October 25th, 2022
The Out-of-Pocket Health News Digest
Below you will find briefs about recent health policy news stories. Our hope is for students to have an information outlet at their fingertips to keep up-to-date with the most pressing news stories in health policy.

Produced by the HPSA Education Committee: Abigail Lindsay, Graceanne Horton, Olivia Rockwell, Ellie Jorling, Nia Allen, Ronnie Sharangpani, Easheta Shah, and Iulia Dobrin
Biden to Restore Roe if Democrats Win the Midterms
by Easheta Shah
On October 18, 2022, President Joe Biden spoke about abortion access at a Democratic National Committee event in Washington, DC. With a little over 3 weeks until the midterm elections, Biden urged voters to elect more Democratic representatives to keep control of the House, vowing to codify the 1973 Supreme Court decision from Roe v Wade, the landmark abortion decision overturned by the Supreme Court this June, into law. Biden reminded the audience of the consequences of this decision: abortion bans in 16 states, denied access to health services and emergency rooms, loss of wanted pregnancies, and broader violations of the right to privacy. Biden claimed this could lead to the unraveling of other fundamental rights, as well. 

A month after the decision, Biden signed an Executive Order Protecting Access to Reproductive Health Care Services. The Department of Health and Human Services and the Federal Trade Commission also took measures to clarify access to abortion services and enforce the law against sharing of highly sensitive data. While the Biden-Harris Administration has taken steps to support access to abortion, even if Democrats maintain both majorities in Congress, the codification of Roe may not be as simple as Biden anticipates. Due to the filibuster rule — which allows members of the US Senate to block or delay a vote by preventing debate on it from ending — most legislation, including legal abortion protections, will require at least 60 votes to advance through the Senate. 

In order to abolish the filibuster and pass Roe into law with a simple majority vote, Democrats will need to elect at least two more candidates in favor of ending the filibuster. Both abortion and inflation remain top priorities for voters this November, but only time will tell if Biden will be able to restore reproductive rights.
 
Supreme Court to Decide on the Legal Rights of
Medicaid Beneficiaries
by Ronnie Sharangpani
The conservative majority of the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) has received scrutiny for their role in restricting health care for groups who need it the most. Their recent ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson relinquished the guarantee to abortion access to the states, effectively dismantling equal access to abortion for women across the nation. Many are bracing for a new decision that could remove accountability of states who break the law while administering federal programs like Medicaid. 

This November, SCOTUS will hear arguments from Health and Hospital Corps v. Talevski, where a Medicaid nursing home is challenging Mr. Talevski’s legal standing after he claimed abuse in violation of the Federal Nursing Home Reform Act (1987). The nursing home took issue with Talevski’s right to access federal courts after his rights were violated. The right to access federal law is spelled out in the Civil Rights Act (1871). Programs like Medicaid are implicated under the Spending Clause of the Constitution, which allows the federal government to set rules that states must follow and hold them accountable through federal courts. 

If SCOTUS sides with the nursing home, it would remove any accountability for states who violate the rights of Medicaid beneficiaries. The decision starkly contrasts many accepted grounds of procedural justice, most fundamentally the right of providers and beneficiaries to seek justice via due process through a federal court when their federal rights are violated. This decision could strike at the practicality of due process, an overlooked aspect of public health policy. 

Like the Dobbs decision, the consequences of this decision fall harder on vulnerable groups who depend on federal programs and their right to due process when they are abused. For example, safety-net providers may lose an important source of income as more and more people are denied Medicaid coverage without legal recourse. Mandatory state funding for federally qualified health center services is at risk of being cut or eliminated, which could translate into a loss in patient capacity of up to 500,000. The protective power of the courts is critical to preserving these programs as legal entities, an important aspect of protecting public programs as a right rather than a privilege.

Growing Number of Health Care Strikes
by Nia Allen
Last month, 15,000 nurses from 13 Minneapolis hospitals unionized to strike with demands of better staffing and care for patients. After attempting to negotiate with hospital executives for months without their demands being met, these nurses decided to take the matter into their own hands. This three-day strike was the largest private-sector nursing strike in U.S. history. Nurses were frustrated over the benchmarking of staffing levels that coupled with COVID-19 resulted in nurses taking care of higher-acuity patients with fewer resources. Minnesota isn’t the only state experiencing healthcare-related strikes. 

Mental health professionals in Northern California advocated for better wages and improved working conditions at Kaiser Permanente, a healthcare company with initiatives focusing on “providing good jobs” to those with barriers to employment and on approaching mental health with a comprehensive view. The longest mental health strike in history ended with a new 4-year contract that will increase pay for bilingual therapists, add hours for clinicians to perform critical patient care responsibilities, require follow-up sessions within 10 business days, and lastly a promise to hire more therapists and increase services during times of crisis. In addition, committees will be developed to address and improve their overall care model. Despite these victories, the process was draining for many of the staff and detrimental to the patients receiving care during this period. 

These are only a few examples of the growing number of strikes that shed light on the gaps within America’s healthcare system and, most importantly, the need for policy change.
One-Liners
  • Updated COVID-19 vaccine boosters are now available for use, but the Kaiser Family Foundation finds public awareness is limited. (KFF)
  • The Biden Administration proposes a plan to provide medication treatment for traditionally unsupported pregnant women who suffer from drug addiction. (New York Times)
  • Former Planned Parenthood director sues the non-profit due to racism and unfair treatment towards Black women. (CNN)