logo
Planned Parenthood wins partial victory in legal fight with Trump administration over funding cuts

Planned Parenthood wins partial victory in legal fight with Trump administration over funding cuts

BOSTON (AP) — Planned Parenthood won a partial victory Monday in a legal fight with President Donald Trump's administration over efforts to defund the organization in his signature tax legislation.
A provision in that bill would end Medicaid payments to abortion providers for one year.
But U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston granted a preliminary injunction Monday that, for now, blocks the government from cutting Medicaid payments to
Planned Parenthood
member organizations that either don't provide abortion care or didn't meet a threshold of at least $800,000 in Medicaid reimbursements in a given year.
It wasn't immediately clear how many Planned Parenthood organizations and clinics would continue to get Medicaid reimbursement under that decision and how many might not.
The lawsuit was filed earlier this month against Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. by Planned Parenthood Federation of America and its member organizations in Massachusetts and Utah.
A Planned Parenthood spokesperson said its lawyers were still examining the order and would release a statement shortly.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Health insurance companies have a problem — people are using their plans more
Health insurance companies have a problem — people are using their plans more

Yahoo

time14 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

Health insurance companies have a problem — people are using their plans more

When medical insurance provider Centene (CNC) opened its books to investors on Friday, the company reported a surprising loss and an uptick in usage. The latter is a broader problem for the industry. In the second quarter, Centene reported an adjusted loss of $79 million and a "health benefits ratio" of 93%. Its benefits ratio, or the amount of its revenue derived from premiums that it pays out for medical care, jumped from 87.6% in the same quarter last year. Moves in that figure can have outsized effects on health insurers' financial performance. "Because of the narrow margins of our health plan business, relatively small changes in our HBR can create significant changes in our financial results," Centene wrote in its Q2 earnings report. And the problem is not isolated to Centene. Elevance Health (ELV), which offers plans including Blue Cross and Blue Shield, reported a similar jump in its "benefit expense ratio" to 88.9% in the second quarter, up from 86.3% in the same quarter last year. Both Centene and Elevance attributed the jump especially to their government-subsidized offerings under the Medicaid and Medicare programs. Molina Healthcare (MOH), which reported Q2 earnings earlier this month, reported a similar outlook, attributing its lowered earnings guidance to the same trend facing other medical insurers. "The short-term earnings pressure we are experiencing results from what we believe to be a temporary dislocation between premium rates and medical cost trend which has recently accelerated,' Molina CEO Joseph Zubretsky said in a statement. Elevance stock dropped by roughly 12% after its report earlier this month, while Molina stock dropped by roughly 8%. Both stocks have remained depressed since. Health Care (XLV) is the worst-performing sector in the S&P 500 this year. Centene stock dropped by roughly 15% in premarket trading after its earnings release before recovering to a positive gain of roughly 6% by the closing bell on Friday. The buoy was led by CEO Sarah London's announcement that Centene was reinstating earnings guidance after pulling this forecast earlier in the month. The company also reported revenue of $48.7 billion, which topped estimates for $44.2 billion, and said it expects to be able to raise the payments it gets from states for Medicaid plans, which would improve its margins. UnitedHealth's MCR challenge The premium-to-cost ratio will be closely watched at UnitedHealth Group (UNH), which refers to this measure as its "medical care ratio" (MCR) and is slated to release Q2 earnings next week. After seeing its medical care ratio rise to 85.1% in the second quarter last year, UnitedHealth is expected to see its ratio jump to 89.3% this year, according to Bloomberg consensus estimates. An increase like that would mean tighter margins and less overhead for a company that already slashed its forecast earlier this year. That news sent its stock price down by 22%, its biggest drop in a single day since 1998. "Management noted care activity trends continue to run ahead of its previous expectations driven by a greater than expected impact at UHC from new members, further acceleration of [Medicare Advantage] utilization and indications of potential broadening trend among adjacent, complex populations," Truist Securities analysts wrote in a May analyst note about UnitedHealth. Closely watched by investors and analysts will also be how UnitedHealth leadership addresses its disclosure Thursday morning that the insurer is facing and complying with a criminal and civil investigation by the Department of Justice over potential fraudulent billing practices in the insurer's Medicare Advantage program. The stock dropped 4.7% through Thursday trading after the disclosure. The probe comes after reporting by the Wall Street Journal earlier this year that documented the potentially fraudulent activity by UnitedHealth, among other medical insurers, which included insurers' staff doctors and nurses adding diagnoses to patients' profiles on top of those documented by the patients' doctors. UnitedHealth may have to answer investor inquiries about the investigation on its earnings call on Tuesday, though these are far from the only challenges facing the insurance giant. According to former federal prosecutor Scott Hogan, the DOJ's Medicare probe will be looking to establish a prolonged pattern of wrongdoing by the insurer. "If everything comes back good for the company, if the department [closes its investigation], I think the company will be able to reassure the marketplace," Hogan, who specialized in fraud investigations, told Yahoo Finance on Friday. Even if UnitedHealth is eventually cleared of wrongdoing, he said, "If the investigation takes next steps, whether it's a lawsuit or prolonged investigation, I don't think there are many companies that desire those kinds of headlines." Jake Conley is a breaking news reporter covering US equities for Yahoo Finance. Follow him on X at @byjakeconley or email him at Click here for in-depth analysis of the latest stock market news and events moving stock prices Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data

Trump isn't gutting Medicaid and food stamps. He's fixing our broken welfare system.
Trump isn't gutting Medicaid and food stamps. He's fixing our broken welfare system.

USA Today

time15 minutes ago

  • USA Today

Trump isn't gutting Medicaid and food stamps. He's fixing our broken welfare system.

President Donald Trump has preserved the core of the safety net for the truly vulnerable. He and his fellow Republicans are helping millions of able-bodied adults leave welfare and find work. It's a simple question with an obvious answer: Should Americans work as a condition of receiving welfare? More than two-thirds of Americans respond with a resounding yes. But while the principle of the matter and popular opinion are clear, our country's welfare system has been a muddled mess for decades. The biggest welfare program − Medicaid − has been disconnected from helping its 84.6 million recipients find work. And while the food stamps program technically has work requirements, they're inconsistently enforced for the 42 million people who benefit from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. The result: Tens of millions of people, especially able-bodied adults, have been trapped in government dependency. But they deserve the chance to become self-sufficient. They deserve to fully share in our country's progress. And they deserve to shape that progress while pursuing their own American dream. Trump is fixing broken welfare system That is why President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act is so important. The president and Republicans in Congress have started to fundamentally fix America's broken welfare system. They're finally connecting welfare to work. Your Turn: Medicaid handouts only create dependency. Able-bodied adults should work. | Opinion Forum Unfortunately, many Americans haven't heard this side of the story. They've been told − by virtually every politician on the left as well as a few loud voices on the right − that Trump and his fellow Republicans are gutting the safety net that vulnerable Americans need. Nothing could be further from the truth. In reality, the president has preserved the core of the safety net for the truly vulnerable. He and his fellow Republicans are helping millions of able-bodied adults leave welfare and find work. That's the point of the safety net: to support people who've fallen on hard times, then help them move on to better times. It was never meant to be a hammock. Yet that's what it has become, trapping millions of people in generational dependency. Trump's welfare reforms are righting this wrong. To start, Medicaid now has its first federal work requirement in history. Able-bodied adults without children as well as those without young kids will now be required to work at least part time to keep receiving Medicaid. Will Trump's big bill kill people? Here's the truth about Medicaid cuts. | Opinion That is common sense. Medicaid was created to help the neediest people in society get health care. It wasn't intended to cover healthy adults who are capable of working but choose not to. It's good for them, and all of America, if they find jobs and raise their incomes. The same is true for food stamps. The president and Congress are closing loopholes that have allowed able-bodied adults to avoid work requirements. They've also put states on the financial hook for giving food stamps to those who aren't eligible. These reforms will help millions of people find work and boost their incomes. That's good for them and the rest of society. Work requirements will help people living in poverty Those who criticize these commonsense reforms aren't just missing the point. They're missing something profoundly American. We should want our fellow citizens to find good jobs, earn more income and put themselves on the path to everything from buying a car to buying a home. That's the ticket to a life of fulfillment − to the American dream. But we shouldn't want people to stay on welfare with no strings attached, especially able-bodied adults. We should want them to lead better lives. And we should believe in their incredible potential and innate ability to improve their lives. Opinion alerts: Get columns from your favorite columnists + expert analysis on top issues, delivered straight to your device through the USA TODAY app. Don't have the app? Download it for free from your app store. Trump's welfare reforms are grounded in this deeply American principle. They will move millions of people from welfare to work, transforming lives in powerful ways. Virtually everyone intuitively understands that this is a good thing for everyone, including those on welfare and those of us who pay for it. The real question is why some politicians and pundits think it's bad to empower people on welfare to rise through work. Hayden Dublois is data and analytics director at the Foundation for Government Accountability. You can read diverse opinions from our USA TODAY columnists and other writers on the Opinion front page, on X, formerly Twitter, @usatodayopinion and in our Opinion newsletter.

Yemen's Houthis threaten to escalate attacks on ships linked to companies dealing with Israel
Yemen's Houthis threaten to escalate attacks on ships linked to companies dealing with Israel

The Hill

time15 minutes ago

  • The Hill

Yemen's Houthis threaten to escalate attacks on ships linked to companies dealing with Israel

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — The rebel Houthi group in Yemen has said it will target merchant ships belonging to any company that does business with Israeli ports, regardless of nationality, as part of what it described as the next phase of its operations against Israel. The Iran-backed Houthis launched a campaign targeting merchant vessels in response to the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, saying they were doing so in solidarity with the Palestinian people. Their attacks over the past two years have upended shipping in the Red Sea, through which $1 trillion of goods usually passes each year. In an announcement late Sunday night, the Houthis said they had 'decided to escalate their military support operations and begin implementing the fourth phase of the naval blockade' against Israel. They warned that they would target 'all ships belonging to any company that deals with the ports of the Israeli enemy, regardless of the nationality of that company, and in any location within the reach of our armed forces.' The vessels would be targeted regardless of their destination, they added. The group said countries should pressure Israel to stop the war in Gaza and lift its blockade on the Palestinian territory 'if they want to avoid this escalation.' Earlier this month, the Houthis attacked and sank two Liberian-flagged, Greek-owned bulk carriers – the Magic Seas and the Eternity C. The attack on the latter left four crew members dead and 11 more were taken captive, while all 22 crew members of the Magic Seas were rescued before the ship sank. From November 2023 to December 2024, the Houthis targeted more than 100 ships with missiles and drones. The rebels stopped their attacks during a brief ceasefire in the war and later became the target of an intense, weekslong airstrike campaign ordered by U.S. President Donald Trump. In May, the U.S. announced a deal with the Houthis to end the airstrikes in return for an end to shipping attacks, although the rebel group said the agreement did not include halting attacks on targets it believed were aligned with Israel.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store