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Texas bars abortion providers from Medicaid, endangering federal money

Texas is barring abortion providers from the state's Medicaid program in defiance of the federal government, sparking a showdown that could close the state's Women's Health Program.

24 Feb 2012

First Edition: February 24, 2012

Today's headlines include reports detailing what becomes of the deficit -- particularly at this time of rising Medicare costs for the aging population -- under the plans being advanced by the GOP presidential candidates.

24 Feb 2012

Va. lawmakers backdown from requiring invasive, pre-abortion ultrasound

Virginia lawmakers backed off a proposal Wednesday to require women seeking abortions get an transvaginal ultrasound after Gov. Bob McDonnell said he wouldn't support it. Virginia House lawmakers instead approved an amended bill requiring only an external ultrasound.

24 Feb 2012

Health issues create political flashpoints during GOP presidential primary debate

GOP candidates sparred during last night's face-off over a range of issues including the Massachusetts health law that Mitt Romney signed while that state's governor, family planning and contraception, and abortion.

24 Feb 2012

Ga. vasectomy bill goes viral

A Democratic lawmaker has proposed denying men vasectomies as a parody of a Republican bill that would prohibit abortions for women more than 20 weeks pregnant. Elsewhere, a Wisconsin bill would require physicians to give women a physical exam and be present when giving abortion-inducing drugs.

24 Feb 2012

Washington state law requiring pharmacies stock emergency contraception is struck down

A federal judged ruled Wednesday that Washington can't require pharmacists to carry and give patients emergency contraception. Other cases included a whether a lesbian couple can share health benefits and challenge to a Mass. law on abortion buffer zones.

24 Feb 2012

Viewpoints: A missing contraception question, Obama's budget blind spot, NEJM on Medicare Advantage

David Brooks and Gail Collins discuss the surprising role debates over contraception, abortion and unwed mothers have played so far in the campaign.

23 Feb 2012

First Edition: February 23, 2012

Today's headlines include coverage of the health policy flashpoints during last night's GOP presidential primary debate.

23 Feb 2012

State lawmakers take up contraception coverage, abortion fights

States are taking up the fight over the Obama administration's contraception coverage mandate with several state legislatures proposing bills of their own to block the mandate. In the meantime, Virginia mulls a bill that would require women to get a sonogram before an abortion, and a federal judge is set to rule on requiring pharmacists there to carry emergency contraception.

23 Feb 2012

Birth control mandate, abortion draw lines in presidential debate

Democrats successfully shifted a debate over religious liberty to birth control last week, but opponents of the contraception mandate are trying to shift it right back. The political debate over the birth-control mandate in the health care law is largely a fight over how to frame the issue.

23 Feb 2012

First Edition: February 22, 2012

In today's health policy headlines, the Supreme Court added 30 minutes to the time allocation for next month's health law arguments. Also in the news, the federal government announced funding awards yesterday to help launch consumer-governed health plans in eight states.

22 Feb 2012

Obama contraceptive rule reverberates through health care marketplace

Before the federal rule was advanced, the policies put in place by various states allowed employers room to manuever, The Washington Post reports. Meanwhile, the insurance industry fears it may be left holding the bag for this requirement, and the New York Times explores the market share of Catholic hospitals.

22 Feb 2012

State roundup: Calif. expands uninsured access, gives adult day care reprieve

Nearly two years before the federal health reform law kicks in, 10 California counties have expanded medical coverage to more than 250,000 people who were previously uninsured, according to new state data.

22 Feb 2012

Nebraska readies for exchange debate

Nebraska's state legislature is set to debate formation of a health insurance exchange as other states introduce measures that would extend exemptions on a controversial contraception rule in health reform to secular insurers and businesses, if they so choose.

22 Feb 2012

First Edition: February 21, 2012

Today's health policy headlines include reports about how the Supreme Court's consideration of the health law could prolong the fight over the sweeping measure.

21 Feb 2012

Obama campaign pushes back against Santorum attack on prenatal testing

Campaigning in Ohio on Saturday, Rick Santorum displayed his culture-warrior side in full force ... He lambasted the president's health care law requiring insurance policies to include free prenatal testing, "because free prenatal testing ends up in more abortions and therefore less care that has to be done because we cull the ranks of the disabled in our society".

21 Feb 2012

With contraception issue, Santorum highlights conservative credentials

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), argued this morning on NBC's Meet the Press program that Obama's desire to have most religious hospitals provide birth control coverage to employees is "not an issue about contraception." ... But Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) sharply disagreed, accusing Republicans of harping on "red-meat social issues that rile up their base."

20 Feb 2012

Contraception fight heads to state legislatures, federal court

Republican lawmakers in a handful of states are opening another front in the war against President Obama's health care overhaul, seizing on the hot-button issue of birth control with bills that would allow insurance companies to ignore new federal rules requiring them to cover contraception. Measures introduced recently in Idaho, Missouri and Arizona would go beyond religious nonprofits and expand exemptions to secular insurers or businesses that object to covering contraception, abortion and sterilization.

19 Feb 2012

Catholic bishops call birth control compromise 'simply unworkable'

A wealthy backer of GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum apologizes for aspirin-as-birth control "joke," a day after female lawmakers stage walkout from a GOP-led committee hearing after no women were allowed to testify for the contraception mandate.

18 Feb 2012

Viewpoints: The constitution and birth control; War on Wyden

Give him points for cleverness. President Obama's birth control "accommodation" was as politically successful as it was morally meaningless. It was nothing but an accounting trick that still forces Catholic (and other religious) institutions to provide medical insurance that guarantees free birth control, tubal ligation and morning-after abortifacients - all of which violate church doctrine on the sanctity of life.

18 Feb 2012