Washington State Legislative Session: Past the Halfway Mark!
The first deadlines have passed for bills moving through the legislature and bills must pass the full House or Senate by next Wednesday (2/14). We are following many bills related to health care. This week, we feature an assortment of bills that would build Affordable Care Act (ACA) and reproductive health protections into state law...
Deadline Nears Without Deal on DACA
The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program ends on March 5. “Dreamers” are left out of the Continuing Resolution to fund the government for another six weeks. Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Chris Coons (D-DE) crafted new bipartisan legislation that would grant eventual citizenship to young undocumented immigrants, but the White House has pushed...
Did You Know the Government Was Briefly Shut Down While You Were Sleeping?
A new two-year budget deal was signed into law this morning. A vote was expected yesterday, but concerns about what the budget does and doesn’t include forced an overnight government shutdown. The budget agreement does come at a cost to health care, with offsets from public health and Medicaid. A cut to the to the...
WA Legislative Session: Already Racing Toward the First Bill “Cutoff”
This legislative session, NoHLA seeks to (1) preserve and strengthen health care coverage and affordability in our state, (2) ensure access to reproductive health care services, (3) expand options for young adults, and (4) protect consumers from surprise or improper bills. With just over a week left for bills to pass out of their assigned...
Administration Promotes Refusal of Care Due to Religious or Moral Objections
Last week, the Trump Administration announced the formation of a new Conscience and Religious Freedom Division in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights, and then issued proposed rules allowing health care providers to refuse medical care due to religious or moral objections. This new division has the potential to undermine...
Open Enrollment Ends on a High Note!
When Washington’s Open Enrollment ended last Monday, a record number of people had selected health plans via HealthPlanFinder – over 242,000. Washington’s experience was better than expected. The federal marketplace, HealthCare.gov, did not enroll as many people for 2018 coverage as prior years, likely due to political uncertainty and reductions to outreach and enrollment support....
A New Way to Sidestep the Affordable Care Act’s Consumer Protections
New proposed rules about Association Health Plans were released early this month in response to a fall Executive Order. The rules redefine “employer” and relax the rules requiring a “bona fide” reason other than offering health insurance – which could allow for sidestepping of ACA consumer protections by altering premiums by gender, age and industry...
Medicaid Work Requirements: A New Trend for 2018?
The week before last, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a State Medicaid Director letter providing new guidance for Section 1115 waiver proposals that would impose work requirements (referred to as “community engagement”) in Medicaid as a condition of eligibility. This is a significant policy shift for Medicaid – but was not...
NoHLA Participates in Womxn Act on Seattle
On the second anniversary of the Women’s March, we participated in Womxn Act on Seattle, a series of trainings, lectures, panels, film screenings and food drives, combined with one of the state’s largest single-day regional voter registration and mobilization efforts in history. NoHLA was pleased to be hosted by Gethsemane Lutheran Church in downtown Seattle...
Weekend Government Shutdown Ends: Kids Health Renewed and Immigration Promised
The federal government was shut down last weekend. On Friday, most Senate Democrats and five Senate Republicans opposed another short-term spending bill. The House-passed bill would have extended the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for six years, but failed to address the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program or other immigration issues. The President...