First Edition: Friday, Nov. 21, 2025

KFF HEALTH NEWS ORIGINAL STORIES

KFF Health News: US Cancer Registries, Constrained By Trump Policies, To Recognize Only ‘Male’ Or ‘Female’ Patients
The top authorities of U.S. cancer statistics will soon have to classify the sex of patients strictly as male, female, or unknown, a change scientists and advocates say will harm the health of transgender people, one of the nation’s most marginalized populations. Scientists and advocates for trans rights say the change will make it much harder to understand cancer diagnoses and trends among the trans population. Certain studies have shown that transgender people are more likely to use tobacco products or less likely to receive routine cancer screenings — factors that could put them at higher risk of disease. (Pradhan, 11/21)

KFF Health News: After Series Of Denials, His Insurer Approved Doctor-Recommended Cancer Care. It Was Too Late
For nearly three years, Eric Tennant endured chemotherapy infusions, rounds of radiation, biopsies, and hospitalizations that left him weak and depleted. “It’s good to be home,” he said after one hospital stay in early June, “yet I’m tired and ready to get on with things.” In 2023, Tennant, of Bridgeport, West Virginia, was diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma, a rare cancer of the bile ducts that had spread throughout his body. (Sausser, 11/21)

KFF Health News: Cancer Stole Her Voice. She Used AI, Curse Words, And Kids’ Books To Get It Back
When doctors told her they had to remove her tongue and voice box to save her life from the cancer that had invaded her mouth, Sonya Sotinsky sat down with a microphone to record herself saying the things she would never again be able to say. “Happy birthday” and “I’m proud of you” topped the phrases she banked for her husband and two daughters, as well as “I’ll be right with you,” intended for customers at the architecture firm she co-owns in Tucson, Arizona. (Dembosky, 11/21)

KFF Health News: KFF Health News’ ‘What The Health?’: The GOP Circles The Wagons On ACA
Millions of people in Republican-dominated states are among those seeing their Affordable Care Act plan premiums spike for 2026 as enhanced, pandemic-era subsidies expire. Yet Republicans in the White House and on Capitol Hill are firming up their opposition to extending those additional payments — at least for now. Meanwhile, Democrats may not have achieved their shutdown goal of renewing the subsidies, but they have returned health care — one of their top issues with voters — to the national agenda. (Rovner, 11/20)

AUTISM

CIDRAP: After Unprecedented Autism-Vaccine Messaging Change, Scientists, Advocates Say CDC No Longer Trustworthy
Instead of a global leader in science, the CDC has devolved into “a propaganda machine for RFK Jr.'s fixed, immutable, science-resistant theories,” said Paul Offit, MD, an infectious disease specialist at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and co-inventor of the rotavirus vaccine. “The CDC is being weaponized to promote RFK Jr.’s anti-vaccine point of view. So why should you trust it?” Many public health experts who spoke to CIDRAP News sounded sorrowful. ... Many physicians worry that the CDC’s new message will dissuade parents from vaccinating their children. (Szabo and Bergeson, 11/20)

The Washington Post: CDC In Turmoil After Agency Backpedals On Rejecting Vaccines-Autism Link
Career scientists at the agency responsible for information about vaccine safety and autism had no prior knowledge about the changes to the website and were not consulted, according to five agency officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. ... CDC communications staff who were first asked to post the revisions to the website were reluctant to do so without sign-off from scientific leadership, so a higher-level communications official did so, according to an agency employee and a former federal health official with direct knowledge of the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. (Sun, 11/20)

Becker's Hospital Review: Healthcare Groups Decry CDC Messaging Change On Autism And Vaccines
Healthcare associations are raising concerns after the CDC this week removed messaging from its website stating that vaccines do not cause autism. The agency updated its webpage on vaccines and autism Nov. 19. Previously, the page said research has shown “no link between receiving vaccines and developing autism spectrum disorder,” according to The New York Times. (Bean, 11/20)

The Hill: GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy Criticizes CDC's New Vaccine-Autism Language
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) on Thursday said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) removing language from its website refuting the theory that vaccines are linked to autism was “deeply troubling.” Late on Wednesday, the CDC walked back its long-held position that vaccines do not cause autism. A CDC web page that previously stated “there is no link” between receiving vaccines and developing autism now says that statement “is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism.” (Choi, 11/20)

Los Angeles Times: Why Autistic Kids Are Far More Likely To Struggle With Depression, Anxiety And Suicide
When Anthony Tricarico was diagnosed at 7 with autism spectrum disorder, his parents, Neal and Samara, were told that he might need extra support at school, so they made sure he got it. When doctors suggested therapies for his speech and motor skills, they sought those out too. But when their kind, popular, accomplished boy began to experience depression and suicidal ideation as a teenager, no one told them that the same thinking patterns that powered many of Anthony’s achievements might also be amplifying his most harmful thoughts, or that the effort of masking his autism could be hurting his mental health. (Purtill, 11/20)

HEALTH CARE COSTS AND COVERAGE

Politico: Rick Scott Releases Obamacare Subsidy Alternative 
Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) has issued his alternative to enhanced Obamacare subsidies. His “More Affordable Care Act,” released Thursday, enables Obamacare customers to use a “Trump Health Freedom Account” that resembles a health savings account. (King, 11/20)

Politico: Looming Affordability Crisis Set To Hit Americans With Health Insurance Through Work
Rising Obamacare premiums are a political problem for Republicans. Rising premiums for workers who get health insurance from their employers could be an even bigger one. Republicans in Congress are focused on finding a way to counteract an expected 26 percent rise in premiums for people who buy insurance through the Affordable Care Act, without extending government subsidies that make insurance more affordable. (Hooper, 11/20)

Politico: Vance Tries To Thread The Affordability Needle
Vice President JD Vance on Thursday offered an explanation for the slate of political quagmires Republicans are juggling, including persistent cost of living issues and even divisions within the Republican Party itself. He blamed them on the Democrats. Speaking at a fireside chat hosted by the MAGA-friendly news outlet Breitbart, the vice president chalked up affordability concerns that catalyzed steep GOP losses in state elections earlier this month to former President Joe Biden’s policies and a government shutdown he called Democratic “economic terrorism.” (Sentner, 11/20)

Politico: Trump Cuts More Tariffs With Eye Toward Grocery Prices
President Donald Trump on Thursday eliminated tariffs on a large swath of Brazilian agricultural goods, including beef and coffee, dropping steep tariffs he imposed this summer as he feuded with Brazil’s government and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. (Desrochers, 11/20)

Katie Couric Media: Trump Wants to Send $2,000 Tariff Checks to Americans — Here’s the Problem
In a Truth Social post on Nov. 8, Trump wrote that instead of “sending hundreds of billions” to insurance companies under the Affordable Care Act, the money should go “directly to the people” so they can buy their own coverage. ... Even if lawmakers embraced the idea, there’s a much bigger hurdle: the math. A $2,000-per-person dividend — even if limited to Americans with low or middle incomes — would far exceed the roughly $200 billion that Donald Trump’s tariffs are expected to raise. (Bonn, 11/18)

NPR: These Families’ Health Care Costs Will Balloon If Congress Doesn’t Act On The ACA
The government shutdown has ended without resolving a fight over health insurance. Congress failed to extend enhanced tax credits that have helped millions of Americans on Affordable Care Act plans cover their plan costs since 2021. Senate Republicans have promised a vote on the enhanced subsidies before the end of the year. But open enrollment for these plans is already underway and consumers are facing sky-high prices and little certainty about whether they'll get relief. (Wroth and Nair, 11/20)

Fierce Healthcare: Dems Introduce Bill To Expand Drug Price Negotiation
Democrats in the House have introduced a new bill that aims to further expand Medicare's ability to negotiate drug prices. The bill, titled the Lowering Drug Costs for American Families Act, would allow Medicare to negotiate prices for more drugs each year, from 20 to 50, and make those prices available in the commercial insurance market. It could cap annual out-of-pocket costs for prescriptions and insulin at $35 per month. (Minemyer, 11/20)

Fierce Healthcare: Mark Cuban Implores Employers To Simplify Contracting
In a virtual fireside chat on Tuesday with Scripta Insights CEO Eric Levin, Mark Cuban spoke passionately about the potential of simplified contracting and cash pay. Scripta is a partner of Cuban’s company, Cost Plus Drugs. ... Though a few states already require this, Cuban also recommended that employers mandate that cash payments be applied to a member’s deductible. “If you’re self-insured, it’s your contract. You get to write it the way you want,” Cuban said. This is something many brokers do not have incentive to recommend, he said, because it doesn’t keep them in good standing with PBMs. (Gliadkovskaya, 11/19)

MORE ON THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION

Fierce Healthcare: Leaked EO Draft Lays Out Plan To Squash State AI Policy
The Trump administration is considering a new executive order that would punish states for enacting laws on artificial intelligence and potentially speed plans to enact a national AI framework. The leaked copy of the draft document, obtained by Fierce Healthcare, lays out a plan to pursue legal action against states that try to regulate AI and a pathway to withhold grant funds for states that try to regulate AI. (Beavins, 11/20)

The 19th: Quiet Revisions To National Caregiving Plan Erase Trans People, People Of Color
Three years after the release of the first comprehensive roadmap to address difficulties faced by family caregivers of older adults and people with disabilities, the Trump administration has quietly erased transgender caregivers and caregivers of color from a list of underserved or hard-to-reach populations, The 19th has exclusively learned. (Luterman, 11/20)

HIV/AIDS

Bloomberg: China Boosts South Africa HIV Drive, Huge US Funding Gaps Remain
China will finance HIV-prevention programs in South Africa for the first time, taking a small step into the massive void left by US funding cuts earlier this year. The agreement to provide $3.5 million over the next two years compares with the roughly $400 million in HIV/AIDS funding to South Africa cut by the Trump administration earlier this year. The country has the world’s largest HIV epidemic, with about 8 million people living with the virus that causes AIDS. (Kew, 11/20)

Stat: South Africa Urged To Issue Compulsory License For Gilead's HIV Prevention Drug
Patient advocacy groups have urged the South African government to issue a compulsory license for a groundbreaking HIV prevention treatment after the Trump administration refused to include South Africa in a new program to distribute the drug to poor countries. (Silverman, 11/20)

The 19th: America’s Most Basic Protections For HIV-Positive People Could Disappear
Decades of progress in HIV treatment and prevention in the United States is being derailed by the Trump administration, public health experts say — and without reversing course, the damage will be devastating. (Rummler, 11/20)

MEDICARE

The Hill: Medicare Part B Premium Increase Will Chip Away At Social Security COLA
Two steps forward, one step back. That might best describe the pending cost-of-living adjustment in Social Security benefits, coupled with a simultaneous increase in the premiums seniors pay for Medicare Part B insurance. The 2.8 percent bump in Social Security income takes effect in January 2026 and is expected to bring an additional $56 per month to the average recipient. Medicare Part B is part of the program for older Americans that covers outpatient care, preventive services and medical equipment. (Ramsey, 11/20)

Modern Healthcare: Medicare Dialysis Pay To Increase 2.2% In 2026 Under CMS Rule
Dialysis facilities will receive a 2.2% reimbursement increase next year under a final rule the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services published Thursday. That’s higher than the 1.9% bump CMS proposed in June under the End-Stage Renal Disease Prospective Payment System for 2026. The base rate for dialysis services will rise from $273.82 to $281.71, according to a news release. Hospital-based dialysis providers will get a 1.5% payment hike, CMS says. (Early, 11/20)

HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY

The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer: Judge Appoints Receiver For Cleveland Healthcare Nonprofit NEON 
A federal judge has appointed a receiver to take over the operations of a nonprofit that runs health care clinics after a cascading series of issues in recent years. (Ferrise, 11/20)

The CT Mirror: Hartford HealthCare Could Acquire 2 Prospect Hospitals By Year End
After years of uncertainty regarding the future of the Connecticut hospitals owned by bankrupt operator Prospect Medical Holdings, two of the three facilities could have a new owner by the end of the year. (Golvala, 11/20)

Modern Healthcare: Mobile PET/CT Scanners Gain Traction As Hospitals See Demand Grow
Small hospitals and clinics are turning to mobile PET/CT scanner rental companies so they can offer advanced imaging to patients without the steep investment of owning the equipment. Mobile equipment rental is expanding most rapidly in cardiac imaging, as providers look to replace older technology and care for more patients with heart disease. A recent innovation in the space, an injectable radioactive imaging agent for cardiovascular scans that has a longer lifespan, is creating opportunities to bring the mobile scanning technology to more providers and communities. (Dubinsky, 11/20)

PHARMA AND TECH

Bloomberg: Merck KGaA, Valo To Use AI To Develop Parkinson’s Drugs
Merck KGaA, a German science group, will use Valo Health Inc.’s AI platform to help discover and develop treatments for Parkinson’s disease and related disorders, in a partnership deal that could be worth more than $3 billion. The US company will provide a platform that uses advanced AI to uncover disease patterns and find potential targets in a data trove that includes more than 17 million patient records and biobank samples. The deal marks Merck’s second collaboration in neurological conditions this year. (Wind, 11/20)

The Guardian: Prozac ‘No Better Than Placebo’ For Treating Children With Depression, Experts Say
Clinical guidelines should no longer recommend Prozac for children, according to experts, after research showed it had no clinical benefit for treating depression in children and adolescents. Globally one in seven 10- to 19-year-olds have a mental health condition, according to the World Health Organization. In the UK, about a quarter of older teenagers and up to a fifth of younger children have anxiety, depression or other mental health problems. (Bawden, 11/20)

The Washington Post: Inside The Lab Where Scientists Are Inventing Food Dyes Of The Future
Monica Giusti studied two test tubes partially filled with a light lilac-colored liquid. A perplexed look crossed her face. The Ohio State University food science professor hadn’t expected the colors to appear identical. Both tubes had been filled with the same light purple powder created in her laboratory — a combination of juice from aronia berries, which are small and dark and native to North America, and whey protein. But one of the tubes contained a touch of solution similar to the acidity of fruit juice. Giusti added more acid to the tube, and it quickly transformed into a vibrant orangey red. (Roubein, 11/20)

Stat: FDA Approves Paradromics’ Brain-Computer Interface Trial For Speech Restoration
Paradromics announced Thursday that the Food and Drug Administration approved a clinical study to evaluate whether the company’s brain-computer interface for speech restoration is safe and capable of providing the ability to communicate via text or synthesized speech to someone with paralysis. (Broderick, 11/20)

REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH

Bloomberg: AI Chatbots Give Harmful Tip To Users Seeking Abortion Reversal
Popular AI chatbots are routinely steering users who ask for advice on reversing an abortion to a hotline that promotes an unproven and potentially dangerous treatment, according to a new report. The Campaign for Accountability found that five popular AI “answer engines” — including tools from OpenAI, Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Meta Platforms Inc., Perplexity, and Elon Musk’s xAI — routinely steered users to an anti-abortion helpline that markets what opponents call “abortion pill reversal.” (Ghosh, 11/20)

The Guardian: She Was Pregnant And Addicted To Fentanyl. Getting To Keep Her Baby Saved Them Both
Eight months pregnant and in pain, Stephanie Rosell went to the Holy family hospital emergency room after an infection began spreading up her legs. Unemployed and homeless, estranged from her family, she lived in a shed she had built in a friend’s yard. She was also addicted to fentanyl. As doctors treated her infection, she began to panic. Withdrawal was setting in. She leaned over the bed and vomited. Stephanie finally broke down. “Listen, I gotta go. I have to go home and get high.” She had used fentanyl before coming to the ER and had just enough time to get treated before she needed to go home to get high again. (Neumann, 11/20)

STATE WATCH

AP: Shaken Baby Syndrome Testimony Deemed Inadmissible By New Jersey Supreme Court
New Jersey’s highest court ruled Thursday that expert testimony about shaken baby syndrome is scientifically unreliable and inadmissible in two upcoming trials, a decision that comes as the long-held medical diagnoses have come under increased scrutiny. The New Jersey Supreme Court determined that a diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome, which is also known as abusive head trauma, is not generally accepted within the “biomechanical community” and is therefore not “sufficiently reliable” for admission at the trials. (Marcelo, 11/20)

The Washington Post: Head Of Va. Homeless Shelter Embezzled Funds To Buy Tattoo, Airfare 
In 2022 and 2023, Kia A. Player received nearly $1 million in government funds to open and operate a homeless shelter for women and children in Richmond. She pocketed nearly $200,000 of it and bought herself airline tickets, a luxurious ferry ride in Miami Beach and splurged on a tattoo. Player, 41, pleaded guilty Tuesday to redirecting government funds for her homeless shelter into her personal coffers, according to a U.S. attorney’s office news release. (Munro, 11/20)

Chicago Tribune: Nonprofit Says Illinois Wrongly Blocked Disability Housing In Elgin
A nonprofit provider for people with severe developmental disabilities is going to court against the state, arguing Gov. JB Pritzker’s Department of Human Services improperly denied it permission to build a cluster of new homes in Elgin. (Olander, 11/20)

The Boston Globe: One In 8 Massachusetts Residents Have Medical Debt, Report Finds
Despite nearly universal health insurance coverage in Massachusetts, more than one in eight residents carry medical debt, according to a report released Thursday by a state agency. The vast majority of those people were insured when bills started to pile up, said the study by the Center for Health Information and Analysis, which monitors the Massachusetts health care landscape. But many had insurance plans with high deductibles. (Saltzman, 11/20)

The Washington Post: Poverty Spikes In The Land Of The Tech Billionaires 
Hundreds of thousands more people struggle in the San Francisco area as the cost of living climbs and the safety net disappears. (Thebault, 11/19)

San Francisco Chronicle: Why Are So Few Sticking With Treatment For Fentanyl In San Francisco?
Slumped over in a wheelchair in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood, Johnny White said he finally felt ready to quit fentanyl and try to rebuild the life he’d lost. White, 45, relapsed a few years ago, costing him his apartment and job as an ironworker in Santa Rosa. He plunged deep into his addiction and wound up homeless in San Francisco. But twice in recent months, he failed to pick up prescriptions for medication to treat his opioid addiction that outreach workers had helped arrange. (Angst, 11/20)

PUBLIC HEALTH

MedPage Today: Hand, Foot, And Mouth Disease Surging In Some States
Physicians and public health experts in a number of states in the mid-Atlantic region are reporting an uptick in hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD). HFMD, which is caused by enteroviruses such as coxsackievirus, can occur among people of all ages, but it is particularly common in children, especially those younger than 5 years, according to the CDC. It is characterized by flu-like symptoms, mouth sores, and rash on the hands and feet, as well as the buttocks, legs, and arms. (Henderson, 11/20)

St. Louis Public Radio: Roughly 70 Metro East Employees Get Workers' Comp For Radiation 
Roughly 70 former employees of a Metro East factory tied to the Manhattan Project, and the spouses of deceased workers, have become the first group in Illinois to receive workers’ compensation for radiation exposure. (Bauer, 11/21)

CNN: A Doctor’s Food Safety Tips For Thanksgiving 
Nearly 82 million Americans are expected to travel over the Thanksgiving holiday, including many of you. As family and friends gather together to share meals, it may be good to remember that foodborne illnesses are on the rise. These are mostly preventable with the right precautions. (Hetter, 11/20)