The Ohio Academy of Family Physicians (OAFP) advocacy team monitors healthcare related legislation, rule changes, and legislative updates for Ohio’s family physicians.
To access the OAFP Bill Tracker, visit the OAFP Public Policy webpage and click on the Bill Tracker icon.
Read on for this week’s updates and contact Advocacy Coordinator Kaela Springhetti with questions or for ways to get involved.
AAFP Speak Out Opportunity
Source: The American Academy of Family Physicians
The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) is asking members to join its efforts in restoring the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) premium tax credits.
Access to affordable health coverage is essential to delivering high-quality, continuous care. For years, the ACA’s enhanced Advanced Premium Tax Credits (APTCs) helped millions of Americans maintain health coverage they otherwise could not afford.
Unfortunately, Congress let these enhanced premium tax credits expire at the end of 2025.
As a result, many patients are now facing significantly higher premiums, losing coverage, or being forced to delay or forgo needed care. These coverage disruptions harm patients’ health, increase uncompensated care, and place additional strain on family physicians and the broader healthcare system.
Congress still has time to act. The AAFP is urging Congress to act immediately to restore the enhanced ACA premium tax credits and protect access to affordable health coverage for patients nationwide.
Please take two minutes to participate in this Speak Out. Together, we can ensure a stronger healthcare system for all. Thank you for your commitment to protecting our physicians and improving patient care.
AAFP Joins Letter to CDC with Concerns Regarding Recent Decisions Related to Childhood Immunization Policy
Source: American Academy of Family Physicians
In response to the recent policy change on the U.S. childhood immunization schedule, the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases led a joint letter to the Acting Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Assistant Secretary for Health. The American Academy of Family Physicians joined more than 70 scientific and medical organizations on the letter which requests the reaffirmation of the organizations’ commitment to a transparent, evidence-based immunization policy process that protects the health of US children.
Read the full letter from the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases and urge your members of Congress to defend science-based vaccine policy and reject actions that threaten public health.
U.S. House Passes Bipartisan Bill to Reinstate Enhanced ACA Tax Credits
Source: Health Policy Institute of Ohio
The U.S. House passed legislation recently to revive and extend expired Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace tax credits in a bipartisan vote.
Seventeen centrist Republicans crossed the aisle to join every voting Democrat in support of the measure, with a final vote of 230 to 196.
The measure, which would provide a three-year extension to the enhanced marketplace subsidies that originally passed in response to COVID-19, now heads to the Senate, which defeated the same proposal last month in a largely partisan vote.
Negotiators from both parties in the Senate, who revived compromise talks in response to centrist Republicans forcing the vote in the House, have said they are close to a deal to bring back the tax credits, which expired at the end of 2025, and extend the open enrollment period.
Ohio Appeals Court Sends Lawsuit Related to Abortion Ban Back to Trial Court
Source: Ohio Capital Journal
An Ohio appeals court has rejected efforts to completely undo the state law that includes Ohio’s six-week abortion ban, but left untouched the ruling that struck down the ban itself following voter passage of a constitutional amendment protecting reproductive rights.
In a recent ruling from the Ohio First District Court of Appeals, a lawsuit over the 2019 Ohio Senate Bill 23 law, which created the state’s near-total abortion ban with no exceptions for rape or incest among other provisions, was sent back to a trial court.
The trial court had previously rejected both the law’s abortion ban after six weeks’ gestation and the other provisions related to abortion care that were passed along with it.
The appellate court judges said the unconstitutionality of the abortion ban was not in dispute during the appeal.
Instead, the appeal focused on provisions such as those that required physicians to check for a fetal or embryonic cardiac activity before conducting an abortion, and record-keeping requirements.
The First District said the appeal was “less about abortion, and more about civil procedure and the equitable authority of Ohio’s courts.”
The case stemmed from a lawsuit in the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas, where women’s health clinics and the ACLU of Ohio sued the state.
Read the full article in The Ohio Capital Journal.