In a sharp rebuke to the Trump administration, California is expanding access to health care for its largest uninsured group: the undocumented.
Activists have been trying to get the state to cover undocumented residents for some time, as about 1.4 million lack insurance. On Sunday, they made progress when state lawmakers reached a budget agreement that would make California the first-ever state to offer health coverage to certain undocumented residents.
Specifically, undocume...
health care
How activists of color got Democrats to care about the Hyde Amendment
H.K. Gray had an abortion, but her insurance wouldn’t pay for it.
“When I was pregnant with my daughter, I used my Medicaid to cover almost all of her birth, almost all of her ultrasounds, and almost everything I needed for pre-natal care,” Gray told ThinkProgress, “So when it came time to when I needed my abortion for my third pregnancy, I just assumed it would work for that as well.”
That’s when Gray learned about the Hyde Amendment, whic...
Rev. William Barber is on trial for trespassing over a health care protest he led 2 years ago
Rev. Dr. William Barber is on trial in North Carolina for leading a protest calling for Medicaid expansion in the state’s legislative building two years ago.
Barber, then-head of the state NAACP chapter and leader of the progressive grassroots movement “Moral Monday,” was arrested on May 30, 2017, after he led a group of more than 30 people to the legislative building in Raleigh to to discuss health care with lawmakers. Barber and others in the group were later cha...
As WNBA season tips off, star players speak out against anti-abortion bills
On Friday night, the 2019 WNBA season tips off with a contest between the Atlanta Dream and Dallas Wings. It’s a pivotal season for the league’s future. Last fall, the WNBA Player’s Association opted out of its current collective bargaining agreement, and players will be spending their spare time during the season fighting for better wages, resources, and support.
But while the league-wide drama both on and off the court remains the utmost importance to the league&...
Health Department announces new rule weakening nondiscrimination protections for trans people
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a new rule Friday that would seriously harm transgender people’s access to health care.
The department announced a revision to the nondiscrimination section of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), known as “Section 1557.” That provision prevented discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, disability, age, and sex. Under the Obama administration, the department interpreted sex discrimination to ...
Republicans who said they’d protect people with pre-existing conditions vote against bill to do that
The House of Representatives on Thursday passed a bill that would block the Trump administration from granting states the leeway to skirt Obamacare rules —- a measure designed to ensure that patients with pre-existing conditions continue to receive affordable robust coverage — in a 236 to 183 vote. The bill is not expected to pass the GOP-controlled Senate, but even if it does, the president has threatened to veto the measure.
Every House Democrat and four Republicans vo...
‘Caravan’ of Americans crossed Canadian border to purchase affordable insulin
For Quinn Nystrom, and millions of other Americans living with Type 1 Diabetes, insulin affordability is a “real crisis issue.”
So Nystrom took it upon herself to find a temporary solution. Last week, she and seven others organized a four-car “caravan” from Minneapolis, Minnesota, to drive 600 miles across the border to Fort Francis, Ontario, in Canada to purchase the life-saving insulin they all needed.
“It was a black and white difference,” Nystrom told ThinkProgress of her...
Transgender Iowans are worried they’ll lose transition-related care under new bill
Iowa is one signature away from enacting a law that would limit transgender people’s access to necessary health care.
The law would allow government entities to opt out of using public insurance dollars, including Medicaid, to pay for any kind of transition-related care. This language was tacked on as an amendment to a health and human services appropriations bill late in the process, LGBTQ rights advocates said, without any committee hearings or public comment process. Lawmak...
