by Adaobi Ezeokoli | Jun 30, 2025 | Health Law & Policy, Commentary
In an important decision upholding yet another provision of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the Supreme Court on Friday held constitutional the ACA’s requirement that private insurers cover certain recommended preventive services without cost-sharing. The decision...
by Adaobi Ezeokoli | Jun 25, 2025 | Health Law & Policy, Commentary
Over the past several weeks, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has taken several concerning actions to change how vaccines are approved and recommended in the United States. At the core of HHS action is the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices...
by Adaobi Ezeokoli | Jun 20, 2025 | Health Law & Policy, Commentary
On June 18, the Supreme Court issued its decision in U.S. v. Skrmetti, allowing states to ban gender-affirming care for minors. The case was brought by three transgender youth, their families, and a medical provider to challenge the constitutionality of a Tennessee...
by Adaobi Ezeokoli | Jun 18, 2025 | Health Law & Policy, Commentary
Late in the day on Monday, June 17, the Senate Finance Committee released its much anticipated bill text for the areas over which the committee has jurisdiction. Despite growing alarm from patient groups, hospital stakeholders, and state governors, the Senate appears...
by Adaobi Ezeokoli | Apr 21, 2025 | Health Law & Policy, Commentary
Since President Trump took office, his Administration has been slashing funding across the federal government, including terminating or freezing already-awarded grants. Much of this campaign to eliminate government spending has been led by the Department of Government...
by Adaobi Ezeokoli | Mar 27, 2025 | Health Law & Policy, Commentary
The second Trump administration began with an unprecedented flex of executive authority: an attempt to impound up to $3 trillion in funds previously appropriated by Congress. Many of these funds are dedicated to services critical to public health. Community health...
by Adaobi Ezeokoli | Mar 21, 2025 | Health Law & Policy, Commentary
On March 10, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released its first major healthcare regulation of the Trump Administration. The proposed rule makes several changes to marketplace coverage, including to enrollment processes, benefits, and income...
by Adaobi Ezeokoli | Mar 19, 2025 | Health Law & Policy, Commentary
On March 18, a bombshell echoed through the HIV community as Politico and other news outlets reported that the Trump Administration is considering cutting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Division on HIV Prevention (DHP). While this plan is...
by Adaobi Ezeokoli | Mar 12, 2025 | Health Law & Policy, Commentary
We are one month into the Trump Administration and in the midst of an onslaught of layoffs and changes to the federal workforce and the infrastructure that helps make the federal government run. Meanwhile, Congress is pushing forward with a legislative agenda that...
by Adaobi Ezeokoli | Feb 12, 2025 | Health Law & Policy, Commentary
In the span of less than one month the Trump Administration has signed multiple executive orders, some which seek to directly undercut and dismantle efforts to address health inequity and improve access to healthcare for marginalized groups. How will these policies...
by Adaobi Ezeokoli | Jan 29, 2025 | Health Law & Policy, Commentary
President Trump made good on his promise to hit the ground running in his second term in office, with a slew of Executive Orders and other executive actions issued in his first several days on the job. Three areas that have had an immediate impact on health care are:...
by Adaobi Ezeokoli | Jan 23, 2025 | Health Law & Policy, Commentary
On January 20, just hours after the inauguration, President Trump fulfilled a campaign promise to begin issuing a barrage of Executive Orders on day one of his second presidency. He signed 26 Executive Orders that touch on a wide range of topics, from immigration...
by Adaobi Ezeokoli | Jan 15, 2025 | Health Law & Policy, Commentary
With the new Congress seated, Republicans are preparing to control the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the presidency and to push an aggressive policy agenda in 2025. Given their razor thin majorities in the House and Senate, the road to policy change in...
by Adaobi Ezeokoli | Dec 18, 2024 | Health Law & Policy, Commentary
In the waning days of the Biden Administration, advocacy organizations are preparing for a very different political landscape starting in 2025. Along with the presidency, Republicans will have razor-thin majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate....
by Adaobi Ezeokoli | Dec 6, 2024 | Health Law & Policy, Commentary
More than 25 million people living in the United States—over 8% of the population—have limited English proficiency (LEP), meaning that they do not speak English “very well” (including some who may speak English well, but when navigating a traumatic situation, may...
by Adaobi Ezeokoli | Oct 31, 2024 | Health Law & Policy, Commentary
Reproductive justice will be front and center on the ballot next week. Some choices, like state ballot initiatives offering constitutional protections for abortion rights, have a clear impact. Others are more indirect, arising not from a direct vote, but from...
by Adaobi Ezeokoli | Oct 21, 2024 | Health Law & Policy, Commentary
Nationwide, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) cover approximately 80 million low-income individuals, including many vulnerable populations such as children, the elderly, and people with disabilities and/or chronic conditions. These programs...
by Adaobi Ezeokoli | Oct 2, 2024 | Health Law & Policy, Commentary
Health Care on the Ballot The Affordable Care Act (ACA) – the signature federal health reform legislation signed into law by President Obama in 2010 – has been the law of the land for nearly 15 years. And yet it remains a political flashpoint and has faced perennial...
by Adaobi Ezeokoli | Sep 18, 2024 | Health Law & Policy, Commentary
Public health, including programs to prevent and treat infectious diseases like HIV and hepatitis C (HCV), is chronically underfunded in the United States. Public health crises like the COVID-19 pandemic laid bare the impact that decades of inadequate federal public...
by Adaobi Ezeokoli | Sep 5, 2024 | Health Law & Policy, Commentary
A presidential election year puts a spotlight on the major parties’ health policies, and this year is no different. Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate for president, has touted the last four years of accomplishments under the Biden Administration...
by Adaobi Ezeokoli | Aug 14, 2024 | Health Law & Policy, Commentary
State Medicaid programs are at the tail end of an unprecedented reduction in Medicaid enrollment. States are reinstituting normal Medicaid redetermination and renewal processes, which were paused during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of the pandemic...
by Adaobi Ezeokoli | Aug 1, 2024 | Health Law & Policy, Commentary
Last month, in between issuing decisions about mifepristone, EMTALA, Chevron deference, and presidential immunity, the Supreme Court of the United States also agreed to review a case that could upend transgender access to health care: U.S. v. Skrmetti. In the coming...
by Adaobi Ezeokoli | Jul 17, 2024 | Health Law & Policy, Commentary
The last days of the Supreme Court of the United States’ (SCOTUS) term brought some blockbuster decisions with far reaching implications for federal agencies charged with regulating health care. In an expected but still monumental move, SCOTUS issued a decision in...
by Adaobi Ezeokoli | Jul 2, 2024 | Health Law & Policy, Commentary
As the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) wrapped up its term, decisions came fast and furiously last week. On June 27, SCOTUS issued its decision on two consolidated cases, Moyle vs. United States and Idaho vs. United States (referred to as “Moyle”...
by Adaobi Ezeokoli | Jun 24, 2024 | Health Law & Policy
Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued its much-anticipated decision inBraidwood v. Becerra, a case challenging the constitutionality of the ACA preventive care mandate. The mandate, discussed in more detail in a recent Health Care in...
by Adaobi Ezeokoli | Jun 20, 2024 | Health Law & Policy, Commentary
The Supreme Court of the United States’ term is wrapping up this month, and, as is custom, they are announcing the decisions in their most controversial cases at the end. The much-anticipated decision on access to mifepristone – a drug that in combination with another...
by Adaobi Ezeokoli | Jun 5, 2024 | Health Law & Policy, Commentary
People leaving incarceration often face a host of health challenges, including high rates of chronic physical and behavioral health conditions, barriers to coverage, and health-related social needs. Of particular concern, during the period following release, this...
by Adaobi Ezeokoli | May 22, 2024 | Health Law & Policy, Commentary
At the end of the last open enrollment period, Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace sign-ups were at an all-time high, with over 21 million people choosing a plan. This exceeded last year’s sign-ups (which were also a record high) by 5 million. These unprecedented...
by Adaobi Ezeokoli | May 8, 2024 | Health Law & Policy, Commentary
After a lengthy advocacy battle, the Biden Administration released a final rule last week extending eligibility for Affordable Care Act (ACA) coverage to people enrolled in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, also known as DACA recipients. Read...
by Adaobi Ezeokoli | May 2, 2024 | Health Law & Policy, Commentary
At long last, the Biden Administration has finalized its rule clarifying the protections laid out in Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the part of the law that forbids federally funded health care activities and programs from discriminating on the basis...
by Adaobi Ezeokoli | Apr 25, 2024 | Health Law & Policy, News
On April 22, 2024, the Administration released a final rule strengthening privacy and confidentiality protections for reproductive health data under the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). This rule is one of the many actions the...
by Adaobi Ezeokoli | Apr 17, 2024 | Health Law & Policy, Commentary
A person’s transition from incarceration back to the community is fraught with competing, complex social and behavioral health needs, as well as staggering rates of overdose and other adverse health events. This period can be especially challenging for people with HIV...
by Adaobi Ezeokoli | Mar 27, 2024 | Health Law & Policy, Commentary
Prescription drug access and pricing have been in the policy spotlight at the federal level over the past few years, with Congress taking unprecedent steps to respond to high prescription drug prices in Medicare through passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in...
by Adaobi Ezeokoli | Mar 5, 2024 | Health Law & Policy, News
Through the ACA’s preventive care mandate, most private insurance policies must cover a wide range of preventive services without cost-sharing for beneficiaries. These services include important interventions such as screenings for lung and colorectal cancer,...
by Adaobi Ezeokoli | Feb 21, 2024 | Health Law & Policy, Commentary
Under federal law, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the agency that oversees the Medicare program, can ensure coverage of preventive services under Medicare Part A and Part B through a process called a National Coverage Determination (NCD). CMS...
by Adaobi Ezeokoli | Feb 12, 2024 | Health Law & Policy, Commentary, Students Speaking On...
By Jessica Bushman, HLPC Clinic Student, Fall 2023 My semester in Harvard’s Health Law & Policy Clinic was unparalleled. Alongside the Hepatitis C Advocacy Project team, I worked to develop a set of strategies and tools advocates can use to promote more widespread...
by Adaobi Ezeokoli | Feb 7, 2024 | Health Law & Policy, Commentary
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), a sweeping federal law enacted in August 2022, included many provisions aimed at making prescription drugs more affordable under Medicare Part D, the Medicare program that provides prescription drug coverage. Two major changes to...
by Adaobi Ezeokoli | Jan 10, 2024 | Health Law & Policy, Commentary
The Biden Administration began its first term in January 2021 with a number of commitments to preserve and strengthen the ACA and Medicaid, and to make health care more equitable, affordable, and accessible, including for the #LGBTQ community. Since that time, the...
by Adaobi Ezeokoli | Dec 6, 2023 | Health Law & Policy, Commentary
Every year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) releases its Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters (NBPP) rule for the following plan year. This regulation sets the rules of the road for Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace plans and related ACA...
by Adaobi Ezeokoli | Nov 15, 2023 | Health Law & Policy, Commentary
We are currently in the middle of Medicare’s annual open enrollment period, which runs from October 15 throughDecember 7 every year. As individuals and assisters assess their Medicare options for 2024 coverage, it is a goodtime to walk through some significant changes...
