Health Affairs: "The Impact Of The Election On Health Policy And The Courts"

The nonpartisan and highly respected journal, Health Affairs, today posted an analysis of some of the more conspicuous (and worrying) changes to the health care scene we might expect to see once Donald Trump's administration is in place. It is, as usual, well worth reading in whole.

The areas that are discussed include:

• the Affordable Care Act (ACA) (primary concern: allowing premium tax credit enhancements to expire entirely after 2025, which could result in 4 million people losing their health insurance coverage; also -- whether by statute, agency regulation, or executive order -- any number of the ACA's protections are at risk)
• Medicaid (during the campaign Trump vowed to leave Social Security and Medicare alone; "experts noted that Medicaid was conspicuously absent from the conversation")
• reproductive health care (abortion, LGBTQ nondiscrimination, reviving the Comstock Act, changing the Administration's position in state and federal lawsuits)
• nondiscrimination and health equity ("Health care is a civil rights issue. . . . Anti-discrimination protections in health are also likely to suffer major blows going forward."
• Medicare Drug Negotiation Program (hard to believe that a program that will save the government and citizens billions will be watered down, but Big Pharma has hated this law from the beginning and it has some attentive allies in the new administration)
• public health (RFK, Jr. -- need I say more? He was named as Trump's nominee for Secretary of HHS; the mind reels)
• the courts (Yup. From the Supreme Court on down, expect change)

The end. (Take that any way you want.)

SCOTUS Grants Review in Transgender-Care Case for OT 2024

Amy Howe at SCOTUSBlog summarized the Court's action succinctly:

The justices on Monday agreed to take up a challenge to a Tennessee law that bans gender-affirming care for transgender minors. The law bars treatments such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy for transgender patients under 18. The court will hear arguments in the case in the fall, with a decision likely by next summer.

This will be all over the news tonight and in tomorrow's morning papers, so I will keep this post brief. I'm sure there will be more posts to follow over the next twelve  months. As pointed out in the Solicitor General's petition for review, "Although [transgender] care has been provided to adolescents for decades, in the last three years eighteen other States have adopted categorical bans like Tennessee’s. . . . Two additional States have adopted bans with very limited exceptions." (Petition at p. 3, text and n.1) Beyond the sheer numbers, limitations and prohibitions on transgender care has become a flashpoint in the current culture wars in this country.  

1. The case: United States v. Skrmetti, Docket No. 23-477 (order list for June 24, 2024)
• The decision below: L.W. v. Skrmetti, 83 F.4th 460 (6th Cir., Sept. 28, 2023) (PDF) -- reversing preliminary injunctions in two cases -- one from Kentucky and the other from Tennessee; the constitutionality of only the Tennessee statute is before the Supreme Court)
• Question presented: "Whether Tennessee Senate Bill 1 (SB1), which prohibits all medical treatments intended to allow “a minor to identify with, or live as, a purported identity inconsistent with the minor’s sex” or to treat “purported discomfort or distress from a discordance between the  minor’s sex and asserted identity,” Tenn. Code Ann.  § 68-33-103(a)(1), violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment."
2. The statute:
• The Tennessee statute: “Prohibition on Medical Procedures Performed on Minors Related to Sexual Identity," (codified at Tenn. Code Ann. § 68-33-101 et seq.)
• The Kentucky statute (not included in the issue presented (and accepted) for review): "An Act Relating to Children," 2023 Ky. Acts 775 (codified at Ky. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 311.372)