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California Gov. Gavin Newsom says proposed federal health insurance regulations could take extra help with having a baby away from many of his state's residents, by blocking a state law that would expand insured people's access to IVF services.
The draft regulations could also take hearing aids away from children and take wheelchairs away from people who have trouble walking, Newsom says.
Newsom talked about the draft regulations Monday in a press release calling on President Donald Trump and his administration to change the regulations.
"President Trump calls himself the 'father of IVF,' yet his actions threaten IVF access to fertility care for millions of Californians," Newsom said in a statement included in the press release.
Newsom was responding to part of a big packet of draft regulations proposed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the HHS Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
CMS officials said in the preamble to the draft regulations that the proposed benefits rule changes would keep state benefits mandates from driving up coverage costs.
Newsom argued that the proposed rules would hurt states' efforts to tailor benefits to fit residents' needs.
What it means: Newsom is a Democrat who is believed to be a top contender for the Democrats' 2028 presidential nomination.
The new press release could be a sign that federal health benefits package rules will be a campaign issue.
The draft regulations: HHS and CMS developed the new, 195-page packet of draft regulations to set benefit and payment parameters for commercial health coverage for 2027 and later years.
One section could limit the benefits a state puts in its "essential health benefits" package.
An EHB package is a state's standard health benefits package.
A state's EHB package determines what major medical insurance coverage sold in a state covers. The package has an indirect effect on ACA premium tax credit subsidy levels.
A state's EHB package is supposed to be based on the package of benefits offered by a big, self-insured employer in the state, such as a state public employee health benefits plan.
CMS officials said in the draft parameters packet that they want a state to tie its EHB package more tightly to what its "benchmark plan" offers and to include fewer state-mandated benefits.
If a state adds new state-mandated benefits, the state should absorb the cost of including those benefits, CMS officials said.
CMS officials and states are debating how old a state-mandated benefit should be before it would be subject to the new restrictions.
California's EHB package: California lawmakers introduce many benefits mandate bills.
Newsom has vetoed some mandate bills approved by state lawmakers, such as a menopause management services bill, but he has signed other mandate bills, such as one expanding California's fertility care benefits requirements.
The state faces a number of fertility benefits expansion implementation challenges, such as whether the state can apply the mandate to employer health plans that are governed by the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
Newsom argues that the expanded fertility benefits mandate, the hearing aid mandate and the mobility device mandate would provide important, much-needed help for state residents without having much of an impact on the cost of health coverage.
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