
For years, Tennessee has required anyone convicted of prostitution while HIV-positive to register as a sex offender for life. To settle DOJ and ACLU discrimination suits, the state has agreed to reverse course.
An ongoing lawsuit aims to set aside the Affordable Care Act’s requirements that insurers cover preventive care, such as contraception. If that happens, state reproductive health laws — varying across the country — would carry more weight, resuming the “wild West” dynamic from before Obamacare.
