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Health groups urge insurers to cover COVID-19 shots for pregnant women

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westvirginiawatch.com – Nada Hassanein – 2025-06-17 05:00:00


Thirty major health organizations, led by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, urged insurers to continue covering COVID-19 vaccinations during pregnancy, citing the shot’s safety and effectiveness in protecting mothers and infants. This follows HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s controversial removal of vaccine recommendations for healthy pregnant patients and children, and dismissal of the vaccine advisory panel. Experts warn of increased pregnancy complications from COVID-19 and stress the importance of affordable access to vaccines. States like Wisconsin and Georgia reaffirmed support for coverage, while some states introduced bills to restrict mRNA vaccines, despite their proven effectiveness.

Health groups urge insurers to cover COVID-19 shots for pregnant women

by Nada Hassanein, West Virginia Watch
June 17, 2025

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists is urging insurers to continue covering vaccinations during pregnancy in an open letter signed by 30 prominent professional health organizations.

Pregnant patients and their infants are vulnerable to complications from COVID-19. In the letter to payers and insurance companies released this week, ACOG stressed the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccinations and how they protect babies and pregnant people. It was signed by prominent professional groups including the American College of Physicians, Infectious Diseases Society of America and the American Public Health Association.

The letter follows U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s decision to eliminate the recommendation for COVID-19 vaccinations for healthy children and healthy pregnant patients, sidestepping an established decision process by scientists. Kennedy, who has made false claims questioning vaccine safety, earlier this week fired all 17 experts on the federal vaccine advisory committee panel, replacing them with eight new members, four of whom have spoken out against vaccines.

The Trump administration’s moves have alarmed health experts, who worry about coverage and access to the shot amid the agency’s dismissal of science.

“We are deeply concerned about the recently adopted HHS policy to no longer recommend COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy,” the letter reads. “Given the historic gaps in research, investment, and support for women’s health, it is essential that all aspects of obstetric and gynecologic care — including COVID-19 vaccination — be grounded in the best available scientific evidence.

Studies have shown babies born following a COVID-19 infection during pregnancy have a higher risk of low birth weights, stillbirth and respiratory distress, and data demonstrates the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy.

Pregnant women who contract COVID-19 are also at higher risk of complications such as blood clots, are more likely to be hospitalized in intensive care units or to need ventilators, and are at a higher risk of death, the letter notes.

Payers should make the vaccine available to “pregnant people without undue utilization management or cost-sharing requirements,” the letter reads. Without insurance, a Pfizer or Moderna COVID-19 shot can cost roughly $140 for adults.

Following the recommendation rollback, public health officials in some states have emphasized their support of COVID-19 vaccines.

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services, for example, said it “continues to recommend the current COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy and for every person 6 months and older,” noting that newborns “depend on maternal antibodies from the vaccine for protection.” Wisconsin Medicaid will also continue to cover the shot, the department said in a media release.

Officials in Georgia also said they expect continued coverage of the shot.

In Washington, a spokesperson for the state health agency told local media that the department is advising pregnant people to speak with their provider “to determine if receiving a COVID-19 vaccine is best for them.”

During this year’s legislative sessions, at least seven states introduced legislation aiming to ban or limit mRNA vaccines. Instead of using a weakened or dead version of the actual virus to stimulate an immune response, mRNA vaccines use a genetic code created in a laboratory to tell the body’s cells to produce a protein that triggers an immune response. The Pfizer-BioNTech and the Moderna COVID-19 vaccines use mRNA technology.

“The COVID vaccines were a remarkable scientific accomplishment, and they remain the best tool that we have to prevent severe outcomes associated with COVID infection,” Dr. Steven J. Fleischman, ACOG president, wrote in a statement. “Ob-gyns know that COVID infection during pregnancy can be incredibly dangerous for our pregnant patients — and we know that the vaccine can protect both them and their infants after birth.”

When patients are “forced to pay out of pocket, or to cover high cost sharing,” he wrote, “they are less likely to be able to protect themselves, their families, and their communities.”

Stateline reporter Nada Hassanein can be reached at nhassanein@stateline.org.

Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Stateline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger for questions: info@stateline.org.

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West Virginia Watch is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. West Virginia Watch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Leann Ray for questions: info@westvirginiawatch.com.

The post Health groups urge insurers to cover COVID-19 shots for pregnant women appeared first on westvirginiawatch.com



Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Left

This article presents a fact-based, pro-science stance that criticizes recent federal decisions to roll back COVID-19 vaccine recommendations for pregnant individuals and children. While it largely reports on the response of medical organizations and public health experts, the framing emphasizes concern over the rejection of scientific consensus by political leadership—particularly highlighting controversial decisions by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The language supports continued vaccine access and portrays opponents of vaccination policy changes as undermining science, reflecting a Center-Left orientation rooted in public health advocacy rather than overt partisan rhetoric.

News from the South - West Virginia News Feed

Jay's Evening Weather for Thursday 07/31/25

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www.youtube.com – WOAY TV – 2025-07-31 18:02:27

SUMMARY: Jay’s Evening Weather for Thursday 07/31/25 reports southern West Virginia is currently very warm at 91°F with a heat index near 99°F, recently peaking at 101°F. Partly cloudy skies prevail with 56% humidity and light northwest winds. A front northwest of the region is causing showers and thunderstorms particularly in northern counties like Nicholas, Fayette, and Raleigh. These storms may become strong tonight with some heavy rain possible near Charleston, warranting flash flood monitoring. Temperatures elsewhere range from mid-70s to upper 80s, with lows in the 60s overnight. Rain persists into Friday, ending by weekend, leading to cooler, more pleasant days ahead.

More showers and storms are coming into the area thanks to a front, but in addition to giving us rain, the front will also cool us off quite a bit.

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New federal school voucher program poses a quandary for states: Opt in or opt out?

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westvirginiawatch.com – Robbie Sequeira – 2025-07-31 05:00:00


The One Big Beautiful Bill Act created the first national tax credit scholarship program, allowing states to decide if and how to participate. Blue states face a tough choice: reject it on principle or adapt it to support public school needs like tutoring and transportation. Since 2020, private school choice programs have rapidly expanded, with 2023 spending at $6.3 billion and growing participation. By 2026-27, about half of U.S. students will be eligible. States vary widely in program design and oversight. Critics warn of risks like inequality and misuse without strong regulations, while supporters see opportunities to innovate education funding.

by Robbie Sequeira, West Virginia Watch
July 31, 2025

When President Donald Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, he gave state leaders — not federal regulators — the power to decide whether and how to participate in the first-ever national tax credit scholarship program.

That decision now looms largest in blue states, where Democratic governors and lawmakers must weigh whether to reject the law outright on ideological grounds — or try to reshape it into something that reflects their own values.

“This isn’t the federal voucher program we were worried about five years ago,” said Jon Valant, a senior fellow in governance studies at the left-leaning Brookings Institution who testified before Congress on earlier versions of the bill. “It still has serious problems — but states now have tools to mold it into something they might actually support.”

The final law gives states wide discretion, he said. They can opt out entirely. They can opt in passively, leaving the program to operate as written. Or, as Valant suggests, they can try to redraw its footprint — focusing less on private school tuition and more on public school supports like tutoring, transportation and enrichment services in underserved districts.

“My hope is that blue states take a hard look and ask: Can this be used to address our own needs?”

For progressives and education advocates who are wary of school vouchers, the decision is fraught. Opting in could draw criticism for approving what many see as a vehicle for privatization of K-12 education. But opting out could mean turning down federal dollars — education money that states with budding or robust private school voucher infrastructures, such as Arizona and Florida, will gladly take.

“There’s money on the table, and it can be used for more than just private school tuition,” Valant said. “If blue states want to keep that money from reinforcing inequality, they’ll have to get creative, and act fast.”

Since 2020, private school choice programs — once limited to low-income or special needs students — have rapidly expanded.

In 2023, $6.3 billion was spent nationwide on private school choice programs — less than 1% of total public K-12 operational spending, according to EdChoice, a nonprofit that advocates for school choice measures. From 2023-24 to 2024-25, participation in universal private school choice programs surged nearly 40%, growing from roughly 584,000 to 805,000 students in just one school year.

By 2026-27, about half of all U.S. students will be eligible, according to estimates by FutureEd, an independent think tank at Georgetown University.

These trends, combined with new federal tax credit, could fundamentally reshape the education funding landscape across state governments, experts say.

“States will need to decide whether to encourage the redirection of funding to support private and religious schools — either by expanding existing voucher programs or, if they don’t have one, by introducing such a program for the first time,” said Sasha Pudelski, director of advocacy for AASA, The School Superintendents Association. The group opposes the national voucher plan.

State regulations

As of this May, 21 states operated tax credit scholarship programs with varying degrees of funding and oversight. According to the EdChoice Friedman Index, the states of Florida, Arkansas, Arizona and Alabama rank highest in private school access, with 100% of students eligible for school choice programs.

Some states, like Florida and Arizona, already have extensive tax credit scholarship systems. Others, including Texas, are building new infrastructure such as statewide voucher programs and education savings accounts, known as ESAs.

States with no current programs face decisions about participation, regulation and equity, but without clear federal guardrails, education advocates told Stateline.

The federal policy builds on existing state-level tax credit scholarship programs — such as Alabama’s — but significantly expands eligibility, removes scholarship caps and broadens allowable uses to include not just tuition, but also tutoring, therapy, transportation and academic support services. Beginning in 2027, scholarships will be excluded from federal taxable income.

Valant, of Brookings, told Stateline that some of his initial concerns were addressed in the version of the bill signed into law.

“There was a very realistic scenario in the earlier version of the bill where a small number of very wealthy people could essentially make money off this,” Valant said. “That was mostly addressed.”

The enacted version eliminates stock donations and caps individual tax credits at $1,700. And with states that opt in having the power to shape their own program, Valant said that gives them the chance to establish their own guardrails, such as income eligibility caps or nondiscrimination policies for participating schools.

If blue states want to keep that money from reinforcing inequality, they’ll have to get creative, and act fast.

– Jon Valant, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution

The scholarship-granting organizations, known as SGOs, would then be subject to new state regulations about where the money can go.

“States could say SGOs can’t give money to schools that discriminate based on sexual orientation. … There’s quite a lot of room here for state regulation,” he said.

Looking ahead, Valant said he’ll be watching how states interpret their regulatory powers — and how effective scholarship-granting organizations are at fundraising under the new rules, which prohibit large stock gifts and rely instead on millions of smaller donations.

“Now it’s a strange pitch: ‘Can you front me $300 to give to the SGO? I swear the IRS will give it back,’” he said. “It’s going to take time to figure out how to sell this to families.”

Concerns over transparency and equity remain. The program allows donors, scholarship-granting organizations and families to direct funds with little public accountability, critics say. And in states without robust oversight, Valant warns that funds could be misused — or channeled to institutions that exclude students based, for example, on identity or beliefs about sexual orientation.

He also emphasized that early participation is likely to skew toward families already in private schools, particularly in wealthier ZIP codes — mirroring patterns seen in programs in Arizona, Florida and Georgia.

“One big risk is that the funds will disproportionately flow to wealthier families — just like we’ve seen in many ESA programs,” Valant said.

What do these programs look like across the country?

FutureEd studied eight states — Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, Oklahoma and West Virginia — where 569,000 students participated in school choice programs at a cost to taxpayers of $4 billion in 2023-24.

The FutureEd analysis found significant differences among the states in design, funding and oversight.

Arizona’s ESA program was the first of its kind in 2011, and also the first to shift toward universal eligibility in 2022.

Florida operated the largest and most expensive program, with broad eligibility, no caps or accreditation requirements, and a major influx of higher-income families, though it mandated some university-led performance reviews. Iowa fully funded ESAs and, like other states, saw mostly existing private school families benefit.

Arkansas had a cautious rollout due to legal delays and geographic clustering of participants, while West Virginia allowed spending across state lines with no performance reporting.

Newcomer North Carolina began with income-based prioritization but quickly expanded under political pressure or demand, while Alabama and Louisiana will launch ESA programs in 2025-26 using general state revenues.

Utah enacted a universal voucher program in 2023, providing up to $8,000 per student for private school or homeschool expenses. A state teachers union sued, arguing that participating schools were not “free and open to all children” and that the program diverted public school funds. A state court this April ruled the program was unconstitutional.

As the new federal law opens the door for tax-credit-funded tuition support, Texas is building its first universal school voucher program, aided through ESAs to begin in the 2026-27 school year. The program is funded with $1 billion over two years, with $10,000-$11,000 per student — up to $30,000 for students with disabilities and $2,000 for homeschoolers.

The Texas comptroller will oversee the program, and private schools must be open for at least two years to be eligible for funds.

Voucher programs can drain state budgets, and budget wonks predict the cost for Texas could rise to around $4.8 billion by 2030, The Texas Tribune reported.

A spokesperson for the Texas comptroller’s office said that details are still being finalized; the state has issued a request for proposals due Aug. 4 to select eligible educational assistance organizations that would help funnel scholarship dollars to schools.

Other states may be more cautious. The Missouri National Education Association filed a lawsuit this summer to block $51 million in state appropriations to private school scholarships through the MOScholars program. The suit argues that using general revenue rather than private donations violates the state constitution and undermines public education funding.

Stateline reporter Robbie Sequeira can be reached at rsequeira@stateline.org.

Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Stateline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger for questions: info@stateline.org.

West Virginia Watch is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. West Virginia Watch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Leann Ray for questions: info@westvirginiawatch.com.

The post New federal school voucher program poses a quandary for states: Opt in or opt out? appeared first on westvirginiawatch.com



Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Right

This content provides a generally factual overview of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and the national tax credit scholarship program it established. It presents perspectives from various stakeholders, including education policy analysts from the left-leaning Brookings Institution and advocacy groups critical of voucher programs. The article leans slightly toward a Center-Right bias by focusing on expanding school choice, including the benefits of private school access and state flexibility, while also acknowledging concerns raised by progressives and education advocates. The nuanced discussion of potential equity and oversight issues alongside support for school choice funding frameworks suggests an overall balanced but slightly pro-school-choice, market-oriented viewpoint typical of Center-Right coverage.

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Jay’s Evening Weather for 07/30/25

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www.youtube.com – WOAY TV – 2025-07-30 22:32:45

SUMMARY: Southern West Virginia experienced a warm afternoon with temperatures mostly in the mid-80s, cooler in areas with rain such as Beckley (76°F) where thunderstorms occurred. Humidity remains high, making it feel hotter, especially in Pineville and Welch where it feels like 94°F. Showers are beginning near Summersville and along Route 19. A cold front bringing thunderstorms is expected to move through Thursday to Saturday, possibly severe in higher elevations like Greenbrier Valley. By Sunday, conditions will clear with significantly cooler temperatures, dropping into the upper 50s and lower 60s, offering a welcome break from recent heat.

There have been more showers and storms around today, but after one more day of summerlike weather, a big change is in the forecast.

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