First Edition: Friday, Sept. 26, 2025

KFF HEALTH NEWS ORIGINAL STORIES

KFF Health News: 20 Years After Katrina, Louisiana Still Struggles With Evacuation Plans That Minimize Health Risks
In late August 2020, Ashlee Guidry and her staff kept a wary eye on guidance from local officials as Hurricane Laura passed over Cuba en route to southwestern Louisiana. Guidry was responsible for the safety of dozens of people living at Stonebridge Place, an assisted living and memory care facility in Sulphur. For days, Laura was just a tropical storm, wet and disorganized. But the Gulf of Mexico was warm — much warmer than average. Local officials worried the temperatures could supercharge the storm as it spun toward the Louisiana coast. (Parker, 9/26)

KFF Health News: Listen: Young Adults Turning 26 Face Health Insurance Cliff
Many young adults are staring down an “insurance cliff” as they turn 26. That’s the age when many can no longer stay on their parents’ health insurance. If they can’t get coverage through their job, they’ll need to start looking for their own. The search can be nerve-racking and confusing. KFF Health News senior contributing editor Elisabeth Rosenthal appeared on WAMU’s “Health Hub” on Sept. 24 to share some tips for finding the right plan. (Rosenthal, 9/26)

KFF Health News: Off-Label Drug Helps One Boy With Autism Speak, Parents Say. But Experts Want More Data
Caroline Connor’s concerns about her son’s development began around his 1st birthday, when she noticed he wasn’t talking or using any words. Their pediatrician didn’t seem worried, but the speech delay persisted. At 2½, Mason was diagnosed with autism. The Connors went on a mission, searching for anything that would help. “We just started researching on our own. And that’s when my husband Joe came across Dr. Frye in a research study he was doing,” Caroline said. (Gounder, 9/26)

KFF Health News: KFF Health News’ ‘What The Health?’: Public Health Further Politicized Under The Threat Of More Firings
In a highly unusual White House news conference this week, President Donald Trump — without evidence — boldly blamed the painkiller Tylenol and a string of childhood vaccines for causing a recent rise in autism. That came just days after the newly reconstituted Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, now populated with vaccine skeptics and opponents, voted to change long-standing recommendations. (Rovner, 9/25)

TARIFFS AND PHARMACEUTICALS

CNBC: U.S. To Impose 100% Tariff On Branded, Patented Drugs Unless Firms Build Plants Locally, Trump Says
President Donald Trump announced Thursday that the U.S. will impose a 100% tariff on “any branded or patented Pharmaceutical Product” entering the country from Oct. 1. The measure will not apply to companies building drug manufacturing plants in the U.S., Trump said. He added that the exemption covers projects where construction has started, including sites that have broken ground or are under construction. (Jie and Constantino, 9/25)

The New York Times: Trump May Try To Force Drugmakers To Match European Prices
The Trump administration may propose a regulatory process to force drugmakers to cut U.S. prices to the lower levels in other wealthy countries, according to a notice that was posted on a federal website. The notice, which was published, then deleted for several hours Thursday, and then republished, refers to a “proposed rule” and a “global benchmark for efficient drug pricing (GLOBE) model” under the Department of Health and Human Services. (Sanger-Katz and Robbins, 9/25)

AUTISM AND VACCINES

Bloomberg: RFK Jr. Mulls Adding Autism Symptoms To Vaccine Injury Program
The Trump administration is considering ways to allow people with autism to seek compensation through a government vaccine injury program, according to an adviser, in a change likely to throw it into disarray. The program, called the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, shields companies from most lawsuits and includes a fund that pays people who experience a serious reaction to a covered vaccine. It’s paid out about $5 billion since 1988. (Cohrs Zhang, Muller and Smith, 9/25)

The Hill: Tylenol Maker Clarifies Old Tweet About Use During Pregnancy
The manufacturer of Tylenol on Thursday clarified an old social media post that said it doesn’t “actually recommend” using its products while pregnant, which the Trump administration resurfaced following its assertion this week that the over-the-counter pain reliever could be linked to autism. ... Kenvue responded to the old post, saying Thursday in a statement, “This is being taken out of context – we do not make recommendations on taking any medications in pregnancy because that is the job of a healthcare provider.” (Choi, 9/25)

NBC News: More Kids With The Flu Are Getting Severely Ill Or Dying As Vaccine Rates Fall, CDC Reports
Christine Wear’s voice trembles talking about the upcoming flu season. “Anxieties are high,” she said. “We’re trying to navigate what life should look like without being in a bubble.” Wear’s son, 4-year-old Beckett, is still recovering from the flu he got way back in January. Within a week of becoming infected, he became extremely lethargic. He couldn’t move his head or his arms. He couldn’t eat or talk. (Edwards, 9/25)

NPR: Doctors Say Trump's Advice On Hep B Shot Is Wrong
It's unusual for presidents to give out medical advice. But in a White House press briefing earlier this week, President Trump questioned the wisdom of vaccinating all newborns against hepatitis B. "There's no reason to give a baby that's almost just born hepatitis B [vaccine,]" Trump said. "So I would say wait until the baby is 12 years old." (Godoy, 9/25)

MORE ON HHS AND RFK JR.

The New York Times: Kennedy Says U.S. Rejects Global Health Goals
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday said the United States would reject a United Nations declaration on chronic diseases, because it ignored “the most pressing health issues,” and more broadly because the Trump administration takes issue with policies that he described as promoting abortion and “radical gender ideology.” Mr. Kennedy, who gave his remarks to a U.N. meeting on preventing and combating chronic illnesses like cancer, cardiovascular disease and diabetes, did not elaborate on the issues he said had been ignored. (Jacobs, 9/25)

Axios: New ADHD Lobbying Coalition Launches
ADHD researchers and clinicians have started a new coalition to lobby for evidence-based policy around the developmental condition as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. casts doubt on ADHD drugs for kids. Why it matters: The Trump administration's recent report on the health of American children criticizes what it terms overdiagnosis and inappropriate prescribing of ADHD medications. (Goldman, 9/26)

The Hill: Michigan Democrat Moves To Impeach HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) announced Thursday she would introduce articles of impeachment against Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. due to “health care chaos” under his watch. On social platform X, Stevens wrote, “Health care chaos. Reckless cuts. Rising costs. Michiganders and families across the country are paying the price for RFK Jr.’s agenda. Enough is enough, which is why I’m drafting articles of impeachment against @SecKennedy.” (Choi, 9/25)

The Hill: "Stop RFK's BS Act" Introduced By Michigan Democrat
Michigan Rep. Haley Stevens (D) on Friday introduced the “Stop RFK’s BS Act” which would reverse the funding cuts that have been carried out under Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s rule. The bill, according to its text provided first to The Hill, would immediately reinstate grants and awards that have been terminated since the start of President Trump’s second term if it is passed. (Choi, 9/26)

REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH

CNN: Mifepristone: Federal Agencies Are Studying Safety Of Abortion Drug, Driving New Concerns About Limits On Access
The US Food and Drug Administration is reviewing evidence about the safety and efficacy of one of the drugs used in medication abortion to investigate how it can be safely dispensed, US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary wrote in a new letter to 22 Republican attorneys general. Kennedy and Makary said the FDA would conduct “its own review of the evidence, including real-world outcomes and evidence, relating to the safety and efficacy” of mifepristone. (Tirrell, McPhillips and Gumbrecht, 9/25)

AP: Planned Parenthood Of Wisconsin Halts Abortion Scheduling Amid Medicaid Cuts
Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin will stop scheduling patients for abortions starting next week as it works to find a way to provide the service in the face of Medicaid funding cuts in President Donald Trump’s tax and spending bill, the nonprofit said Thursday. Abortion funding across the U.S. has been under siege, particularly Planned Parenthood affiliates, which are the biggest provider. Wisconsin appears to be the first state where Planned Parenthood is pausing all abortions because of the new law. (Bauer and Mulvihill, 9/25)

ProPublica: NIH Launches New Multimillion-Dollar Stillbirth Prevention Effort
The National Institutes of Health has launched a five-year, $37 million stillbirth consortium in a pivotal effort to reduce what it has called the country’s “unacceptably high” stillbirth rate. The announcement last week thrilled doctors, researchers and families and represented a commitment by the agency to prioritize stillbirth, the death of an expected child at 20 weeks or more. “What we’re really excited about is not only the investment in trying to prevent stillbirth, but also continuing that work with the community to guide the research,” Alison Cernich, acting director of the NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, said in an interview. (Eldeib, 9/25)

MORE ON THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION

AP: Federal Bureau Of Prisons Moves To End Union Protections For Its Workers
The federal Bureau of Prisons said Thursday it is canceling a collective bargaining agreement with its workers and stripping them of union rights, the latest move by the Trump administration to gut labor protections for federal employees. Director William K. Marshall III told the agency’s nearly 35,000 employees that the union, the Council of Prison Locals, had become “an obstacle to progress instead of a partner in it.” The contract, he said, “too often slowed or prevented” changes meant to improve safety and morale. (Sisak, 9/26)

AP: Report: Nearly Half Of All Federal Funding For Tribes At Risk Under Trump's 'Big Beautiful' Bill
A new report from Portland State University found that budget cuts under President Donald Trump’s new spending bill threaten nearly half of federal funding allocated to federally recognized Native American and Alaska Native nations last year. Roughly $530 million of the $1.19 billion allocated to Northwest tribal nations in fiscal year 2024 — used to fulfill the federal government’s trust and treaty obligations to Native American and Alaska Native tribes — is at risk of being cut. (Henshaw, 9/25)

MEDICARE

Modern Healthcare: Medicare Advantage Audit Rule Tossed By Federal Court
A federal court has tossed a rule outlining how auditors must review Medicare Advantage insurance companies for overpayments, adding uncertainty to the federal government’s plan to audit every plan annually. On Thursday, Judge Reed O’Connor, of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas in Fort Worth, vacated the 2023 Medicare Risk Adjustment Data Validation, or RADV, rule, on the grounds that regulators violated the Administrative Procedure Act of 1946. (Tepper, 9/25)

Modern Healthcare: Medicare Advantage Insurers Revamp Supplemental Benefits For 2026
Supplemental benefit vendors are bracing for another challenging year as Medicare Advantage insurers discontinue plans and downscale the perks they offer members. Health insurance companies such as UnitedHealth Group subsidiary UnitedHealthcare and Elevance Health have announced they will eliminate unprofitable plans and pare back supplemental benefits in 2026 as they seek to restore profit margins amid high spending and stricter regulation. (Tepper, 9/25)

Modern Healthcare: CMS Has Revamped AHEAD. Here's What That Means
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has revamped and extended a hospital and primary care value-based care model intended to align payment incentives across payers and providers. CMS announced it is expanding and modifying the Achieving Healthcare Efficiency through Accountable Design, or AHEAD, model it unveiled in 2023, and adding new geography-based elements that could shake up how fee-for-service Medicare enrollees receive care. (Early, 9/25)

Modern Healthcare: Humana To End Medicare Advantage Commissions For Plans
Humana will not pay third-party marketers for enrolling new members in many of its wider-network Medicare Advantage products for 2026. The company will not pay agents and brokers for signing up new members for 288 plans across 46 states and the District of Columbia, according to a notice Humana sent to agents and brokers on Monday. About 80% of these plans are PPOs. (Tepper, 9/25)

The Hill: AstraZeneca Petitions Supreme Court Over Medicare Drug Prices
AstraZeneca has asked the Supreme Court to hear its case challenging the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program created through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). According to the Supreme Court’s docket, AstraZeneca’s petition was filed on Sept. 19. The company has asked the court to consider “whether the IRA implicates an interest of pharmaceutical manufacturers that is protected by the Due Process Clause.” (Choi, 9/25)

HEALTH INDUSTRY AND PHARMACEUTICALS

Roll Call: Health Insurance Marketplace Rate Hikes Top 20 Percent In Most States, Cantwell Says
People who receive insurance through the top marketplace plan in most states can expect sticker shock this fall, according to data compiled by the office of Sen. Maria Cantwell. Cantwell, D-Wash., who’s urging congressional leadership and President Donald Trump to find a way to extend expiring health care subsidies, on Thursday issued a snapshot report on rate increase requests from insurers across the country. In 29 states, rates for the top marketplace insurer are expected to increase at least 20 percent next year, according to the data. (Raman, 9/25)

Modern Healthcare: 71% Of Regional Nonprofit Insurers Ended 2024 With Operating Loss
Threatened by shrinking operating margins, regional nonprofit insurance companies are falling behind their larger competitors, according to a new report. In 2024, 71% of regional nonprofit insurers ended the year with an operating loss, according to an analysis published Wednesday by HealthScape Advisors, a division of the consulting company Chartis. By comparison, 53% posted operating losses in 2023, and just 22% did in 2020. (Tong, 9/25)

NBC News: Their Son Was 'Too Unstable To Function Outside Of Hospital.' Insurance Denied His Mental Health Treatment Anyway
Nick Benz-Bushling never imagined that managing his son’s mental health care would turn into a real-life horror story. After years of struggles, 16-year-old Johnathan attempted suicide in February. Benz-Bushling 41, and his wife Misty Benz-Bushling, 39, of Stephensville, Michigan, rushed Johnathan to the emergency room, and then later took him to Forest View Hospital, an inpatient behavioral health facility in Grand Rapids that had room in its pediatric psychiatry unit. ... They didn’t realize the race to get Johnathan into treatment would be the start of an insurance battle that would upend their family’s finances. (Snow and Brooks, 9/25)

MedPage Today: Oral Breast Cancer Drug Wins Broader FDA Nod For ESR1-Mutated Disease
The FDA approved the oral estrogen receptor antagonist imlunestrant (Inluriyo) for previously treated ESR1-mutated advanced/metastatic breast cancer, the agency announced Thursday. The approval stipulates use in adults with estrogen receptor-positive/HER2-negative breast cancer that has progressed on at least one line of endocrine therapy. (Bankhead, 9/25)

STATE WATCH

AP: Trump Extends Georgia Health Insurance Program With Work Requirements, Despite Red Tape Findings
Georgia’s program that provides health insurance to some low-income adults that document work or other activities has been extended for 15 months by President Donald Trump’s administration. Republican Gov. Brian Kemp announced Thursday that the federal government approved that the Pathways to Coverage program will continue as part of the state-federal Medicaid program through December 2026. (Amy, 9/25)

ProPublica, The Salt Lake Tribune: Utah Reinstates Nicholas LaFeber’s Dental License Despite “Alarming” Care Record
The patients kept coming to the Utah oral surgeon’s office — one after another, year after year — with dental work that the surgeon said had gone wrong. He later recounted in a letter to state licensors that he had seen dental implants that had been the wrong size, patients with chronic sinus infections and one person whose implant had become lost inside their sinus cavity. These patients, he said, had all been worked on by the same dentist: Dr. Nicholas LaFeber. (Schreifels, 9/26)

AP: Doctors' Reimbursement Rates To Drop As NC Medicaid Funding Agreement Stalls
North Carolina Medicaid patients face a threat of reduced access to services — before separate changes approved within President Donald Trump’s spending-reduction law are implemented — as an impasse over state Medicaid funding extends further. Democratic Gov. Josh Stein, whose administration oversees Medicaid for 3.1 million people in the ninth-largest state, confirmed Thursday that starting next week the state program will lower reimbursement rates for doctors, hospitals and other medical providers. (Robertson, 9/25)

Bloomberg: Massachusetts Hospitals Win State Help Ahead Of Trump Health Cuts
Hospital systems across Massachusetts — including some of the state’s largest healthcare providers UMass Memorial Medical Center and Tufts Medical Center — are poised to receive a $234 million state funding package as they battle deepening financial strains and cutbacks from the Trump administration. Governor Maura Healey earlier this week signed the bill that includes $122 million for acute-care hospitals and $77 million for the Health Safety Net Trust Fund, which reimburses hospitals and community health centers for services to uninsured and underinsured residents. (Taylor, 9/25)

AP: Survivors Of Maine's Deadliest Mass Shooting Refile Lawsuit Against US Government
The survivors and family members of victims of the deadliest mass shooting in Maine history have refiled their lawsuit against the U.S. government following a new U.S. Department of Defense watchdog report that faults the U.S. Army for a high rate of failure to report violent threats by service members. (Whittle, 9/25)

WUSF: DeSantis Announces $60M For Cancer Research
This year’s grants will prioritize studies on nutrition’s role in cancer prevention and treatment, along with other high-impact projects. Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday announced the state is providing $60 million in new grant funding for cancer research through the Florida Cancer Innovation Fund. (Mayer, 9/25)

PUBLIC HEALTH

NPR: Dementia Gets Recognition By The U.N.
For the first time, a United Nations declaration is pledging to address dementia. On Thursday, world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly in New York are laying out a new plan for combatting mental health challenges and non-communicable diseases. While their political declaration emphasizes conditions like cardiovascular disease and diabetes, it also mentions neurological conditions like dementia. (Emanuel, 9/25)

AP: Instagram's 'Deliberate Design Choices' Make It Unsafe For Teens Despite Meta Promises, Report Says
Despite years of congressional hearings, lawsuits, academic research, whistleblowers and testimony from parents and teenagers about the dangers of Instagram, Meta’s wildly popular app has failed to protect children from harm, with “woefully ineffective” safety measures, according to a new report from former employee and whistleblower Arturo Bejar and four nonprofit groups. Meta’s efforts at addressing teen safety and mental health on its platforms have long been met with criticism that the changes don’t go far enough. (Ortutay, 9/26)

Newsweek: Teens Face Misleading Sexual Health Advice On TikTok, Study Finds
Sexual health-related TikToks have been linked to misinformation and potentially dangerous advice—particularly when related to abortion. This is the finding of a cross-sectional study led by student Angeli Sirilan of the University of Arizona College of Medicine, which involved creating a TikTok account representing a 15-year-old girl. (Millington, 9/26)

CBS News: Sprout Organics Fruit And Veggie Pouches Recalled Over Potential Lead
Sprout Organics is expanding a recall of its sweet potato, apple and spinach pouches, due to potentially elevated lead levels. In an alert posted Tuesday, the Food and Drug Administration said the recall was first shared on Sept. 16, but the latest expansion includes additional lots of the 3.5-ounce pouches. (Moniuszko, 9/25)