First Edition: Tuesday, June 24, 2025

KFF HEALTH NEWS ORIGINAL STORIES

KFF Health News: ‘We Need To Keep Fighting’: HIV Activists Organize To Save Lives As Trump Guts Funding
Cedric Sturdevant woke up with “a bit of depression” but made it to church, as he does every Sunday. In a few days, he would drive from Mississippi to Washington, D.C., to join HIV advocates at an April rally against the Trump administration’s actions. It had clawed back more than $11 billion in federal public health grants to states and abruptly terminated millions of dollars in funds for HIV work in the United States. Testing and outreach for HIV faltered in the South, a region that accounts for more than half of all HIV diagnoses. (Maxmen, 6/24)

KFF Health News: Push To Move OB-GYN Exam Out Of Texas Is Piece Of AGs’ Broader Reproductive Rights Campaign
Democratic state attorneys general led by those from California, New York, and Massachusetts are pressuring medical professional groups to defend reproductive rights, including medication abortion, emergency abortions, and travel between states for health care in response to recent increases in the number of abortion bans. The American Medical Association adopted a formal position June 9 recommending that medical certification exams be moved out of states with restrictive abortion policies or made virtual, after 20 attorneys general petitioned to protect physicians who fear legal repercussions because of their work. (Sciacca, 6/24)

MEDICAID AND THE GOP MEGABILL

CNBC: 'Big Beautiful' Bill Health Care Cuts May Add To Medical Debts: Report
Proposed federal spending cuts to health care in Republicans’ “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” may increase some families’ medical debts by as much as $22,800, according to a new report from Third Way, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. (Konish, 6/23)

Modern Healthcare: GOP Senators Shrug At Hospitals' Medicaid, Uncompensated Care Woes
Hospitals have beseeched Republicans not to leave them bearing the financial burden of the more than $1 trillion in healthcare cuts they hope President Donald Trump signs into law by Independence Day. The message doesn’t seem to be breaking through, based on interviews last week with several GOP senators, some of whom seek even steeper spending reductions. (McAuliff, 6/23)

Modern Healthcare: AHA Ad Campaign Targets Medicaid Cuts In One Big Beautiful Bill
The American Hospital Association launched an ad campaign Monday urging Congress to protect hospital funding as lawmakers consider more than $1 trillion in healthcare cuts. The ad shows a montage of patients receiving care and emphasizes the important role hospitals play in their communities. It ends with the statement, “Tell Congress: Protect hospital care.” The new campaign launches as the Senate mulls over potential healthcare cuts as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which legislators hope President Donald Trump will sign into law by July 4. (Hudson, 6/23)

Politico: Senate GOP Scrambles To Rewrite Trump’s Megabill
Senate Republicans are scrambling to rewrite major parts of their “big, beautiful bill” in deference to key holdouts and the chamber’s parliamentarian as the clock ticks on a self-imposed deadline. GOP leaders are aiming to start voting Thursday, but senators emerged from a closed-door briefing on the status of the megabill Monday night saying that some of their biggest sticking points — ranging from key tax decisions to a deal on Medicaid — remain unresolved. (Carney and Kashinsky, 6/23)

Bloomberg: Senate Readies Tax Bill For Vote With Holdouts Threatening Delay
President Donald Trump’s tax-and-spending agenda is nearing a climactic vote in the Senate this week in the wake of air strikes on Iran, which risk embroiling the US in a prolonged Middle East conflict. Trump’s $4.2 trillion tax-cut package, partially offset by social safety-net reductions, does not yet have the support it needs to pass the Senate. Fiscal hawks seeking to lower the bill’s total price tag are at odds with Republicans worried about cuts to Medicaid health coverage for their constituents and phase-outs to green energy incentives that support jobs in their states. (Wasson, 6/23)

Politico: Trump’s Team Makes The Case For Cuts
From Capitol Hill to CDC headquarters in Atlanta, this last week of June will yield important clues about the direction of health policy under President Donald Trump — and whether a GOP Congress will go along. On Wednesday, Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine), who’s spoken out against global health cuts, will question Russell Vought, director of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, who’s spearheaded them. (Zeller, 6/23)

WBEZ Chicago: Medicaid Helps Keep This Illinois Toddler Alive And At Home. Her Mom Worries Cuts Could Put It All At Risk. 
Marely Chavarria Santos was born with a failing heart. The tip of her liver jutted out through a hole in her abdomen. A piece of her intestine was so narrow that nutrients couldn’t pass through. Her heart was so sick, it eventually ballooned to the size of a large lemon, pushing onto her lungs and other organs. When Marely was about 3 months old, doctors put her on a list to receive a heart transplant. After the surgery, Marely spent another six months in transitional care before finally coming home in January. She’s now nearly 2 years old. A big reason she is able to live at home is because of Medicaid. The public health insurance program for low-income and disabled people covers the cost for medically fragile children dependent on technology. Similar care in a hospital or another facility would be far more expensive. (Schorsch, 6/21)

IMMIGRATION AND HEALTH 

The New York Times: Florida Builds ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ Detention Center For Migrants In Everglades
Florida’s attorney general, James Uthmeier, a Trump ally who has pushed to build the detention center in the Everglades, has said the state will not need to invest much in security because the area is surrounded by dangerous wildlife, including alligators and pythons. A spokesperson for the attorney general said work on the new facility started on Monday morning. ... Immigrant advocates criticized the move. “The fact that the administration and its allies would even consider such a huge temporary facility,” he said, “on such a short time line, with no obvious plan for how to adequately staff medical and other necessary services, in the middle of the Florida summer heat is demonstrative of their callous disregard for the health and safety of the human beings they intend to imprison there," said Mark Fleming, the associate director of federal litigation at the National Immigrant Justice Center. (Aleaziz, 6/23)

The New York Times: Supreme Court Lets Trump Deport Migrants To Countries Other Than Their Own 
The Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Trump administration to deport migrants to countries other than their own, pausing a federal judge’s ruling that said they must first be given a chance to show that they would face the risk of torture and potentially clearing the way for the administration to send men held at an American military base in Djibouti to South Sudan. The court’s order gave no reasons and said the judge’s ruling would remain paused while the government pursues an appeal and, after that, until the Supreme Court acts. The court’s three liberal members issued a lengthy dissent. (Liptak, 6/23)

MORE FROM THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION

FiercePharma: FDA's Acting CDER Head Heads For The Exit: Report
Only a few days after reports emerged that the director of the FDA's cell and gene therapy office had been abruptly put on administrative leave, a new departure shows that an intense period of leadership turnover at the agency isn't over. Monday, Jacqueline Corrigan-Curay, M.D., the acting director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), wrote in an email to colleagues that she'd be retiring from the agency in July, according to reports in Bloomberg, Endpoints News and Stat. Corrigan-Curay has been with the FDA for more than eight years. (Sagonowsky, 6/23)

Politico Pro: Pharma Stocks' Slide Hasn’t Deterred These Lawmakers
Drugmakers have taken a beating on Wall Street in recent months, perhaps because President Donald Trump has threatened the pharmaceutical industry with tariffs and demanded it reduce prices while his health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has questioned the safety of its products. Amidst the turmoil, pharma stocks have taken a hit. But a POLITICO review of stock trading by lawmakers found that many, including Republicans, are buying — suggesting they don’t think the Trump administration’s attacks on the industry are going to do lasting damage. Members of Congress are allowed to trade stocks, so long as they disclose their purchases. (Chu, 6/23)

Fierce Healthcare: Oz, RFK Jr. Tout Insurers' Pledge To Ease Prior Authorization
Top officials in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) are touting a multipronged effort from major payers to reform the oft-criticized prior authorization process. Mehmet Oz, M.D., administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), said during a press conference Monday that the prior auth pledge is just the first step in a broader push. Oz and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. met with major payers earlier in the day to discuss the commitments. (Minemyer, 6/23)

CNN: NIH Froze Funding For Clinical Trials At A Major University. By Fall, They’ll Run Out Of Funding 
Angelina Brown passed out while she was exercising one day, a scary experience that led her to a diagnosis of atrial fibrillation. It’s a condition in which the heart’s upper chambers beat irregularly, and it’s the most common heart rhythm abnormality in adults, affecting about 10 million Americans. (Tirrell, 6/23)

VACCINES

Stat: Cassidy Calls For Delay To CDC's Vaccine Panel After RFK Jr.'s Purge 
A key Senate health leader is calling for this week’s meeting of the panel of vaccine advisers handpicked by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be delayed, citing their lack of experience and potential bias against some vaccines. (Cirruzzo, 6/23)

REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH

AP: Abortion Numbers Rose In 2024 Because Of More Telehealth Prescriptions, Report Finds 
The number of abortions in the U.S. rose again in 2024, with women continuing to find ways to get them despite bans and restrictions in many states, according to a report out Monday. The latest report from the WeCount project of the Society of Family Planning, which supports abortion access, was released a day before the third anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade and ended nearly 50 years of legal abortion nationally for most of pregnancy. (Mulvihill, 6/23)

NBC News: Crisis Pregnancy Centers Told To Avoid Ultrasounds For Suspected Ectopic Pregnancies
One of the largest crisis pregnancy center support groups in the United States is telling its member clinics to avoid performing prenatal ultrasounds on women who they suspect have ectopic pregnancies, according to recordings obtained by NBC News of a recent presentation by a legal group that advises the faith-based nonprofits. The guidance comes in the wake of a lawsuit against a Massachusetts center that misdiagnosed an ectopic pregnancy. (Brooks, 6/23)

The 19th: States Move To Keep Doctors’ Names Off Of Abortion Pill Prescription Labels 
Out-of-state doctors are pushing for laws that will make it harder to detect who prescribes and sends abortion medication, as anti-abortion lawmakers look for ways to stop the flow of pills to their states. (Luthra, 6/23)

The 19th: The Future Of Federal Abortion Data Collection Is Unclear
A government watchdog says it’s unclear when — or even whether — we’ll know going forward how the end of national abortion protections impact Americans’ health outcomes, livelihoods and financial futures as the federal government turns away from abortion data collection indefinitely. (Carrazana, 6/23)

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Mercy St. Louis Program Helps Find New Uses For Birth Tissue
New moms can donate their placentas under a Mercy Health initiative called Beginnings and Blessings. The program, which rolled out a year ago and has since expanded to six Mercy hospitals across the state, is the first step in the processing, manufacturing and distribution of donated birth tissue. (Schrappen, 6/23)

HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY

St. Louis Public Radio: St. Luke’s To Close Des Peres Hospital In August
St. Luke’s Hospital in Des Peres will close its doors permanently on Aug. 1, officials told employees on Monday. The 143-bed hospital on Dougherty Ferry Road in St. Louis County didn’t have enough patients to justify keeping it open, spokeswoman Kelly Webb-Little said in an emailed statement. (Fentem, 6/23)

PHARMA AND TECH

Military.Com: VA To End Medical Research On Primates As Animal Rights Group Cheers The Move
The Department of Veterans Affairs will end its spinal cord research involving monkeys this month, with the conclusion of studies on stem cell therapy to treat injuries and understand the impact of bruising on spinal cords. The completion wraps up decades of VA research using primates to study a host of medical conditions and treatments, coming at the end of a long effort by activists and lawmakers to halt studies that harm dogs, cats and primates. (Kime, 6/23)

The Wall Street Journal: AstraZeneca’s Datroway Approved To Treat Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer In U.S.
AstraZeneca’s Datroway drug has been approved in the U.S. to treat adult patients with non-small cell lung cancer. The British pharmaceutical company said Tuesday that the drug has been approved for patients who have already received chemotherapy. The drug has been approved under an accelerated approval process after a Phase 2 trial, and supported by data from a Phase 3 trial. However, continued approval might be contingent upon verification of clinical benefits in a confirmatory trial, the company said. (Whittaker, 6/24)

Bloomberg: Weight-Loss Drugs: Novo Exits Hims Partnership
Novo Nordisk A/S scrapped a partnership with Hims & Hers Health Inc. after less than two months, saying the US company is using “deceptive marketing” to sell copycat versions of its obesity blockbuster Wegovy. Hims, a telehealth platform, wasn’t stepping back enough from its practice of mass marketing off-brand imitations of the weight-loss medicine, Novo executives said. (Kresge and Muller, 6/24)

Fox News: Diabetes Medications Like Ozempic Associated With Higher Vision Loss Risk
Diabetes is the leading cause of vision loss in people between 18 and 64 years old, according to the American Diabetes Association — and the best way to prevent this is to control blood sugar levels. Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1s), such as Ozempic and Mounjaro, have become popular medications for controlling diabetes and treating obesity — but new Canadian research suggests they can also lead to a paradoxical side effect in the form of eye problems. (Sudhakar, 6/23)

NBC News: Monthly Weight Loss Drug Helps People Lose 20% Of Body Weight, Trial Finds
A monthly weight loss drug from Amgen helped people lose about 20% of their body weight, according to the results of a phase 2 clinical trial. If approved, the drug, called MariTide, could make Amgen the first new entrant into a market that’s been dominated by Novo Nordisk, which makes Ozempic and Wegovy, and Eli Lilly, which makes Mounjaro and Zepbound. (Lovelace Jr., 6/23)

STATE WATCH

Politico: Adams Administration Changes Course On Medicare Advantage
Mayor Eric Adams announced he will not move forward with a contentious effort to cut costs by shifting retired city workers to a Medicare Advantage plan, bringing a sudden end to a four-year saga. (Kaufman, 6/23)

Politico: Spike In Homelessness Followed Cuomo’s Move To Cut Off Voucher Funds As Governor
Mayoral frontrunner Andrew Cuomo thinks the state should take on a larger role funding rental subsidies for homeless New Yorkers — a pledge that’s at odds with his actions as governor. During his tenure in Albany, Cuomo did the opposite: he cut off state funding in 2011 for a rental voucher program known as Advantage, prompting City Hall to eliminate the program altogether. Housing experts have long blamed the subsequent sharp rise in the city’s homeless shelter population on those critical decisions, even as they disparaged the voucher program at the time. (Chadha, 6/23)

The Texas Tribune: Gov. Greg Abbott Vetoes Summer Lunch Program For Children 
Gov. Greg Abbott has vetoed a $60 million budget measure that would have allowed Texas to enter a federal summer lunch program for low-income children. (Langford, 6/23)

The Washington Post: Texas Governor Signs MAHA Bill To Add Warning Labels On Food Products
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed sweeping legislation Sunday to slap warning labels on potentially tens of thousands of food and beverage packages — a move that could have ripple effects across the country. The first-of-its-kind legislation requires labels on foods containing 44 dyes or additives commonly found in the country’s food supply, such as in baked goods, candy and drinks. The new mandate will set off a scramble within the food industry, which must decide whether to reformulate its products to avoid warning labels, add the newly mandated language, stop selling certain products in Texas or file lawsuits against the measure. (Roubein, 6/23)

The New York Times: A Doctor Posted Video Of Their Decapitated Baby. They Were Awarded $2.5 Million. 
A jury on Wednesday awarded nearly $2.5 million to a Georgia couple whose baby was decapitated during childbirth, after they accused a doctor of posting a video from the infant’s autopsy on social media without their consent, according to a defense lawyer and court documents. Jessica Ross had been in labor for several hours with her first child on July 10, 2023, when the baby became stuck behind her pelvic bone, according to court documents. Ms. Ross and her partner, Treveon Isaiah Taylor Sr., accused their obstetrician in a separate lawsuit of applying excessive force to the baby’s neck, separating the head from the body. (Kirk, 6/20)

North Carolina Health News: A Safety-Net Dentist Adapts And Rebuilds In Helene Aftermath
On a bitter November morning in Newland, North Carolina, Ashton Johanson climbed aboard the purple dental bus parked outside High County Community Health’s medical clinic. Inside the cramped mobile unit, the floor heaters sputtered. Supplies were running low. The suction machine had been acting up for weeks. (Mirmow, 6/24)

CLIMATE AND HEALTH

AP: Heat Dome Brings Blistering Temperatures Across Much Of The East Coast
An intense and nearly historic weather pattern is cooking much of America under a dangerous heat dome this week with triple-digit temperatures in places that haven’t been so hot in more than a decade. The heat wave is especially threatening because it’s hitting cities like Boston, New York and Philadelphia early in the summer when people haven’t gotten their bodies adapted to the broiling conditions, several meteorologists said. (Borenstein, 6/24)

Roll Call: With Extreme Heat Ahead, US Readiness Appears To Be On Ice 
Federal efforts to help people cope with extreme heat appear to be melting away even as the nation prepares for another summer of record high temperatures and increasing numbers of heat-related illnesses and deaths. (Magner, 6/23)

LIFESTYLE AND HEALTH

NPR: TikTok Bans #SkinnyTok, But Unhealthy Content Persists
The social media platform TikTok recently banned a hashtag called #SkinnyTok after European regulators warned it was promoting unrealistic body images and extreme weight loss. The company had seen an onslaught of content featuring emaciated-looking young women peddling tips on how to drop weight quickly. Now the hashtag may be gone, but eliminating this kind of harmful content is not that simple. There's still no shortage of people — on TikTok and other social media platforms — spreading unhealthy information on how to eat fewer calories and get very, very thin. (Riddle, 6/24)

CNN: Microplastics Shed By Food Packaging Are Contaminating Our Food And Drink, Study Finds 
Ripping the plastic wrap from the meat or prepackaged fruit and veggies you purchased at the grocery store may contaminate your food with micro- and nanoplastics, according to new research. Plastic contamination may also occur when you’re unwrapping deli meat and cheese, steeping a tea bag in hot water, or opening cartons of milk or orange juice. Glass bottles and jars with a plastic-coated metal closure may also shed microscopic bits of plastic, the study found. (LaMotte, 6/24)

The Wall Street Journal: Sobriety Today Is In-Your-Face And Everywhere
John Plageman was covered head-to-toe in Green Bay Packers gear in April as he stood a few feet away from a beer tent at the National Football League draft. But he wasn’t drinking beer. The 53-year-old was hanging out with 20 other football fans drinking water in a “gratitude circle” at a sober tailgate. His group, Section Yellow, is a safe space for football fans to be boldly sober in one of the most intense drinking environments in American sports. (Wernau, 6/23)