First Edition: Tuesday, May 13, 2025

KFF HEALTH NEWS ORIGINAL STORIES

KFF Health News: After Promising Universal Health Care, California Governor Must Reconsider Immigrant Coverage
Gov. Gavin Newsom didn’t expect to be reckoning with another health care crisis. In March, as President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans escalated a nationwide debate over whether to slash health care for poor and disabled Americans, the Democratic governor had to tell state lawmakers that California’s health care costs had spiraled out of control due to major Medicaid initiatives he backed — including the nation’s largest expansion of taxpayer-financed health care for immigrants living in the U.S. without legal permission. (Hart and Mai-Duc, 5/13)

KFF Health News: Listen: Black Swimmers Make Waves Overcoming Fear And Old Perceptions
Generations of Black Americans have faced barriers to swimming. A history of systemic exclusion from pools is one factor that has led to higher drowning rates among Black children and adults than their white peers. More than a third of Black adults report they do not know how to swim, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Water safety advocates across the country are providing swim lessons to encourage Black people of all ages to overcome fears and build confidence. (Anthony, 5/13)

AFFORDABLE CARE ACT

Modern Healthcare: Exchange Enrollment Hits New High For 2025
A record 24.3 million people signed up for health insurance on federal and state-based marketplaces during the exchange open enrollment period for 2025. Fueled by enhanced subsidies enacted in 2021 and extended in 2022, the number blew past the record set a year ago by nearly 2.9 million — a 13% increase, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reported Monday. The more sizable tax credits will expire at the end of this year, barring a congressional renewal. (Tepper, 5/12)

PRESCRIPTION DRUG PRICES

AP: Trump Executive Order Gives Drugmakers 30-Day Deadline To Lower Drug Costs
President Donald Trump on Monday signed a sweeping executive order setting a 30-day deadline for drugmakers to electively lower the cost of prescription drugs in the U.S. or face new limits down the road over what the government will pay. The order calls on the health department, led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to broker new price tags for drugs over the next month. If deals are not reached, Kennedy will be tasked with developing a new rule that ties the price the U.S. pays for medications to lower prices paid by other countries. (Seitz and Min Kim, 5/12)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump Executive Order Spares Pharmaceutical Companies Worst-Case Drug Pricing Scenario For Now
The pharmaceutical industry’s reaction to President Trump’s executive order on drug prices? It could have been worse. Shares of drugmakers surged Monday after Trump signed an executive order designed to lower what Americans pay for prescription drugs that offered pharmaceutical companies room for negotiation. (Hopkins and Loftus, 5/12)

Stat: Burning Questions Remain On Trump Drug Price Executive Order 
President Trump’s executive order to lower drug prices through sweeping, cross-agency action left leaders in the pharmaceutical industry scrambling Monday to make sense of what may be ahead — and how to respond. (Payne and Silverman, 5/12)

Stat: Why Did Investors Rejoice At Trump Attack On Drug Firms? Think Like A Pharma CEO
In rolling out his plan to lower prescription drug prices, President Trump could have walked softly and carried a big stick. As pharmaceutical investors see it, he instead stomped loudly and wielded a wet noodle. (Herper, 5/13)

Fierce Healthcare: CMS May Add Part B Drugs To Negotiations Under Draft Guidance
The Trump administration has issued new draft guidance for the third cycle of Medicare drug price negotiations. The proposals seek to boost transparency in the program and put a focus on negotiating for the drugs that come at the highest cost to Medicare. The agency is also aiming to avoid negative impacts from the negotiated prices on U.S.-based pharmaceutical innovation, according to an announcement. (Minemyer, 5/12)

MEDICAID

The Hill: Congressional Budget Office Says House GOP Plan Exceeds $880 Billion Savings Target
The Energy and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over Medicaid, surpassed its target of finding $880 billion in savings to help pay for legislation to extend President Trump’s tax cuts and other priorities, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). In a brief letter to Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.), the CBO said the committee’s reconciliation recommendations would reduce deficits by more than $880 billion by 2034 and “would not increase on-budget deficits in any year after 2034.” (Weixel, 5/12)

Fierce Healthcare: Report: Tax, Medicaid Cuts Largely Benefit High-Income Families
House Republicans have unveiled their plans to cut federal spending and extend tax cuts, but experts warn that funding the cuts by slashing Medicaid and other entitlements will largely benefit families with higher incomes. The House Energy & Commerce Committee released its budget reconciliation proposal late Sunday, after being tasked with identifying at least $880 billion in spending cuts. A preliminary analysis from the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the bill would reduce the federal deficit by $912 billion, with $715 billion of that coming from cuts in healthcare. (Minemyer, 5/12)

Becker's Hospital Review: 'Cuts Of This Magnitude Cannot Be Absorbed': Hospitals Slam Republicans' Medicaid Proposal
Rick Pollack, President and CEO of the American Hospital Association, described the cuts as “a devastating blow to the health and well-being of our nation’s most vulnerable citizens and communities.” Bruce Siegel, MD, president and CEO of America’s Essential Hospitals, warned that essential hospitals — which often operate on thin margins and serve low-income populations — would be hit hard by the proposed cuts. “Slashing Medicaid funding is not just a numbers game — it is an action that will rip health care access from communities across America. ... These hospitals, which already operate on thin margins, cannot absorb such losses without reducing services or closing their doors altogether.”(Condon, 5/12)

Bloomberg: Drug Middlemen Reforms Revived By Republicans In Budget Bill
House Republicans revived a set of policies that would change how prescription drug middlemen do business, as President Donald Trump again denounced the industry, sending shares of some of the companies down Monday. The budget proposal from the House Committee on Energy and Commerce includes a set of reforms that Congress considered last year but ultimately didn’t pass. It would remove one method that the companies, which negotiate with drugmakers and pharmacies on behalf of employers, health insurers and government programs, use to boost profits. (Tozzi, 5/12)

The New York Times: In Trump Tax Package, Republicans Target SNAP Food Program
House Republicans on Monday proposed a series of sharp restrictions on the federal anti-hunger program known as food stamps, seeking to limit its funding and benefits as part of a sprawling package to advance President Trump’s tax cuts. The proposal, included in a draft measure to be considered by the House Agriculture Committee this week, would require states to supply some of the funding for food stamps while forcing more of its beneficiaries to obtain employment in exchange for federal aid. (Romm, 5/12)

The Washington Post: Medicaid Cuts May Threaten Care For Nursing Home And Elder-Care Residents
Traversing the halls of his nursing home in a wheelchair, Owen Allen listened to a visiting guitarist play “Sweet Caroline,” then chipped away at a thousand-piece puzzle in the sunroom. Since muscular dystrophy struck and his legs started giving out, the 64-year-old Atlanta native relies on Medicaid to keep him in the 130-bed home where staff help him pull weights to regain his strength. As a House Republican committee examines steep cuts to Medicaid at a pivotal hearing Tuesday, nursing home residents like Allen are among the less well-known recipients who could be affected. (Nirappil, 5/12)

NPR: Medicaid Cuts Could Mean More Drug Overdose Deaths
A coalition of addiction experts said more than 300 physicians, harm reduction workers and researchers signed a letter delivered to Congress late on Monday warning of "dire consequences" if the U.S. cuts funding for programs that help communities battle the drug overdose epidemic. "[W]e are seeing drastic cuts to key agencies," the letter said, pointing to proposals in the White House budget for 2026 that would slash billions of dollars from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and other programs. (Mann, 5/13)

MORE FROM THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION

AP: US Health Officials Advise Older Travelers Not To Get A Chikungunya Vaccine
The U.S. government advised American travelers age 60 and older not get a chikungunya vaccine as it investigates possible side effects. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration posted notices late last week on the vaccine, Valneva’s Ixchiq. Chikungunya, spread by the bites of infected mosquitoes, is a debilitating tropical illness marked by fever and joint pain. About 100 to 200 cases are reported annually among U.S. travelers. (Stobbe, 5/12)

NBC News: RFK Jr. Goes Swimming With Grandchildren In Contaminated DC Creek
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. posted photos of himself and his grandchildren swimming in waters known to be contaminated during a Mother’s Day hike in Rock Creek Park. In one of the photos from Sunday, Kennedy is seen fully submerged in the water, with his grandchildren swimming, in spite of an ongoing National Park Service advisory against coming in contact with the water in the Washington, D.C., park “due to high bacteria levels.” The same notice says swimming and wading are not permitted due to the health risks. (Richards, 5/13)

The New York Times: Not Just More Babies: These Republicans Want More Parents At Home
White House aides have discussed a variety of ideas in recent weeks intended to allow, and in some cases encourage, parents to spend more time at home with their children, according to three people who have been part of the conversations. Ideas under discussion include giving more money to families for each child they have, eliminating federal tax credits for day care and opening up federal lands for the construction of affordable single-family homes. If families can spend less on housing, advocates reason, then more families will be able to survive on only one income. The approach is reflected in legislation recently filed by Republicans in Congress. Senator Jim Banks of Indiana introduced a bill that would effectively pay stay-at-home parents for their labor. Other Republicans want to expand the child tax credit, an annual credit of $2,000 per child, in part by dismantling additional tax breaks reserved for working parents to use on day care. (Kitchener, 5/12)

Military.Com: Trump Orders VA To Build Homeless Veterans Center On West LA Campus
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday that aims to create a center for homeless veterans in Los Angeles and to improve medical care across the Department of Veterans Affairs. The order calls for constructing a National Center for Warrior Independence on the campus of the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center that would provide housing and services to 3,000 homeless veterans currently in Los Angeles, with a goal to eventually home 6,000 veterans. (Kime, 5/12)

The New York Times: Biden Is Being Evaluated For A ‘Small Nodule’ In His Prostate
Former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. spent last Friday at a hospital in Philadelphia after a “small nodule” was discovered on his prostate that required “further evaluation,” according to a spokesman. It is common for a man of Mr. Biden’s age — he is 82 — to experience prostate issues, and his spokesman declined to elaborate on any additional details about his care. (McCreesh and Pager, 5/12)

COVID-19

CIDRAP: Data Suggest COVID-19 Reinfections Less Likely To Cause Long COVID
A new preprint study on the preprint server medRxiv involving healthcare workers in Quebec shows that the risk of long COVID following any initial COVID-19 infection was similar among participants, cumulative risk increased with the number of infections, but reinfections were associated with a much lower risk of long COVID than a person's first infection. (Soucheray, 5/12)

HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY

Chicago Tribune: Carle Health Laying Off 612 Workers
Urbana-based Carle Health is laying off 612 workers as it winds down two of its subsidiary health insurance companies. Carle Health — a system that includes eight hospitals in central Illinois — announced earlier this year that its insurance company subsidiaries Health Alliance and FirstCarolinaCare would cease operating all lines of business, except Medicare Advantage plans. (Schencker, 5/12)

CBS News: Maryland Rite Aid Distribution Center To Lay Off More Than 300 Workers After Pharmacy Files For Bankruptcy A Second Time
A Rite Aid distribution center in Harford County, Maryland, is expected to lay off more than 300 workers and close its doors after the Pennsylvania-based pharmacy filed for bankruptcy for a second time. The company announced that it filed for Chapter 11 on May 5. (Lockman, 5/12)

CBS News: Nonprofit Hospitals Are Obligated To Offer Discounted Health Care, But Some Patients Slip Through Cracks
A CBS News analysis of IRS data found some nonprofit hospitals in Philadelphia and across the country attempt to collect hundreds of millions of dollars a year from low-income patients. All the big hospitals in the Philadelphia area are nonprofit, and that means they receive federal, state and local tax breaks. In exchange, nonprofit hospitals are required to provide free or discounted care to those who can't afford to pay. However, our investigation found the law is vague, and some patients may be falling through the cracks. (Crawford, 5/12)

CBS News: Inside The First U.S. Medical School To Fully Incorporate AI Into Its Doctor Training Program
Artificial intelligence is quickly becoming a part of our daily lives, whether in the office or the classroom, and one medical school is fully embracing the technology. The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City has become the first in the nation to incorporate AI into its doctor training program, granting access to OpenAI's ChatGPT Edu to all of its M.D. and graduate students. Faris Gulamali is among the school's future doctors taking full advantage of the AI tool. (Hanson, 5/12)

PHARMA AND TECH

Modern Healthcare: Roche To Invest $550M By 2030 In Indianapolis Manufacturing Site
Biotechnology and pharmaceutical company Roche will invest up to $550 million over the next five years to expand its diagnostics manufacturing site in Indianapolis. The site is slated to become a major manufacturer of the company’s continuous glucose monitoring tools, the company said in a Monday news release. (Dubinsky, 5/12)

Stat: Federal Court Reopens Question Of Who Owns Key CRISPR Patents 
The now 13-year-long legal saga over who invented CRISPR took yet another unexpected turn on Monday, in a ruling that could not only change U.S. ownership of patent rights to the groundbreaking gene-editing technology but more broadly redefine how the law determines when an invention has been made. (Molteni, 5/12)

CBS News: New Device Helps Patients Cope With Tinnitus, Pennsylvania Audiologist Says
A growing number of patients are turning to a new treatment for a condition that causes ringing in the ears. The device tricks the brain with a tickle to the tongue. Silence really is golden for Clara Flores. Her days used to be filled with the constant buzzing and ringing that comes with tinnitus, which affects 25 million Americans. "This ringing that you hate and can't stand ... you cannot turn it off," Flores said. "You get depressed, you get angry. Your relationships suffer." (Stahl and Nau, 5/12)

San Francisco Chronicle: UC Berkeley Wins Chance To Reclaim Lucrative Gene Editing Patent
With potentially huge sums at stake, a federal court on Monday reinstated UC Berkeley’s legal claim seeking nationwide rights to develop and market gene editing, the transfer of genetic technology between living organisms with the capability of curing diseases. The U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board ruled in 2022 that the patent for so-called CRISPR technology belonged to the Broad Institute, affiliated with Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which had published a study in 2012 describing how the technology could be used to alter genes in plants and animals. (Egelko, 5/12)

STATE WATCH

Los Angeles Times: Gov. Newsom Again Urges Cities To Ban Homeless Camps
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday again urged California cities and counties to ban homeless encampments, increasing his pressure campaign on local governments to follow the state’s lead and remove tents from sidewalks and other public property. “It is time to take back the streets,” Newsom said during a virtual press conference. “It’s time to take back the sidewalks. It’s time to take these encampments and provide alternatives and the state is giving you more resources than ever, and it’s time, I think, to just end the excuses.” (Luna and Goldberg, 5/12)

The Texas Tribune: Chronic Pain Could Qualify Texans For Medical Marijuana Under Bill
The Texas House advanced a bill Monday that would expand the conditions eligible for the state’s medical marijuana program, including chronic pain and Crohn’s disease, and allow for prescribed smokable products to be sold by prescription. (Simpson, 5/12)

The CT Mirror: Culture War Comes To CT In Debate On Trans Rights In Nursing Homes
In rising last week to make his first speech to the Connecticut House of Representatives, Rep. MJ Shannon, D-Milford, stepped onto one of America’s culture-war battlefields: a debate over transgender rights that President Donald J. Trump is intent on erasing. (Pazniokas, 5/13)

The Colorado Sun: Weld County Oil Well Exposed People To High Levels Of Benzene, Researchers Say
The oil well blowout last month in rural Galeton, which sparked the evacuation of nearby homes, spewed dangerous levels of toxic chemicals as far as 2 miles away, according to preliminary tests by a Colorado State University team. (Jaffe, 5/12)

CBS News: Santa Clara County Health Officials Sound Alarm Over Deadly Opioid Carfentanil
Health officials are sounding the alarm over what they're calling a new threat after Santa Clara County recently confirmed its first carfentanil overdose death. There's a thick stack of papers that sits on a shelf directly across from Dr. Michelle Jorden's desk. The Santa Clara County's Chief Medical Examiner flips through the toxicology reports, each sheet representing a drug overdose death. "I can constantly survey what our patients are dying from," said Dr. Jorden. (Choi, 5/12)

Chicago Tribune: Alzheimer's Foundation Offers Free Conference In Chicago
Anyone who wants to learn more about Alzheimer’s disease, research or caregiver resources is invited to the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America’s free Alzheimer’s & Caregiving Educational Conference, set for 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. May 14 at the Palmer House Hilton, 17 E. Monroe St. in Chicago. (Moore, 5/12)

CBS News: Colorado Doctor Says Financial Stress, Anxiety Impacting Mental Health
It's Mental Health Awareness Week and finances are having a big impact on Coloradans' mental health. Right now, many people are feeling added stress from their financial situations because of the state of the economy. Dr. Elizabeth Wassenaar, a local psychiatrist at Pathlight Mood & Anxiety Center, said nowadays more of her patients are feeling uncertain about their financial security and are feeling more anxious about their financial situations. For some people, it's having a negative impact on their mental health, too. She said financial anxiety is impacting every age group. (Portillo, 5/12)

LIFESTYLE AND HEALTH

CIDRAP: Korean Study Links Early Antibiotic Use To Higher Risk Of Early Puberty In Girls
A study of South Korean children suggests antibiotic use in girls in the first year of life may be linked to earlier onset of puberty, researchers reported last week at a joint meeting of the European Society of Paediatric Endocrinology and the European Society of Endocrinology. (Dall, 5/12)

The New York Times: Robert Shapiro, Who Made NutraSweet A Household Name, Dies At 86 
Robert B. Shapiro, a brash former law professor turned corporate executive who performed a marketing miracle by branding aspartame as the sugar substitute NutraSweet and making it a household name that consumers demanded in thousands of products, died on May 2 at his home in Chicago. He was 86. The cause was pancreatic cancer, his son James Shapiro said. Aspartame was invented by chemists at the pharmaceutical company G.D. Searle in Illinois in 1965 and approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in soft drinks in 1983, a year after Mr. Shapiro became chief executive and chairman of what the company was already calling its NutraSweet subsidiary. (Roberts, 5/12)