First Edition: Monday, Dec. 22, 2025

KFF HEALTH NEWS ORIGINAL STORIES

KFF Health News: Criminally Ill: Systemic Failures Turn State Mental Hospitals Into Prisons
Tyeesha Ferguson fears her 28-year-old son will kill or be killed. “That’s what I’m trying to avoid,” said Ferguson, who still calls Quincy Jackson III her baby. She remembers a boy who dressed himself in three-piece suits, donated his allowance, and graduated high school at 16 with an academic scholarship and plans to join the military or start a business. Instead, Ferguson watched as her once bright-eyed, handsome son sank into disheveled psychosis, bouncing between family members’ homes, homeless shelters, jails, clinics, emergency rooms, and Ohio’s regional psychiatric hospitals. (Tribble and Livingston, 12/22)

KFF Health News: Baltimore Drove Down Gun Deaths. Now Trump Has Slashed Funding For That Work
David Fitzgerald knows how tough it is to prevent gun violence. In 15 years working in some of Baltimore’s deadliest neighborhoods for a program called Safe Streets, he said, he’s defused hundreds of fights that could have led to a shooting. The effort, part of Baltimore’s more than $100 million gun violence prevention plan, relies on staffers like Fitzgerald to build trust with people at risk of such violence and offer them resources like housing or food. Researchers believe these programs reduce gun deaths. (Rayasam, 12/22)

KFF Health News: Medicaid Health Plans Step Up Outreach Efforts Ahead Of GOP Changes
Carmen Basu, bundled in a red jacket and woolly scarf, stood outside the headquarters of her local health plan one morning after picking up free groceries. She had brought her husband, teenage son, and 79-year-old mother-in-law to help. They grabbed canned food, fruit and vegetables, and a grocery store gift card. And then Basu spotted a row of tables in the parking lot staffed by county social service workers helping people apply for food assistance and health coverage. Her mother-in-law, also a Medicaid recipient, might qualify for food assistance, she was told. (Boyd-Barrett, 12/22)

KFF Health News’ ‘On Air’: Journalists Zero In On 'Certificate Of Need' Laws And Turbulent Obamacare Enrollment Season
KFF Health News senior correspondent Renuka Rayasam discussed gun violence in Bogalusa, Louisiana, on KALW’s Your Call on Dec. 19. (12/20)

VACCINES

Politico: RFK Jr. Wanted To Endorse The Danish Vaccine Schedule. He Was Forced To Pull Back
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. came within hours of publicly promoting Denmark’s childhood vaccine schedule as an option for American parents — before legal and political concerns got in the way. A senior HHS official told POLITICO that a press conference set for Friday was canceled at the last minute after the HHS Office of the General Counsel said it would invite a lawsuit the administration could lose. A second senior official at the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed the press conference, which HHS had publicly announced, was to be about the Danish schedule. (Röhn, 12/20)

Axios: Changes To The U.S. Childhood Vaccine Schedule Could Threaten Access
Some leading vaccine manufacturers could be exposed to litigation they've been protected from for decades if the U.S. decides to adopt a new childhood vaccine schedule resembling Denmark's, as it appears likely to do in the new year. The threat of expensive lawsuits could ultimately drive vaccine makers from the U.S. market, upending access to shots like those protecting against the seasonal flu, hepatitis and meningitis. (Owens, 12/22)

MEDICARE AND MEDICAID

AP: 9 Big Pharmaceutical Companies Agree To Lower Drug Prices For Medicaid
U.S. President Donald Trump announced Friday that nine drugmakers have agreed to lower the cost of their prescription drugs in the U.S. Pharmaceutical companies Amgen, Bristol Myers Squibb, Boehringer Ingelheim, Genentech, Gilead Sciences, GSK, Merck, Novartis and Sanofi will now rein in Medicaid drug prices to match what they charged in other developed countries. (Ho, 12/19)

Modern Healthcare: CMS Proposes New Requirements For Transparency In Coverage Rule 
The Trump administration Friday proposed refining health insurance companies’ price transparency requirements. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued a draft regulation that would change how health insurance companies and employers must disclose their negotiated rates with providers. “Americans have a right to know what healthcare costs before they pay for it,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. said in a news release Friday. (Tepper, 12/19)

AFFORDABLE CARE ACT

Politico: Democrats Are United In Bashing GOP On Obamacare. Medicare For All Could Reopen A Rift
Progressives are pushing Medicare for All in some of the Democratic Party’s most competitive Senate primaries next year, threatening the unity the party has found on attacking Republicans over expiring Obamacare subsidies. In Maine, Graham Platner said he’s making Medicare for All a “core part” of his platform in his race against Gov. Janet Mills, the establishment pick who’s called for a universal health care program. In Illinois, Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton and Rep. Robin Kelly are both championing the concept — and calling out rival Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi for not fully embracing it. (Kashinsky and Schneider, 12/21)

The Hill: James Lankford Defends GOP Stance On Obamacare
Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) said he would leave it to the American people to decide whether they blame Republicans for the lapse in enhanced ObamaCare subsidies at the end of the year, but he defended GOP efforts to strike a deal on the issue in recent weeks. In an interview Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” the conservative senator was asked if he shares Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s (R-Alaska) view that Republicans could pay the price politically if they let the COVID-era enhanced tax credits for Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace plans expire at the end of the year. (Fortinsky, 12/21)

The Washington Post: ACA Enrollment Fraud Roiled Subsidy Extension Debate In Congress
The Florida insurance brokers offered an enticing deal to unemployed and homeless people: Enroll in a Healthcare.gov health plan they weren’t eligible for in exchange for gift cards, food, alcohol or cash. They coached them to lie about their income to qualify for heavily subsidized coverage, according to court documents. Sometimes they enrolled people without their knowledge. A federal jury convicted Cory Lloyd and Steven Strong last month of collecting millions of dollars in commissions between 2018 and 2022 through a widespread plot to defraud the federal insurance marketplace. (Winfield Cunningham, 12/19)

MedPage Today: 'Revolutionary' Change Needed To Address Intractable Healthcare Issue, Experts Say
Radical change is needed to eliminate health inequities in the U.S., argued policy experts during the launch of the Bridging Our Divide campaign, hosted by the Institute for Policy Solutions at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. "People are saying that we shouldn't be talking about the very thing that we're talking about today on this stage," said Vincent Guilamo-Ramos, PhD, RN, executive director of the institute, acknowledging that health equity has become a "lightning rod" in the current political environment. Since the start of the year, the Trump administration has targeted diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) research funding and standards. (Firth, 12/19)

COVERAGE AND ACCESS

Central Florida Public Media: Two Years After Health Care Expansion Passes, Florida Kids Are Still Waiting To Get Access 
Lawmakers approved an expansion of KidCare meant to help thousands of children with complex medical needs. But an ongoing lawsuit with federal regulators has kept the new eligibility rules on hold. Families say the delay is costing kids critical therapies and care. (Pedersen, 12/19)

VTDigger: Centers For Children With Autism Fear Proposed Medicaid Changes May Threaten Ability To Operate
Kingston attends an Applied Behavior Analysis, or ABA, center called Bounce. The Essex program looks like a preschool, but it’s a clinical space where he and 46 other students receive personalized ABA treatment designed to reduce their problem behaviors and increase their skills — things like articulating their needs and feelings, potty-training and putting on clothes. Bounce is one of 20 ABA providers in Vermont who receive Medicaid — nearly half of those are other clinics. But, proposed changes to Vermont Medicaid billing rules have made several ABA providers across the state fearful about their ability to continue doing this work. (Gieger, 12/19)

Stat: Topical Steroid Withdrawal Community Feels Sting Of NIH Turmoil 
On May 23, 2023, Kelly Barta arrived at the National Institutes of Health to figure out what was wrong with her. In a sense, she already knew: She had diagnosed herself with topical steroid withdrawal in 2012, and had gone on to become the president and executive director of a TSW advocacy group. But many doctors weren’t convinced the disorder existed, and as far as Barta could tell, most researchers didn’t care enough to dig into it. The fact that the biggest funder of biomedical research in the world was even trying to decipher its biology felt like a breakthrough. (Boodman, 12/22)

The New York Times: Older Americans Quit Weight-Loss Drugs In Droves 
“There’s this new drug I’d like you to try, if your insurance will pay for it,” the nurse-practitioner advised. She was talking about Ozempic. Medicare covered it for treating Type 2 diabetes but not for weight loss, and it cost more than $1,000 a month out of pocket. But to Ms. Bucklew’s surprise, her Medicare Advantage plan covered it even though she wasn’t diabetic, charging just a $25 monthly co-pay. ... Then her Medicare plan notified her that it would no longer cover the drug. (Span, 12/21)

THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION

Stat: FDA, Roiled By Layoffs And Political Turmoil, Faces 3 Key Issues In 2026
The Food and Drug Administration is in a precarious position as it heads toward 2026. The agency has been mired by high-profile departures, feuds between top leaders, accusations of politicization, and low morale. It has lost thousands of employees to layoffs and resignations and cannot seem to hold onto a director of the drug center, which has been led by five different people since January. (Lawrence, 12/22)

The Hill: Trump Administration Faces Pressure On Abortion Pill Review
Anti-abortion voices are growing increasingly impatient for the Trump administration to complete a review of the abortion pill mifepristone, potentially altering its approval. But changing abortion access at the federal level could imperil an already vulnerable GOP in the upcoming midterms. (Choi, 12/21)

Modern Healthcare: CMS Creates Rural Health Transformation Office 
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services formed the Office of Rural Health Transformation, the agency announced Friday. The new office oversees the Rural Health Transformation Program, a $50 billion fund established under the tax law for states to improve access to care and boost outcomes in rural communities. CMS tasked the office with developing application review criteria, distributing funds to states, fielding public comments, readying data infrastructure, monitoring the progress of states’ transformation plans and rooting out waste, fraud and abuse, among other responsibilities, according to a Federal Register notice. (Kacik, 12/19)

AP: Mangione's Lawyers Say Bondi Has Conflict Of Interest That Taints Death Penalty Case
Luigi Mangione’s lawyers contend that Attorney General Pam Bondi’s decision to seek the death penalty against him in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was tainted by her prior work as a lobbyist at a firm that represented the insurer’s parent company. Bondi was a partner at Ballard Partners before leading the Justice Department’s charge to turn Mangione’s federal prosecution into a capital case, creating a “profound conflict of interest” that violated his due process rights, his lawyers wrote in a court filing late Friday. (Sisak, 12/20)

The Salt Lake Tribune: Dismissed Charges Against Surgeon Who Falsified Vaccine Cards Has Emboldened Others
Kirk Moore, MD, had been on trial for 5 days, accused of falsifying COVID-19 vaccination cards and throwing away the government-supplied doses. The Utah plastic surgeon faced up to 35 years in prison if the jury found him guilty on charges that included conspiracy to defraud the United States. Testimony had paused for the weekend when Moore's lawyer called him early one Saturday this July with what felt to him like unbelievable news. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi had ordered Utah prosecutors to drop all charges, abruptly ending his two-and-a-half year court battle. (Schreifels, 12/20)

PUBLIC HEALTH

Newsweek: Flu, Norovirus, And COVID-19 Cases Surge Ahead Of Busy Holiday Travel Week
Seasonal viruses—including influenza and norovirus—are surging across country ahead of one of the busiest holiday travel weeks, increasing the risk of outbreaks among families gathering to celebrate. Health officials warned that this season’s flu is being driven largely by the newly identified H3N2 subclade K strain, which shows signs of increased transmissibility and reduced vaccine match. Simultaneously, norovirus infections are reaching high levels in numerous states, with COVID-19 continuing to persist, threatening the health care system’s capacity. (Silverman, 12/20)

CIDRAP: US Flu Activity Takes Big Jump As 2 Deaths In Kids Confirmed
Influenza activity in the United States has spiked across the country, with 17 jurisdictions (14 states and Puerto Rico; Washington, DC; and New York City) reporting high or very high influenza-like illness (ILI) and other key indicators rising markedly, signaling the start of the flu season in earnest, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today in its weekly FluView update. The CDC also noted two new flu-related deaths in children and provided data on the rise of subclade K among H3N2 flu viruses as Americans approach the peak season of gathering with family and friends. (Wappes, 12/19)

Stat: How Safe Is Food In The U.S. After FoodNet, Funding Cuts?
The infant botulism outbreak that sickened dozens of babies who drank ByHeart formula is a reminder of how vulnerable we all are to the companies that sell us food — and how important it is to have a robust food safety system that responds quickly to problems and prevents illness in the first place. (Todd, 12/22)

The Wall Street Journal: America’s Seniors Are Overmedicated
For years, Barbara Schmidt’s family feared an illness was behind a pattern of terrifying falls that repeatedly landed the 83-year-old great-grandmother in surgery with broken bones. Instead, Schmidt’s frequent tumbles might have been tied to something else: medications intended to make her better. Schmidt, who lives with her husband of 65 years in Lewes, Del., filled prescriptions for more than a dozen different drugs in the past year, according to pharmacy and medical records. (Mathews, Weaver, McGinty and Ulick, 12/21)

The Washington Post: These Boomers Tried Caring For Parents. Now They Have Their Own Aging Plans
Jocelyn Combs set up a filing box with her will and trust. She has designated who will have power of attorney, told friends and family where to find her passwords, and begun culling her possessions, save for mementos and other items she’s set aside for her daughter. She also had an accessory dwelling unit built on her property in Pleasanton, California. A caregiver could live there, she said. Or she could, and rent out her house for extra income. (Najmabadi, 12/21)

SCIENCE AND INNOVATIONS

CIDRAP: HPV Vaccines Prevent Precancerous Lesions In Vulva And Vagina, Study Finds
Although human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines are best known for preventing cervical cancer, a new study from Sweden finds that women and girls who received the immunizations are also less likely to develop precancerous lesions of the vulva and vagina. The rate of precancerous vulvar or vaginal lesions was 37% lower in women and girls who received at least one dose of HPV vaccine than among study participants who did not, according to a study from Sweden’s Karolinska Institute published yesterday in JAMA Oncology. (Szabo, 12/19)

The Baltimore Sun: Research Shows Proton Beam Therapy Improves Cancer Survival, Lowers Side Effects
Proton beam radiation therapy performed 10% better at stopping cancer of the throat compared to traditional X-ray radiation, a new study shows, with 15% fewer side effects. (Hille, 12/19)

Stat: Unpopular Diet For Cancer Patients Gets Another Look 
Oncologists have been moving away from the notoriously unpopular neutropenic diet. It requires nearly all food to be cooked to high temperatures — or, as some have described it, “boiled to death” — to reduce the risk of food-borne illnesses. But since evidence in recent years suggested the diet didn’t actually help ward off infections, doctors started leaning away from a strict neutropenic diet. (Chen, 12/22)

CIDRAP: Experimental Multistage Malaria Vaccine Shows Promising Protection In Small Trial 
A multistage malaria vaccine showed encouraging levels of protection against controlled human malaria infection (CHMI) in Malian adults with lifelong exposure to the causative parasite, according to a new phase 2 randomized controlled trial published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases. The investigational vaccine, ProC6C-AlOH/Matrix-M, targets multiple stages in the life cycle of Plasmodium falciparum, a protozoan that causes the most severe form of malaria in people. (Bergeson, 12/19)

CIDRAP: Reports Show How Mpox Clade 1b Spreads Through Non-Sexual Contact In DR Congo, Ireland
In a study published yesterday in Eurosurveillance, a team led by Johns Hopkins University researchers describe an mpox clade 1b outbreak in Uvira, a densely populated city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where transmission was driven primarily by household contact rather than sexual exposure. A second report in the same journal details sexual, household, and health care spread of clade 1b in Ireland’s first documented outbreak. (Bergeson, 12/19)

AP: US Military To Stop Shooting Goats And Pigs For Training
The U.S. military will stop its practice of shooting pigs and goats to help prepare medics for treating wounded troops in a combat zone, ending an exercise made obsolete by simulators that mimic battlefield injuries. The prohibition on “live fire” training that includes animals is part of this year’s annual defense bill, although other uses of animals for wartime training will continue The ban was championed by Rep. Vern Buchanan, a Florida Republican who often focuses on animal rights issues. (Finley, 12/19)

HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY

Bloomberg: UnitedHealth Flags Compliance Gaps In Outside Consultant Reviews
UnitedHealth Group Inc. released the first outside reviews of its business practices — reports it commissioned that describe its policies as “robust” while pointing to ongoing problems in areas that have faced scrutiny. The health-care conglomerate cast Friday’s assessments from FTI Consulting Inc. and Analysis Group Inc. as early steps toward greater transparency across parts of its business that have drawn attention from regulators, the press and the public. (Tozzi, 12/19)

Modern Healthcare: Minnesota Can Take Control Of UCare, Fairview Files To Intervene
Minnesota regulators can assume control of distressed health insurance company UCare — but a health system in the state wants to intervene. A state district court judge Wednesday approved the Minnesota Department of Health’s request to enter UCare into rehabilitation. The nonprofit insurer is scheduled to shut down next year after local competitor Medica acquires its last lines of business. The deal is projected to close in the first half of 2026, pending regulatory approval. The rehabilitation will not interfere with the proposed deal. (Tepper, 12/19)

Modern Healthcare: How Function Health's Jonathan Swerdlin Looks To Use AI In 2026
After a busy 2025, Function Health will place artificial intelligence at the centerpiece of its 2026 strategy. The company, which sells a subscription-based service that offers customers more than 160 lab tests and alerts them to potential medical problems, had an eventful year. In November, it launched Medical Intelligence Lab, a team of researchers, clinicians and technologists working to uncover a person’s unique biology by unifying data from lab testing, imaging, wearables, devices, and medical records. (Famakinwa, 12/19)

Chicago Tribune: Some Hospitals Won't Participate In Medical Aid-In-Dying
Though a new Illinois law allows doctors to help terminally ill people end their lives, several Illinois health systems with religious affiliations say they will not participate. OSF HealthCare, Ascension and Hospital Sisters Health System all say they will not take part in medical aid-in-dying. (Schencker, 12/19)

STATE WATCH

San Francisco Chronicle: Choosing A Hospital? See California Health Facilities That Violated The Law
If you are interested in deficiency reports for a specific health care facility, simply search for it to view all available information. You can also explore all facilities in a category and region by using the search filters and map. For example, you can filter your search to just hospices in Alameda County. The search results page provides information on the size of the facility, the number of regulatory violation citations given across all available facility reports, and whether that number is high or low for its size and type. It also indicates whether an AI prompt identified potential serious patient harm incidents in the facility reports. (Stiefel, Kranking, Dizikes and Palomino, 12/21)

The Colorado Sun: Federal Judge Blocks Colorado Law Requiring That Consumers Be Warned Of Air Quality Effects Of Gas Stoves 
A federal judge in Denver on Friday indefinitely blocked Colorado from enforcing a new state law requiring that retails post air quality warnings on gas stoves sold in stores or online. (Paul, 12/19)

AP: Minnesota Jury Awards $65.5M To Woman With Cancer In Johnson & Johnson Talc Case
A Minnesota jury awarded $65.5 million on Friday to a mother of three who claimed talcum products made by Johnson & Johnson exposed her to asbestos and contributed to her developing cancer in the lining of her lungs. Jurors determined that plaintiff Anna Jean Houghton Carley, 37, should be compensated by Johnson & Johnson after using its baby powder throughout her childhood and later developing mesothelioma, an aggressive cancer caused primarily by exposure to the carcinogen asbestos. Johnson & Johnson said it would appeal the verdict. (12/20)

The Guardian: Louisiana Nursing Student Speaks Out During Her Six-Month ICE Detention
A recent graduate of the LSU Health New Orleans School of Nursing has been held in an ICE processing center in Basile, Louisiana, for the past six months following her arrest by immigration agents over the summer. Vilma Palacios had just recently accepted a position at Touro Infirmary when ICE agents arrested her and transferred her to the processing center in Basile. Her detention comes amid a broader immigration crackdown under the Trump administration, including cases involving individuals with no criminal records who are seeking legal residency. (Dunbar, 12/21)

The Colorado Sun: Meet The Traveling Oncologists Helping Patients In The Eastern Plains
Dr. Robert Hoyer doesn’t bother buying groceries or using the kitchenette in the little room at the Holiday Inn Express where he lives for four days every month. By the time he and his staff finish 12-hour days at the clinic, they usually head for enchiladas at La Mission Villanueva or steaks at Tavern 1301. (Brown, 12/21)