Health Equity blog

The National Health Law Program (NHeLP) is hosting several webinars this summer, including one on July 24, that will provide an overview of immigrants’ rights to access health care (register here). This webinar will include resources to help determine immigrant eligibility for Medicaid and other health programs. NHeLP also previously hosted webinars on other topics related to health care (available here), including a webinar on health equity with a particular focus on social determinants of health and their relevance to Medicaid and other safety net programs (recording and slides are available here).

In a June 9 letter addressed to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Jay Bhattacharya, numerous current and former NIH staff expressed sharp criticism of the Trump Administration’s actions this year regarding NIH that included terminating over 1,000 employees, as well as halting hundreds of grants to fund biomedical and other scientific research. The letter warns of the dire consequences these measures will have on the future of public health in both the U.S. and across the globe and calls for NIH to honors its commitment to academic freedom, quoting the NIH Director’s promise to “establish a culture of respect for free speech in science and scientific dissent at the NIH”. Subsequently, on June 16, a federal judge ordered NIH to restore certain grants the agency previously terminated, many of which focused on addressing health disparities among racial minorities, the LGBTQ+ community, and women.

On June 3, California’s Department of Health Care Services issued its annual report that highlights how all 12 of its Community Supports studied have addressed needs of Medi- Cal beneficiaries while reducing costs and improving efficiencies. These Community Supports were approved as part of the 1915(b) CalAIM waiver and were phased in by Medi-Cal managed care plans starting in 2022. The Community Supports services include such efforts as supporting in-home care, providing nourishing meals, and fostering housing stability, with an end goal of helping Medi-Cal patients avoid costlier hospital or emergency care.

Samoa’s National Action Plan for Health Security (NAPHS) was established in cooperation with the World Health Organization (WHO). It provides a national roadmap that sets priorities and outlines the steps required to strengthen the island nation’s ability to prevent, detect, and respond to public health threats, such as experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic. The NAPHS will promote collaboration across sectors and communities, solidifying priorities to better understand where to allocate resources.

Nine health professional organizations, including the Washington State Medical Association, filed a federal lawsuit in Washington on May 20 to stop the federal government from deleting crucial public health data and to restore deleted websites, including information that was made publicly available on HHS’s and its affiliated agencies’ websites. The targeted data includes information related to pregnancy risks, public health datasets, and information about opioid-use disorder. The plaintiffs claim that this data is imperative for physicians, nurses, and other health care professionals to make informed clinical evidence-based decisions in providing care, as well as by public health officials and scientific researchers. The complaint alleges that the Trump administration’s actions are “arbitrary, capricious and unreasoned.”

On May 1, HHS released its Treatment for Pediatric Gender Dysphoria: Review of Evidence and Best Practices, concluding “that many U.S. medical professionals and associations have fallen short of their duty to prioritize the health interests of young patients” in treating minors with gender dysphoria. In response, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) and the US Professional Association for Transgender Health (USPATH) issued a critique of the report the very next day. In particular, WPATH emphasizes the need for ongoing research into outcomes for transgender children alongside with making developmentally appropriate clinical services available. WPATH posits that ceasing research funding and blocking gender affirming interventions are a threat to the health and dignity of transgender children. This Report is one of many actions various federal agencies have taken related to gender-affirming care for minors. For instance, on April 22, 2025, Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a memorandum directing the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate providers of gender-affirming care to minors. (See our discussion of the Memo here.) Following the release of the Gender Dysphoria Report, HHS sent a letter to health care providers, risk managers, and medical boards noting HHS’ expectation that providers would review the Gender Dysphoria Report and “make the necessary updates to … treatment protocols and training…,” while CMS sent letters to “select hospitals” requesting information on “medical interventions for gender dysphonia in children.”

A newly issued report from the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission, spearheaded by Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F Kennedy, Jr., points to such factors as poor diet, accumulation of environmental toxins, low physical activity, chronic stress, and overmedicalization as contributing to chronic diseases plaguing children in the United States. At its core, the Commission emphasizes the need for adequate access to nutritious and uncontaminated food. The Commission’s next step is to produce the Make Our Children Healthy Again Strategy by August of this year, based upon the findings from the Assessment. Following its release, there have been reports that the MAHA Report included several false citations. The MAHA Report was subsequently updated to correct several citations but there are allegations that the updated MAHA Report still contains errors.

In FY 2016, the Tenth Revision to the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems introduced Z codes to document social determinants of health (SDOH) among patients seeking care. Based upon a study of commercial claims processed from 2016 to 2022 and published in the May 2025 edition of Health Affairs, it is clear that the codes are not used with any consistency across patient demographics and adoption of Z codes in general continues lagging.

On May 22, the House of Representatives narrowly passed its budget reconciliation legislation seeking to extend tax cuts and other parts of the Administration’s agenda while significantly cutting government spending on other programs, specifically Medicaid. Medicaid provisions in the bill include new work requirements, limiting states’ use of the provider tax under the Medicaid program, increasing Medicaid eligibility verification and reducing the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) for Medicaid Expansion states who use their program to provide health care for undocumented immigrants, among other things. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that the House bill would reduce Medicaid spending by $625 billion and that 7.6 million people in the United States will lose health insurance by 2034. While Senate Republican leadership has made a goal of passing its version of legislation by July 4, there are already Republican challenges to the House-passed bill as well as Senate parliamentary requirements that could significantly alter provisions.

A newly issued report from the Center for Healthcare Quality & Payment Reform (CHQPR) claims that, just since 2020, over 100 rural hospitals have stopped delivering babies or will by the end of this year. Moreover, a mere 42% of all rural hospitals still offer labor and delivery services. These figures are daunting for pregnant women because the implications include longer commutes to find a hospital that provides these vital services, which can be life-threatening for medically complicated pregnancies. The CHQPR report does, however, outline possible actions that can be taken to curb this alarming trend.