Coalition releases plan to end U.S. HIV epidemic by 2025

In advance of World AIDS Day Saturday, a coalition of HIV/AIDS advocacy organizations have laid out a detailed plan to end the U.S. HIV epidemic by 2025.

The new roadmap sets ambitious goals for treatment and prevention and calls upon lawmakers to enact the kinds of changes that will help achieve them.

What that looks like is meeting what is called the “95/95/95” framework:

  • 95 percent of people who have HIV are aware of their status.
  • 95 perce...

US rate of uninsured children increases for the first time in nearly a decade

Nearly four million children in the United States are uninsured, the highest rate in nearly a decade.

The latest data, released by Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families on Thursday, reflects an unprecedented increase in the number of children without health insurance, at a time when the Trump administration continues its assault on health care by chipping away at the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

The Georgetown report found that approximately 276,000 more chi...

Maine’s Gov. LePage uses final days in office to resist expanding Medicaid

Gov. Paul LePage (R-ME) will leave office in January — but not before using his final few months in the governor’s mansion to resisting providing health care to an additional 70,000 low-income Mainers.

A Maine judge ordered LePage this week to follow through on expanding the Medicaid program in the state, setting a December 5 deadline for the state to make meaningful progress on setting up the health care expansion.

It’s the latest development in a protracte...

After federal court blocks Kentucky’s Medicaid work requirements, Trump admin reapproves them

The Trump administration permitted Kentucky again to require low-income people to report at least 80 hours of work or community engagement per month or lose coverage for six months, even after a federal judge blocked the state’s proposal over the summer.

A U.S. district court judge called Kentucky’s proposal, which includes work rules, “arbitrary and capricious” in June, noting that officials never adequately considered whether the plan actually provided cove...

Democrats winning the popular vote won’t be enough to save Americans’ health care from Republicans

The 2010 election was a historic disaster for the Democratic Party. Republican House candidates won the national popular vote by 6.8 percentage points and took a commanding majority as a result. It marked the end of President Obama’s legislative agenda and the beginning of an era when Republicans demanded massive concessions just to keep the government open.

Now imagine that 2018 is the mirror image of 2010 — that is, that Democrats win the popular vote by the exact same...

Meet the state Senate candidate who’s trying to convince Tennessee’s 1 percent to support Medicaid

WILLIAMSON COUNTY, TENNESSEE — Kristen Grimm has just realized she forgot to clean out her minivan. She gushes her apologies as she pulls open the driver’s side door, revealing a passenger seat littered with palm cards and newspapers. Her backseat, filled with yard signs, an extra coat, and a change of shoes is also not rider-ready.

But her dismay about the messy car doesn’t — or rather, it can’t — last long before she’s on to the next thing: A phone call from a fr...

“Do you abuse more than one drug at a time?”: Wisconsin to drug screen people on Medicaid

In addition to imposing 80 hours of work per month, Wisconsin will require that Medicaid recipients complete a drug screening questionnaire to keep their health coverage.

While the Trump administration rejected Wisconsin’s bid to drug test Medicaid recipients, the Department of Health Services (DHS) told ThinkProgress on Friday that the state will ask them the same questions they already ask people on cash assistance as a condition of eligibility. The “D...