How do rape exceptions for abortion work? They don’t.

Over the past year, Dr. Shanthi Ramesh performed abortions for seven sexual assault survivors and she recalls Medicaid insurance only paying for two.

It didn’t matter that they were all technically eligible for Medicaid — meaning, they were all poor enough to receive public health insurance — or that a doctor, in her professional opinion, believed they were raped. She says four of the seven women did not report their assaults to local law enforcement and, so, insurance ...

How do rape exceptions for abortion work? They don’t.

Over the past year, Dr. Shanthi Ramesh performed abortions for seven sexual assault survivors and she recalls Medicaid insurance only paying for two.

It didn’t matter that they were all technically eligible for Medicaid — meaning, they were all poor enough to receive public health insurance — or that a doctor, in her professional opinion, believed they were raped. She says four of the seven women did not report their assaults to local law enforcement and, so, insurance ...

Trump’s new pick to lead Medicaid ran Maine’s public health department into the ground

The Trump administration is putting the health insurance of millions of Americans in the hands of a former Maine official best known for undermining the public health infrastructure in her state to put low-income families at risk.

Mary Mayhew, Maine’s former health commissioner, was tapped on Monday to run the national Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) programs. Mayhew will now control the $350 billion budget of the two health insurance programs ser...

Medicaid expansion is on the ballot again in Maine this November

PORTLAND, MAINE — “When I’m in pain, I take Tylenol. I can’t have it looked at,” said 59-year-old Ann Avery, her voice cracking before she started to cry.  

“I did find the list of some of the things that’s wrong me,” she told ThinkProgress. Depression, coronary artery disease, type 2 diabetes, and Piriformis syndrome, to name a few.  

“I have no idea what some of these things are,” Avery said. But she could tell you theyR...