HEALTHCARE/MEDICAID/PLANNED PARENTHOOD/SUPREME COURT/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The Trump administration is on a losing streak in court cases challenging its efforts to abruptly change health care policy, but the naming of a new Supreme Court justice could alter the trajectory on some of the most controversial cases, from funding Planned Parenthood to mandating contraceptive coverage. The cases that the administration has lost have had a common theme: Federal judges have found that the administration cut corners in trying to advance its political priorities. Most recently, a federal district judge said the administration had acted unlawfully in approving work requirements for the state Medicaid program in Kentucky. Before that, two federal courts blocked Trump administration rules that would have allowed employers who provide health insurance to employees to omit contraceptive coverage if the employers had moral or religious objections. Two federal judges, in separate cases, said the administration had violated the law by adopting the rules without a public comment period, which the Trump administration had declared ‘impracticable and contrary to the public interest.’”
-Robert Pear, “A Fatal Flaw as Trump Tries to Remake Health Care: Shortcuts,” The New York Times online, July 7, 2018