SCOTUS to hear ObamaCare free care case
Experts say a Supreme Court case set for Monday puts that free care guarantee at risk.
ObamaCare requires insurers to cover, without cost-sharing, more than 100 preventive health services recommended by an outside panel of experts called the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF).
The requirement extends coverage of evidence-based preventive services such as cancer screening, tobacco cessation, contraception and immunizations, without cost-sharing, to more than 150 million people each year.
Without the requirement, health plans and employers can pick and choose which preventive services they cover. Cost-sharing will likely deter patients — particularly those of limited means — from scheduling those procedures.
'We know that if costs are reintroduced, people just don't seek care,' said Eric Waskowicz, senior state policy manager at the advocacy group United States of Care. 'And so I think we all have an interest in keeping no cost preventive care in place.'
The Supreme Court is expected to rule on the case in June.
'The minute that provision gets struck down … we will be back at the mercy of the insurance companies. They'll still get the same premium from you, but they'll offer less services,' said Leslie Dach, executive chair of the Democratic-aligned group Protect Our Care.
The lawsuit began in 2022 when a group of conservative Texas employers and individuals challenged the coverage requirement, arguing the task force's members are not appointed by the president or confirmed by the Senate, yet its recommendations are binding.
Initially, a district court judge agreed with the plaintiffs and invalidated the entire task force. Last year, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the employers but limited the decision to just the eight Texas companies involved in the case, rather than nationwide.
The Biden administration appealed. Then, in a surprising move, the Trump administration earlier this year said it will continue to defend the law.
But some legal experts said the arguments being presented by the Justice Department indicate a desire to give Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. substantial control over an independent government task force.
The administration argues the HHS secretary has the ultimate say over both the recommendations and the individual members of the panel, meaning he can dismiss members or block recommendations he does not agree with.
Even if the court upholds the task force's constitutionality, 'the question will then be, will HHS follow the science and uphold the USPSTF recommendations, or will it take a different course? And that, obviously, is something that everyone will be watching very carefully,' said Andrew Pincus, a partner at Mayer Brown LLP.
Pincus filed a brief on behalf of the American Public Health Association, which argued that invalidating the mandate could increase the cost of preventive care and the cost of health care overall, as patients would delay treatment for preventable diseases and emergencies.
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Yahoo
14 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Clarifying claims about Missouri schools asking students for menstrual cycle information
In mid-2025, social media users alleged that Missouri schools were requesting students' menstrual cycle histories. The claim appeared to originate from Democratic state Rep. Elizabeth Fuchs, who said during a YouTube interview that in a "casual conversation" an acquaintance expressed surprise that their child's high school band registration form included a request for the child's menstrual cycle history. At least one Missouri high school did ask students about their menstrual cycle histories. However, the school, Southern Boone High School in Ashland, Missouri, said the inclusion of the questions was a mistake by a third-party contractor, Ohio-based FinalForms, which helps coordinate some — but not all — Missouri school activity forms. The Missouri State High School Activities Association acknowledged that its set of registration forms distributed to schools in 2025 included menstrual cycle history questions, but said that section was solely intended for primary care providers as guidance for physical exams. According to the association, schools are not supposed to collect that information, but only a section pertaining to medical eligibility to participate in activities. In the case of Southern Boone, the association said the website FinalForms set up for the collection of student medical eligibility form information accidentally included the primary care provider section. FinalForms did not admit fault, but said in a statement that the company does not create or mandate form content and that "sensitive medical data" is controlled by school administrations, not FinalForms. In mid-2025, a rumor spread online that Missouri schools were requesting students' menstrual cycle histories. Allegations circulated on platforms like TikTok, YouTube, Threads and Facebook. Some claims specifically said a Missouri high school band program asked female students for menstrual cycle data. Snopes readers also searched our website for information on Missouri schools or the aforementioned band program "asking," "tracking" or "requiring" menstrual cycle information from students. It is true that at least one Missouri high school, Southern Boone High School in Ashland, Missouri, asked students for menstrual cycle information in an online set of activity registration questions in 2025. However, both Southern Boone and the Missouri State High School Activities Association, the state's governing body for high school activities, said the request for menstrual cycle history was included on these forms due to a mistake on the part of FinalForms, a third-party contractor based in Ohio that provides some, but not all, Missouri schools with websites for coordinating activity registration and other data. In a statement shared in a LinkedIn message, a spokesperson for FinalForms did not acknowledge any mistakes and said the company does not mandate or create form content. MSHSAA's director, Jennifer Rukstad, told Snopes in an email that although the association's official set of registration forms includes questions about menstrual cycles, those questions — and the pages they are on — are meant as guidance for a primary care provider's physical exam and schools are not supposed to collect answers to them. It was unclear how widespread this issue was, as Rukstad said MSHSAA only knew of one school that provided an erroneous form. As such, we are not providing a rating to this claim. Snopes previously confirmed that Florida's high school athletics association voted to recommend that schools require student athletes to turn in their menstrual histories. The claim appeared to first circulate widely through a June 2 TikTok video by Missouri resident Suzie Wilson. In the video, which had nearly 120,000 views as of this writing, Wilson said the issue "was brought to my attention" by Democratic state Rep. Elizabeth Fuchs. Fuchs told Snopes via a phone call that she first heard about these allegations in a "very casual conversation with an acquaintance." That acquaintance, a parent at an unidentified Missouri school, did not wish to be named; Fuchs declined to name them or the school to respect that wish. Fuchs said her acquaintance was "taken aback" that the form for high school band registration asked for information about their child's menstrual cycle. The Missouri representative later mentioned this conversation in an interview with progressive news content creator Jeremiah Patterson, who then claimed on May 31 that a Missouri high school band program "is requiring students to hand over menstruation information." "He kept saying 'required, required,'" Fuchs said. "I corrected that in part two of the interview. The parent I talked to said she did not fill out that part of the form and was still able to submit it." Patterson said via email that his main source on the story was Wilson, who told him an unnamed parent said students must fill out "some sort of response" for the menstrual cycle disclosure question. Wilson shared the same information in a phone call with Snopes. Wilson also clarified to Snopes that she heard about the issue from Fuchs' interview with the Patterson show, not from a direct conversation with Fuchs. Wilson posted her initial video about the issue on June 2, which led parents to reach out to her on TikTok, she said. Based on the parents' comments, Wilson alleged in her second, more popular video that at least two Missouri schools used a form that requests menstruation information: Southern Boone and Lee's Summit High School, which is located in a suburb of Kansas City, Missouri. Wilson also told Snopes she heard from the wife of a school official at Rolla Public Schools, around 80 miles south of the Southern Boone district, that their district used the same form. A screenshot of Southern Boone's form, which Wilson provided, showed questions asking students when their first period happened, when their most recent period was and the frequency of their periods. "My big thing is for our girls just to say no," Wilson said. "Don't fill that form out." A spokesperson for the Southern Boone County R-1 School District, Matt Sharp, confirmed in an email that the district's online activity registration form included questions about menstruation history but said it was an error FinalForms made. "Questions related to menstrual cycle history are not required and should not have appeared on our activity registration forms," Sharp said, adding: "As soon as the school district became aware of the issue, we worked quickly with FinalForms to have it corrected and the unnecessary questions removed." The MSHSAA — the state's governing body for high school activities — also said the issue came from FinalForms. The official MSHSAA registration set of forms for physical activities does have questions about menstrual cycle history, but those questions are part of the "Medical History Form" meant only for the family and the student's primary care provider, said Rukstad, the association's director. Schools are not supposed to collect the first three pages of the set of forms, Rukstad said; in fact, the forms specify as much. Schools, Rukstad said, are only required to collect the last page of the MSHSAA "Preparticipation Physical Forms": the "Medical Eligibility Form" (see Page 5). That page must be completed by a primary care provider to indicate that they conducted a physical exam and the student is medically eligible to participate in activities. Rukstad said that the Medical Eligibility Form "contains no specific medical information," and Sharp specified that it does not include questions about menstrual cycle history. According to Rukstad, the website FinalForms designed to collect the medical eligibility information at Southern Boone "included the questions from pages 1 and 2 from the pre-participation physical form." "As soon as we were alerted about it, we contacted the school and Final Forms, and the error was collected a few hours later," Rukstad said. "Additionally, we sent a message to all our member schools reminding them of the process, and Final Forms sent a message to their customers in Missouri doing the same." Rukstad said that aside from Southern Boone, she was unaware of any other schools affected by the same error, but added that "if there were others," she trusted that FinalForms fixed the issue. (MSHSAA, Rukstad said, does not have a business relationship with FinalForms.) "The simple answers to your questions are, no, all high schools are not required to use Final Forms, and NO student in Missouri is required to release information regarding their menstrual cycle in order to participate in extracurricular activities," Rukstad said. A spokesperson for Rolla Public Schools, Gina Zervos, said the school uses the MSHSAA set of forms but only collects the last page, as required. "The remaining pages are used and retained by the signing physician," Zervos said, adding that the school does not use FinalForms in any capacity. Lee's Summit High School did not immediately return a request for comment. According to a representative for FinalForms, on June 3 the company sent "all Missouri customers" a statement regarding "recent questions and concerns regarding the inclusion of certain medical questions — specifically those related to the menstrual cycle — on forms used by your school or district." FinalForms did not directly acknowledge any mistake on the company's part in the statement. The company also did not return additional questions asking them to rebut or corroborate the statements from Southern Boone and MSHSAA. The statement, which a representative for the company sent to Snopes on June 11 via LinkedIn, said, "We do not create or mandate form content" and "Instead, we implement the exact forms and fields that your school or district requests — many of which are modeled after standardized state forms, such as the MSHSAA Pre-Participation Physical Evaluation," or PPE. (The PPE form is on Page 3 of the full set of registration forms from MSHSAA.) The statement also noted that schools may request to remove medical questions from FinalForms and the company "will promptly update your site to reflect" a district's decisions. Furthermore, "sensitive medical data" is controlled by the district's administration and permissions would be "granted solely by authorized school district personnel based on staff roles and responsibilities." "Band directors, coaches, or activity leaders do not have access to detailed medical data collected on the MSHSAA PPE Physical Questions form such as menstrual cycle responses," FinalForms' statement said. "We recognize and take seriously the responsibility of protecting student privacy and empowering local control over data collection practices." However, Fuchs and Wilson remained skeptical that nobody had collected the data; Fuchs pointed to a 2019 story wherein the Missouri state health director at the time testified to keeping a spreadsheet of women's periods to help identify failed abortions. "This terrifies me that we have our children's names and menstrual start dates in data somewhere. There seems to be some real discrepancy on who owns it, who might have access to it," Fuchs said, adding that her office was looking into "how, legislatively, we're able to amend this." To summarize: The Missouri State High School Activities Association's physical form does include menstrual cycle history questions, but schools within the association are not supposed to ask students for that information — that part of the form is meant as guidance for primary care providers performing physical exams on students. At least one Missouri school contracted with a third-party company, FinalForms, which the school said erroneously included those menstrual cycle history questions on the activity registration website the company built for the school. It was unclear how many other schools may have had similar situations. "FinalForms." Accessed 11 June 2025. "FinalForms." FinalForms, Southern Boone School District, Accessed 11 June 2025. Missouri State High School Activities Association. MSHSAA Preparticipation Physical Forms/Procedure. Apr. 2023, Accessed 11 June 2025. "Representative Elizabeth Fuchs." Accessed 11 June 2025. "Southern Boone High School." Accessed 11 June 2025. "Southern Boone School District." Accessed 11 June 2025. Wilson, Suzie. Menstrual Cycle Form. Accessed 11 June 2025.
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
Axelrod on RFK Jr.'s vaccine moves: ‘Genuine catastrophe in the making'
Democratic political strategist David Axelrod on Friday condemned changes Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made to a key vaccine advisory committee. Kennedy earlier this week fired all 17 members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and replaced them with eight of his own picks, a significant downsizing for the independent, expert panel that provides guidance on vaccine recommendations. Some of the eight are known for spreading vaccine misinformation. 'This is a genuine catastrophe in the making,' Axelrod said in a post on the social platform X. 'Vaccines have eradicated diseases that ravaged mankind since the beginning of recorded history. Now one twisted ideologue in a position of power threatens to take us backward. God help us all!' he added. Kennedy has lauded the new ACIP appointees as a team of educated and capable advisers. 'The slate includes highly credentialed scientists, leading public-health experts, and some of America's most accomplished physicians. All of these individuals are committed to evidence-based medicine, gold-standard science, and common sense,' he wrote in a post on X. The new members are set to meet June 25 to discuss the COVID-19 vaccine in addition to reviewing safety and efficacy data for the current immunization schedule. Kennedy has frequently promoted vaccine misinformation prior to taking on his Cabinet role and recently ended the CDC's recommendation that pregnant people and healthy children receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Critics have railed against the secretary for rushing to usher in a new standard for vaccines post-pandemic amid a nationwide measles outbreak. 'These actions collectively restrict access to a vital tool for saving lives and undermine confidence in our health systems,' former Surgeon General Jerome Adams, who served in the Trump administration from 2017-21, wrote in an op-ed published by Time. 'The major flaw in the new vaccine framework is its narrow assessment of risk. Although the immediate dangers of COVID-19 have lessened, it remains a leading cause of death and hospitalization, claiming nearly 50,000 lives in the U.S. in 2024 — more than breast cancer or car accidents,' he added. Kennedy himself said his views on vaccines were 'irrelevant' while testifying at a House Appropriations Committee hearing on May 14. 'I don't want to seem like I'm being evasive, but I don't think people should be taking medical advice from me,' he told lawmakers, after being asked whether he would vaccinate his own children today against measles. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
USA Today
5 hours ago
- USA Today
LGBTQ+ health centers lead fight against mpox and stigma nationwide
Matt Alderton Studio Gannett The date was May 17, 2022. It was more than two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, and Americans everywhere were epidemiologically exhausted. In Massachusetts, however, public health officials had just clocked the first case in a brand-new infectious disease outbreak. The pathogen now known as mpox was first documented in monkeys in 1958. Caused by a virus similar to the smallpox virus, it causes flu-like symptoms; a painful, pustulous rash; and, in the rarest cases, death. When the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) declared mpox a public health emergency in August 2022, there were more than 10,000 documented cases in the United States — mostly in the LGBTQ+ community, where the virus had spread rapidly through sexual transmission. Cases slowly declined from there, however, and by January 2023 the threat had mostly faded. Credit for the containment belongs not only to the LGBTQ+ individuals who embraced safer sex practices and stood in blocks-long lines for vaccines, but also to the doctors and nurses at community health centers who delivered critical care and education tailored to at-risk patients. 'LGBTQ+ clinics and community centers were the first to respond and set up very quickly and very efficiently not only information for our community to keep us safe, but also vaccine programs,' says Alex Sheldon , executive director of GLMA, previously known as the Gay & Lesbian Medical Association. 'The (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) had raised huge alarm bells about where this was going to go, and that it was going to spread even further into the general population. But because of the quick and efficient responses of these clinics and community centers, and because of the trust they already had with community members, they were able to respond so quickly that it for the most part stopped mpox in its tracks.' Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle. The rapid, responsive care that LGBTQ+ community health centers provided during mpox is the same care they provided during COVID-19 and the HIV/AIDS crisis decades prior. More important, it's the same care they provide daily to LGBTQ+ individuals who need routine services like primary and preventive care, screening for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and mental health counseling. 'Many LGBTQ+ clinics were started by LGBTQ+ providers who had a stake in their community's wellbeing. So, they developed health care settings that were designed around their own needs,' Sheldon says. 'These places center our community within every single part of what they do.' Unique Health Needs Because LGBTQ+ people have unique health care needs, it's critical that health care systems are tailored to those needs. 'LGBTQ+ people … experience a lot of health disparities, and the vast majority of those health disparities are driven by the pronounced stigma and discrimination that LGBTQ+ people face in our everyday lives,' explains Sheldon, who says stigma creates stress that can impact both mental and physical health. 'Navigating a world that isn't built for you because it's designed around cisgender and heterosexual experiences —who your partner is, what you do on the weekends, how you built your family — can be a really challenging way to live.' LGBTQ+ people who have experienced discrimination often go out of their way to avoid it in the future, which might mean delaying health care or opting out of it entirely to evade providers with whom they don't feel seen or safe. 'The longer you delay getting health care … the more likely you are to have adverse health outcomes because of that delayed care,' Sheldon says. Therein lies the merit of community health centers, says Dr. Stephen Abbott , medical site director of the Max Robinson Center at Whitman-Walker, a nonprofit community health system serving LGBTQ+ patients in Washington, D.C. 'Often, issues surrounding an individual's care don't get disclosed if somebody doesn't feel comfortable in the environment where they're seeking care,' Abbott says. 'If you go into a waiting room and there's nobody there affirming your pronouns, or they make certain assumptions about who your partner is, or they can't take a decent sexual history, or they don't know how to do an appropriate mental health screening that's informed by traumatic experiences in your past, then you're not going to get appropriate care.' Community health centers make LGBTQ+ patients comfortable by fostering inclusion in every respect — having gender-neutral intake forms, hiring medical and administrative staff from the community, offering LGBTQ+ periodicals in waiting rooms and depicting LGBTQ+ individuals on websites and in patient literature, all of which foster trust so that patients are more likely to show up for appointments, seek preventative care and adhere to medical advice and guidelines. 'Community health centers that have historically served the LGBTQ+ community have demonstrated the ability to look past a person's sexual or gender identity and see them as a whole person,' says Dr. Travis Gayles , CEO of Howard Brown Health, a nonprofit community health system serving LGBTQ+ patients in Chicago. 'And when you're seeing the whole person, you can gain new perspectives and insights, ask appropriate questions, offer appropriate treatment and, ultimately, create better health outcomes.' Community health centers like Whitman-Walker and Howard Brown are particularly proud of the care they provide for individuals with HIV; preventative services like pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and Doxycycline post-exposure prophylaxis (Doxy PEP) for HIV and STI prevention, respectively; and their provision of gender-affirming care to individuals who are trans and nonbinary. To measure their success, however, they rely as much on social and emotional metrics as clinical ones. Holistic Care 'There are folks who have come to us for mpox, for HIV treatment or for gender-affirming care who have moments of pure joy and gratitude that you can't measure with the resolution of a rash, a viral load or even completion of a transition,' Abbott says. Gayles concurs. 'Yes, we look at clinical outcomes. But what's also important is empowering patients with stable housing, academic opportunities and employment opportunities. … When you're going to a health center like ours that understands all those (social determinants of health), it increases the likelihood that you're going to be connected in a meaningful way to those services.' 'We'll Get Through This' Both the LGBTQ+ community and the health centers that serve it are experiencing significant challenges, according to Sheldon, who notes that the Trump administration budget proposes significant reductions in funding and support for sexual and gender minorities. HHS, for example, has closed its Office of Minority Health; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is considering closing its Division of HIV Prevention; the National Institutes of Health has terminated more than 270 grants focused on LGBTQ+ health research, worth at least $800 million; and Congress is mulling significant cuts to Medicaid, on which many community health centers rely. 'Our health systems are under attack, but … I remain incredibly optimistic,' Sheldon says. 'When (governments) say we are invisible or worthy of erasure, we have always risen to the occasion by caring for ourselves and each other … We are once again rising to the occasion and will not back down.' Utilizing community health centers for services, donating to them, and singing their praises to philanthropists and policymakers can help fuel the fight, Abbott adds. 'We're going to be here no matter what,' he says. 'We'll get through this.'
