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HomeTRENDING NEWSBiden wants to use Medicaid to address abortion 'crisis.' States aren't biting.

Biden wants to use Medicaid to address abortion ‘crisis.’ States aren’t biting.

The Biden administration is offering the opportunity to use Medicaid to help cover costs for people who cross state borders for abortions.

States aren’t so sure they want to take it.

In the two months since President Joe Biden signed an executive order encouraging states to use the health insurance program to expand abortion access, no state has applied to do so.

POLITICO contacted 24 state Medicaid agencies where abortion is legal and its status is not in jeopardy. Health officials in 10 of those states said they are reviewing the federal government’s proposal and haven’t decided whether to apply. Massachusetts and Minnesota are waiting on additional federal guidance. North Carolina is not pursuing the policy and 11 states did not respond to requests for comment.

States’ reluctance to jump on the administration’s offer is the latest example of how the White House’s ability to mitigate what Biden has repeatedly called a “health care crisis” remains limited absent congressional action.

“There’s no question that part of the challenge here is there are real limits to executive branch authority,” said Andrea Miller, president of the National Institute for Reproductive Health. “They continue to try to find creative solutions, and they also continue to butt up against the limits of their authority, and that’s frustrating for everyone.”

Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, the Biden administration has used a federal law governing emergency medical care to challenge Idaho’s near-total abortion ban, warned pharmacists not to withhold prescription medications just because they can also be used to induce an abortion, and requested that mobile providers share information about their data retention and data privacy policies, among other efforts.

The Idaho House of Representative voted to approve a bill banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy on March 14, 2022, at the Statehouse in Boise, Idaho.

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