A recent article in Governing Daily indicates that the recent tax law “could result in a $1 billion blow to social services.”  This is a potentially huge loss of income for nonprofits organizations, many of whom serve abused and neglected children within the child protection system. The article indicates that one of the reasons that people donate to a nonprofit is for the tax benefit.

On Monday, February 26, 2018, twenty states, led by the attorneys general of Texas and Wisconsin, sued officials of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), alleging that the law revoking the penalty aspect of the ACA’s individual mandate rendered the entire ACA unconstitutional.  The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. 

On February 20, 2018, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report recommending changes in federal policies and procedures governing state-operated Medicaid demonstration waiver projects.  These projects represent the leading edge in state Medicaid innovation as well as over $109 billion in federal Medicaid spending annually. GAO found in its review of these projects that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has not always demanded thorough, scientifically valid, and timely data evaluations as to whether the projects achieved state-specified, CMS-approved goals to improve care and to contain costs.  

On February 23, 2018, Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky requesting that the court uphold the state’s newly imposed Medicaid work requirement.  The lawsuit was filed in response to the lawsuit previously filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia challenging the new eligibility requirement. The Commonwealth of Kentucky had not been included as a party to the prior action.