First Edition: Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2025

KFF HEALTH NEWS ORIGINAL STORIES

California Healthline: Considering A Life Change? Brace For Higher ACA Costs
People thinking about starting a business or retiring early — before they’re old enough for Medicare — may want to wait until November, when they can see just how much their Affordable Care Act health insurance will cost next year. Sharp increases are expected. Premiums for ACA health plans, also known as Obamacare, which many early retirees and small-business owners rely on for coverage, are going up, partly due to policy changes advanced by the Trump administration and Congress. At the same time, more generous tax subsidies that have helped most policyholders pay for coverage are set to expire at the end of December. (Appleby, 8/12)

California Healthline: Experts Say Rural Emergency Rooms Are Increasingly Run Without Doctors
There was no doctor on-site when a patient arrived in early June at the emergency room in the small hospital at the intersection of two dirt roads in this town of 400 residents. There never is. Dahl Memorial’s three-bed emergency department — a two-hour drive from the closest hospital with more advanced services — instead depends on physician assistants and nurse practitioners. (Zionts, 8/12)

CDC SHOOTING

Bloomberg: RFK Jr. Visits CDC After Deadly Atlanta Shooting
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. toured the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday following the deadly attack on the Atlanta-based agency on Aug. 8. CDC Director Susan Monarez and HHS Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill joined Kennedy, with security officials pointing out shattered windows across multiple buildings and the main guard booth, according to a statement. Kennedy also visited the DeKalb County Police Department and later met with the widow of David Rose, the police officer who was killed in the shooting, the agency said. (Nix and Cohrs Zhang, 8/11)

Politico: ‘Ridiculously Traumatized’: CDC Workers Fear Returning To Work After Fatal Shooting
Employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now fear going to work after a gunman sprayed bullets at the agency’s Atlanta headquarters Friday evening, three agency staffers said. “Even the ones who weren’t in lockdown for seven hours and are ridiculously traumatized … even everybody else, I’m getting questions about ‘Are our windows bulletproof? And what about the areas without cell reception?’,” one of the staffers said. They were granted anonymity for fear of retribution. (Gardner, 8/11)

Fierce Healthcare: Critics Demand Rhetoric Change From RFK After CDC Shooting
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) employees and other prominent public health figures are calling for leadership to take a stronger stance on vaccine misinformation and inflammatory rhetoric following Friday afternoon’s shooting at the agency’s Atlanta headquarters. DeKalb County Police Officer David Rose, 33, was killed responding to the attack and another police officer was injured, according to law enforcement officials and a statement from the agency. (Muoio, 8/11)

VACCINES

The New York Times: Why Young Children May Not Get Covid Shots This Fall 
This fall, it may not be possible for many parents to have a healthy child under age 5 immunized against Covid. Pfizer’s vaccine has long been available to these children under so-called emergency use authorization. But the Food and Drug Administration is considering discontinuing the authorization for that age group, according to an email sent by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to state and local health departments. Pfizer confirmed the possibility on Monday evening and said that the company was “currently in discussions with the agency on potential paths forward.” For children 5 to 11 years old, the Pfizer vaccine is expected to be approved and available, according to the C.D.C.’s email, which was reviewed by The New York Times. (Mandavilli, 8/11)

Stat: NIH Director: Lack Of Public Trust Led To Cancellation Of MRNA Vaccine Contracts
The head of the National Institutes of Health has offered a new explanation for why the federal government canceled $500 million in contracts to help develop messenger RNA vaccines, saying the platform is not viable because the public doesn’t trust it. (Branswell, 8/11)

MedPage Today: Aluminum In Vaccines Study Won't Be Retracted, Journal Says
The Annals of Internal Medicine rejected a call from some readers and from HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to retract a large vaccine safety study published last month. The paper showed that cumulative aluminum exposure from vaccination during the first 2 years of life did not raise the risk of chronic neurodevelopmental, autoimmune, atopic, or allergic disorders, according to Niklas Worm Andersson, MD, PhD, of the Statens Serum Institut in Copenhagen, and co-authors. (George, 8/11)

The New York Times: Kennedy’s Next Target: The Federal Vaccine Court 
For nearly 40 years, a special federal court system has compensated Americans who prove they were harmed by vaccines while also protecting the manufacturers from litigation. Even the staunchest defenders of the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program agree it needs reform. It is slow, understaffed and can feel adversarial to families legitimately in need. Now Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. plans to overhaul the program, saying he will make it more efficient and speedier for Americans seeking payment. (Jewett and Mandavilli, 8/11)

CIDRAP: Study: Kidney-Transplant Recipients Benefit From COVID-19 Vaccination
A recent study in Clinical Microbiology and Infection shows that patients undergoing long-term kidney replacement therapy (KRT) had significant reductions in morbidity and mortality after three doses of COVID-19 vaccine. The study was based on all patients on KRT from the Finnish Registry for Kidney Diseases. Each patient was matched with 10 controls, and hazard ratios of hospitalizations and deaths due to COVID-19 were calculated according to vaccination status to estimate vaccine effectiveness (VE). (Soucheray, 8/11)

'MAKE AMERICA HEALTHY AGAIN'

CNN: New ‘Make America Healthy Again’ Report To Be Released In Weeks 
Americans will have to wait several weeks for the Trump administration’s next steps in its agenda to “Make America Healthy Again,” according to three people familiar with the matter. While President Donald Trump’s MAHA Commission will submit its strategy to the White House on Tuesday — sticking to an executive-ordered deadline — scheduling issues stand in the way of its public release. (Owermohle and Cancryn, 8/11)

Politico: Kennedy's MAHA Strategy Will Not Be Released To The Public Immediately
Farmers, food manufacturers, chemical companies, anti-vaccine activists and MAHA moms — all waiting anxiously for the release of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s strategy for “making children healthy again” — will have to wait a bit longer. The White House said Monday that it expected the Make America Healthy Again Commission, which President Donald Trump created in February to revamp the nation’s food supply and chronic health outcomes, to send the strategy to the president Tuesday, as required by an executive order. (Lim, Brown and Messerly, 8/11)

FEDERAL FUNDING

NPR: Why The Company That Makes Plumpy'Nut Is 'Just Over The Moon!'
Navyn Salem cried when she got a call last week — but they were happy tears. They were sparked by a message from the U.S. State Department: After months of confusion from stop-work orders, contract terminations and foreign aid cuts, the federal government is ready to restart ordering therapeutic food designed to bring malnourished children back from the brink. "Someone brought me my phone and said, 'Look at what message just came in,'" she recalled in an interview with NPR. "It was our first order [from the U.S. government] for 2025." (Emanuel, 8/11)

The New York Times: Harvard Nears A Deal With The Trump Administration To Restore Funding 
Harvard University and the Trump administration are nearing a potentially landmark legal settlement that would see Harvard agree to spend $500 million in exchange for the restoration of billions of dollars in federal research funding, according to four people familiar with the deliberations. The talks could still collapse, as President Trump and senior Harvard officials need to sign off on the terms of the deal. The sides are still going back and forth over important wording for a potential agreement. (Blinder, Schmidt and Bender, 8/11)

The Washington Post: Inside Science Labs Trying To Survive In The Trump Era
Anastasia Khvorova’s lab at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School shows how quickly the administration is dismantling an 80-year partnership that made the U.S. a scientific superpower. (Johnson, 8/11)

MORE ON THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION

The Guardian: US Veterans Agency Lost Thousands Of ‘Core’ Medical Staff Under Trump, Records Show
The Department of Veterans Affairs has lost thousands of healthcare professionals deemed “core” to the system’s ability to function and “without which mission-critical work cannot be completed," agency records show. But the VA said in a statement to the Guardian that “anyone who says VA is cutting health care and benefits is not being honest.” (Glantz, 8/11)

The Hill: Trump Considers Reclassifying Marijuana As Less Dangerous
President Trump said Monday his administration is “looking at” reclassifying marijuana as a less dangerous drug. Such a move would continue efforts begun by the Biden administration, which started the process to make marijuana a Schedule III drug in 2024 but did not finish it before former President Biden left office. (Weixel, 8/11)

Bloomberg: Firm Tied To Trump Jr. Debuts Direct Sales Product For Pharma
A company that has Donald Trump Jr. on its board debuted a new service to help pharmaceutical companies launch direct sales platforms, one week after President Donald Trump demanded that drugmakers create similar systems. The company, BlinkRx, is pitching the offering as a way to set up a system for drugmakers to sell products directly to patients in “as little as 21 days.” (Cohrs Zhang, 8/11)

The New York Times: Trump, Seeking Friendlier Economic Data, Names New Statistics Chief
President Trump announced on Monday that he would nominate E.J. Antoni, an economist at the conservative Heritage Foundation, to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Mr. Trump fired the previous commissioner of the agency after it reported weak job growth. ...The bureau is seen as the gold standard for information on prices, employment, productivity and more — an essential underpinning for policymaking and financial markets. (Romm, Casselman and DePillis, 8/11)

MEDICARE

The Hill: HHS Pilot Program Raises Concerns Over Medicare Red Tape
House Democrats are sounding the alarm and demanding more information about a new Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) demonstration they say will increase red tape by adding prior authorization requirements in Medicare. Led by Reps. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) and Ami Bera (D-Calif.), a group of 17 Democrats questioned why HHS would want to test adding prior authorization requirements in traditional Medicare when the Trump administration is touting efforts to reduce the practice in Medicare Advantage (MA). (Weixel, 8/11)

Modern Healthcare: Enhabit, Addus HomeCare Rethink Expansions Amid Medicare Pay Cut
Home healthcare deals are stuck in neutral as providers wait for the government to decide if it will move on a looming $1 billion Medicare rate cut next year. Some home healthcare executives told analysts during second-quarter earnings calls last week they are delaying acquisitions until they know whether the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will go forward with a proposed 6.4% rate cut. While the massive cut could force financially strapped providers out of business, some are waiting to see if those closures could create buying opportunities down the road for those still looking to grow their home healthcare operations. (Eastabrook, 8/11)

HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY

Axios: Why More Doctors Can't Make Ends Meet
America's doctors are working harder and getting paid less. And that could soon translate into less access for some patients. A new report from consultancy Kaufman Hall shows primary care physicians and specialists are delivering more services since the pandemic. But they're not making more money because of stagnant reimbursements from public and private insurers and inflation. (Reed, 8/12)

The Colorado Sun: Trainee Doctors At The University Of Colorado Allege Retaliation
The organization that represents doctors-in-training at the University of Colorado has filed a complaint with state labor officials alleging that the school retaliated against it over its quest for collective bargaining rights. (Ingold, 8/11)

Minnesota Public Radio: Minnesota Commissioners Will Vote On Hospital Oversight Takeover
The Hennepin County Board of Commissioners will vote Tuesday on a resolution to take over management of Hennepin County Medical Center, as the county hospital faces a budget shortfall. According to county and hospital officials, the county’s safety-net hospital system — including HCMC in Minneapolis — has seen an operating loss for seven of the past eight years. Hospital and county officials have said the hospital risks closure this year, or could face steep cuts to staff and programs. (Timar-Wilcox, 8/12)

Modern Healthcare: Nearly 6,500 Providers Reject Blue Cross Antitrust Deal
Mayo Clinic, LifePoint Health and Trinity Health are among nearly 6,500 providers opting out of a major settlement with Blue Cross and Blue Shield insurers. In December, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama approved a $2.8 billion agreement with providers that sued the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association in 2013 over allegations it and its member companies engaged in anticompetitive conduct. (Tepper, 8/11)

Modern Healthcare: HRSA 340B Rebate Pilot Program Sparks Concerns With Providers
Healthcare providers could be in for significant cash flow and operational changes under the nation’s second-largest drug payment program next year. The Health Resources and Services Administration announced a voluntary pilot program last month to test allowing drugmakers to dispense rebates to safety-net providers that participate in the 340B Drug Pricing Program rather than discounting prices. Under 340B, qualifying providers pay 25%-50% less for prescription medications. (Early, 8/11)

PHARMA AND TECH

NBC News: Pancreatic Cancer Vaccine Prevents Recurrence In Phase 1 Clinical Trial
In an early trial, a one-size-fits-all vaccine showed promise in preventing hard-to-treat pancreatic cancers from coming back. Pancreatic cancer is of particular concern. The five-year survival rate is about 13%, and up to 80% of pancreatic cancers may come back. ... The vaccine targets one of the most common genetic drivers of cancer: KRAS gene mutations. (Sullivan, 8/11)

Axios: FDA Says IV Fluid Shortage From Hurricane Is Over
The nationwide shortage of critical intravenous saline fluid triggered by Hurricane Helene is over, though some other injectable solutions remain in shortage almost a year after the storm, the Food and Drug Administration said. (Bettelheim, 8/12)

MedPage Today: Popular Diabetes Drugs Linked To Small Risk Of Retinal, Optic Nerve Disorders
The risk of new-onset diabetic retinopathy (DR) increased slightly, but significantly, in patients taking GLP-1 receptor agonists for diabetes, despite a lower risk of vision-threatening complications, a large retrospective study suggested. A propensity-matched comparison showed a 7% higher incidence of new DR among users of GLP-1 agonists. The risk of ischemic optic neuropathy did not differ significantly between users and non-users. (Bankhead, 8/11)

ProPublica, Medill Investigative Lab: Which Drugs Has The FDA Allowed Into The U.S. From Banned Foreign Factories?
For more than a dozen years, the Food and Drug Administration quietly allowed substandard foreign factories to continue shipping medications to the United States even after the agency officially banned them from doing so because of dangerous manufacturing failures. ProPublica exposed the little-known practice in June. The FDA said the decisions to exempt certain medications from import bans were made to fend off drug shortages and that guardrails were in place to ensure the products were safe, such as requiring the banned factories to do extra testing on the drugs before they were sent to Americans. (Cenziper, Rose and Dailey, 8/12)

ProPublica: Indian Drugmaker Sun Pharma Made Promises To The FDA That It Didn’t Keep
The dispatches from one of India’s most troubled generic drug makers were contrite, filled with far-reaching promises to clean up its factory, stop contamination and send safe medication to Americans counting on the company’s drugs. “We have started addressing FDA concerns very aggressively and comprehensively,” an executive from Sun Pharma wrote to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2015. (Rose and Cenziper, 8/12)

Stat: New Guidelines Call For Stricter Oversight Of Some Stem Cell-Based Research 
An influential scientific panel is pumping the brakes on stem cell-based embryo models — an umbrella term for the increasingly complex structures researchers are building from stem cells and growing in the lab to mimic aspects of embryonic development. In new guidelines released Monday, the International Society for Stem Cell Research called for stricter oversight of studies involving such models and the establishment of red lines against using them for certain activities. (Molteni, 8/11)

St. Pete Catalyst: Veteran Oversees Hyperbaric Oxygen Study For Veterans With Traumatic Brain Injuries
University of South Florida associate professor Joseph Dituri survived a traumatic brain injury in 2021 – which gave him a passion to seek a cure for the condition. He is currently overseeing a hyperbaric oxygen therapy study at USF for military veterans who have suffered TBIs. (Connor, 8/12)

STATE WATCH

The New York Times: Gunman Kills 3, Including a Child, at a Target Store in Austin
A gunman killed three people who were outside a Target store in Austin, Texas, on Monday afternoon and then stole a succession of cars before he was apprehended, local police officials said. Two of the victims, one adult and one child, were pronounced dead at the scene, shortly after emergency responders arrived around 2:20 p.m. Central time. A third person, an adult, was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. A fourth person had minor medical complaints, not caused by traumatic injuries, according to emergency responders. Police said the gunman, a 32-year-old man whose name has not been released, had a history of mental health problems and has previously been placed on emergency holds, according to Lisa Davis, chief of the Austin Police Department. Such holds typically occur when individuals face a mental health crisis and pose a risk to themselves or others. (Salhotra and Montgomery, 8/11)

CNN: NYC Legionnaires’ Disease Cases Rise To 90 As City Health Officials Propose New Cooling Tower Regulations 
Health officials in New York City say a cluster of Legionnaires’ disease in Central Harlem has grown to 90 cases, including three deaths. The update comes days after New York City’s health department proposed new regulations for the testing of cooling towers, which they suspect are linked to the outbreak. (Kopp, 8/11)

The Colorado Sun: Colorado Tries To Soften Impact Of Medicaid Cuts In "Big Beautiful Bill"
Colorado is hoping a just-under-the-wire application to the federal government will help soften the blow of Medicaid cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the recently signed tax and spending measure. The application is to create what is known as a state directed payments program. Such programs pull down extra federal Medicaid funding that can then be paid to health care providers with the goal of expanding access to care and improving the quality of the care. (Ingold, 8/12)

REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH

Bloomberg: Telehealth Abortions Centered In Poor States With Few Options
Telemedicine has become a crucial access point for lower-income pregnant women seeking abortions, according to a study published Monday, as the anti-abortion movement ramps up efforts to restrict telehealth access through lawsuits and policy. The report, led by researchers at the University of Texas at Austin, examined prescription data from the telehealth service Aid Access, which provides abortion drugs in all 50 states. (Nix, 8/11)

AP: Many Of Trump's Court Nominees Have Been Active In Anti-Abortion Movement
One called abortion a “barbaric practice.” Another referred to himself as a “zealot” for the anti-abortion movement. Several have played prominent roles in defending their state’s abortion restrictions in court and in cases that have had national impact, including on access to medication abortion. As President Donald Trump pushes the Senate to confirm his federal judicial nominees, a review by The Associated Press shows that roughly half of them have revealed anti-abortion views, been associated with anti-abortion groups or defended abortion restrictions. (Fernando, 8/10)

NBC News: Texas Woman Sues Marine, Claiming He Spiked Her Drink With Abortion Pills
A Texas woman is suing a U.S. Marine, alleging he spiked her drink with nearly a dozen abortion pills, killing their unborn child, after she rebuffed his repeated requests to “get rid of it,” according to a wrongful death lawsuit filed in federal court Monday. Liana Davis alleges Christopher Cooprider secretly dissolved at least 10 abortion pills into a cup of hot chocolate that he prepared for her April 5 and then left the house and stopped responding as she profusely bled, the suit says. (Chan, 8/11)

KVPR: What's The Deal With Claims That Birth Control Is Dangerous?
According to posts on TikTok, hormonal birth control can cause a nearly unlimited list of ailments: Depression, irreversible infertility, acne, destruction of the gut biome, weight gain, balding, and decreased libido to name a few. At the same time, a growing number of influencers advocate tracking fertility cycles naturally – or with apps – to prevent pregnancy, while avoiding birth control altogether. How did the pill get such a bad reputation and is there anything to worry about? Is cycle tracking a valid alternative? We asked researchers and doctors. (Riddle, 8/11)

The Washington Post: Working Mothers Are Leaving The Work Force, Undoing Pandemic Gains 
Working mothers, who helped drive much of the job market’s post-pandemic comeback, are leaving the workforce in large numbers this year. The share of working mothers age 25 to 44 with young children has fallen nearly every month this year, dropping by nearly 3 percentage points between January and June, to the lowest level in more than three years, according to an analysis of federal data by Misty Heggeness, a professor at the University of Kansas and former principal economist at the Census Bureau. (Bhattarai, 8/11)

MedPage Today: In Utero Treatment For Brain Birth Defect Feasible, Promising
In utero embolization of high-risk vein of Galen malformation (VOGM) was feasible for fetuses, early results from a single-center intervention study showed. Five of the seven attempts at this procedure successfully blocked off these abnormal, direct connections between veins and arteries in the brain that lead to very high venous blood pressure, with three treated fetuses surviving past the neonatal period to meet milestones at 6 months of age, reported Darren Orbach, MD, PhD, of Boston Children's Hospital, and colleagues in JAMA. (Henderson, 8/11)

PUBLIC HEALTH

CIDRAP: A Recent Common Cold May Nearly Halve Risk Of COVID-19, Study Suggests
The common cold may help protect against COVID-19, which may partially explain why children, who are especially vulnerable to most viral respiratory infections, generally have milder SARS-CoV-2 infections than adults, National Jewish Health–led researchers write today in The Journal of Infectious Diseases. (Van Beusekom, 8/11)

Newsweek: Early Warning Sign For Children's ADHD Risk Discovered
A developmental sign in early childhood could help to flag the future likelihood of ADHD—and ensure the right support is given at the right time. Brain wiring at this stage of life could lay the foundation for attention-related skills and hold the key to identifying young children who might go on to develop the neurodevelopmental condition. (Millington, 8/11)

CNN: Fast Walking Is A Key To Longevity, Research Shows 
Too busy to go to the gym? Don’t worry — you can stay healthy by incorporating at least 15 minutes of fast walking into your everyday routine, new research suggests. (Park, 8/11)

The Hill: Dollar Store Shopping Doesn't Equal Unhealthy Diets: Study
Relying on dollar stores for the bulk of grocery purchases might not be harming American diets, despite the comparative lack of healthy products, a new study has found. As families look to free up funds on costly shopping lists, they are increasingly turning to their locals dollar stores to buy staple food items, according to the study, published Monday in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. (Udasin, 8/11)