Causes: Civil Rights, Civil Rights, Social Action & Advocacy, Health, Health (General & Financing)

Mission: The national health law program protects and advances the health rights of low income and underserved individuals. The oldest non-profit of its kind, nhelp advocates, educates and litigates at the federal and state level.

Programs: Core medicaid: nhelp seeks to expand and protect health care access for low-income people. Nhelp responds to requests from health advocates for legal assistance in client matters involving medicaid eligibility, service coverage, and administrative appeals. Nhelp staff were featured speakers at more than 150 conferences and training events across the country. Nhelp staff produced and distributed fact sheets, issue briefs and q&a's and sent monthly e-newsletters and breaking email alerts to our more than 10,000 supporters. Nhelp represented low-income individuals and people with disabilities in lawsuits, seeking to enforce provisions of the medicaid and americans with disabilities acts. We also provided litigation consultation to local advocates on a range of litigation issues, including case planning, federal court access, and assistance with briefing and argument. In addition, nhelp advocated with federal and state policymakers to improve health insurance coverage and access for our target populations. Lastly, nhelp expanded its focus and developed critical reports and conducted advocacy on medicaid benefits and populations.

health policy: nhelp's health policy work aims to advance the interests of vulnerable people in the implementation of the affordable care act (aca) and medicaid. Nhelp worked to protect the aca's principles and goals within the legal framework that implements reform, to defend national health reform from challenges, and to encourage states to adopt the medicaid expansion option. Nhelp's health policy efforts included: (1) developing model regulatory provisions and guidance to encourage dhhs to adopt expansive implementation policies; (2) providing legal and policy support to national and state based coalitions working to ensure that health care reform implementation is broadly inclusive (particularly of the most vulnerable populations), and that the resulting system is transparent and requires accountability; (3) providing legal support and problem-solving expertise to policy makers, advocates, and providers as legal issues arise at the administrative (regulatory) and state implementation levels. Nhelp continued its work by responding to technical assistance requests from advocates on a wide range of aca and medicaid topics, conducted monthly calls for state and national advocates, updated our advocates guide to the magi work, released lessons from california, a monthly publication focused on health policy reform, and continued our work to ensure civil rights protections for individuals living with hiv.

reproductive health: nhelp's reproductive health project seeks to improve the reproductive health of low-income women and women of color by advancing their legal rights to quality health services. We provided in-depth research, policy, technical, and other support to federal and state policymakers to ensure that health reform efforts include policies to increase access to reproductive health services, and to ensure every woman has the means to make informed decisions with dignity about when and whether to become a parent. We filed numerous amicus briefs with federal courts and launched a series of community education webinars focused in the impact of the decisions and pending legal actions. Nhelp submitted comments to federal agencies to limit restrictions that would undermine access to reproductive health services in public and private insurance coverage and sought robust enforcement of the aca's requirements. Nhelp developed and distributed numerous issue briefs and guidance for advocates across the country to support their state-based advocacy strategies. We also responded to technical assistance requests from state and national advocates, and provided trainings and presentations for advocates and policymakers to ensure that low-income women have meaningful access to comprehensive coverage.

nhelp is engaged in a number of targeted projects to support our primary goals.