On August 2, 2018, the cities of Columbus, OH, Cincinnati, OH, Baltimore, MD, and Chicago, IL filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland claiming that the Trump Administration has persistently attempted “to undermine the Affordable Care Act (ACA).”

On Monday, June 4, 2018, Superior Court Justice Michaela Murphy ordered the Commissioner of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services to submit by June 11, 2018 a state plan to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)to provide expanded Medicaid eligibility to appropriate Maine residents pursuant to the Affordable Care Act (ACA).  

On April 2, 2018, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued instructions to Medicare Advantage plans encouraging more flexible service coverage policies in such plans for 2019. Such capitated plans cover the same services as traditional, fee-for-service Medicare, plus supplemental benefits adopted by the plan with CMS approval. Under the new CMS instructions, any Medicare Advantage plan would have additional flexibility to cover supplemental benefits to compensate for physical impairments, diminish the impact of injuries or health conditions, and/or reduce avoidable emergency room utilization.

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.