Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Federal Health Workers Await Their Fates As Government Comes To A Halt
Stat: Government Shutdown Will Idle 32,000 Federal Health Workers
More than 32,000 Department of Health and Human Services employees are set to be furloughed, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention communications will be impeded, and no new patients will be admitted to the National Institutes of Health’s clinical center as the federal government’s funding runs out. (Cirruzzo, 10/1)
Politico: Labor Unions Sue OMB, OPM For ‘Unlawful’ Threats Of Mass Layoffs Ahead Of Shutdown
As the federal government hurtled toward a shutdown Tuesday, two labor unions representing federal workers sued the Trump administration over its threats to conduct mass layoffs while the government is closed. The unions allege in the lawsuit that the Office of Management and Budget and its director, Russell Vought, broke the law by directing federal agencies to prepare “reduction in force” plans for a potential shutdown. The lawsuit also names the Office of Personnel Management, along with its director, Scott Kupor, for issuing instructions that federal employees may work during the shutdown in order to carry out the mass layoffs. (Wardwell, 9/30)
Politico: No Quick End To Shutdown In Sight On Capitol Hill
Washington is waking up to its first government shutdown in nearly seven years. How many more days that will be the case, no one knows. With President Donald Trump and congressional leaders not actively negotiating, there’s no sign the shutdown will be over before the end of the day. And with Congress dormant for Thursday’s Yom Kippur holiday, that all but ensures it will go until at least Friday if not far beyond. Instead, Congress is poised to enact a reprise performance Wednesday: The Senate will vote on, and likely reject, dueling stopgap proposals for a third time, while House Democrats hold another closed-door meeting and House Republicans do not plan to return to the Capitol until next week at the earliest. (Carney and Wu, 10/1)
Modern Healthcare: What The Government Shutdown Could Mean For Healthcare
The healthcare sector generally does not have to worry too much about government shutdowns such as the one looming this week, beyond dealing with a less efficient bureaucracy and possible reimbursement delays. Healthcare providers and health insurance companies tend to mostly be insulated from the consequences of shutdowns because the key programs that pay them continue running even when other federal activities cease. Medicare, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance program operate with mandatory funding not subject to annual appropriations. And the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced Monday that it would use fees collected from insurers to sustain the health insurance exchanges created under the Affordable Care Act of 2010 if there’s a shutdown. (McAuliff, 9/30)
KFF Health News: Shutdown Halts Some Health Services As Political Risks Test Parties’ Resolve
Threats of a federal government shutdown have gone from being an October surprise to a recurring theme. This time around, though, the stakes are higher. Federal funding ran out at midnight on Oct. 1, after Congress failed to pass even a stopgap budget while negotiations continued. (Armour, Rovner, Seitz, Zionts and Pradhan, 10/1)
More on ACA subsidies and the struggle to afford insurance —
The Wall Street Journal: The ACA Subsidies At The Center Of The Government Shutdown Fight
Enhanced subsidies for Affordable Care Act health-insurance plans are set to expire at the end of the year—and what Congress decides to do about them could be crucial to any deal to end a government shutdown. While Republicans had pushed to temporarily extend current government funding levels to buy time for negotiations, Democrats have said they won’t vote for any bill that excludes an extension of the ACA subsidies. (Li and Mathews, 10/1)
Axios: ACA Premiums To Rise 114% Without Subsidy Renewal
Premiums will more than double for millions of Affordable Care Act enrollees next year if Congress does not renew enhanced marketplace subsidies by year's end, according to a new analysis. (Sullivan, 10/1)
Politico: The Think Tank Driving Health Policy On Capitol Hill — And Dividing Republicans
One small think tank is driving health policy within the GOP. It has also created friction on Capitol Hill and in the White House as Republicans clash over the future of Obamacare. Paragon Health Institute was established in 2021 and has only 11 full-time staffers, but founder Brian Blase is credited with formulating many of the proposals that became the basis for nearly $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts enacted as part of the GOP megabill. The group’s success is thanks in large part to its vast alumni network spread out across the highest levels of government, from the speaker’s office to the Trump administration. (Guggenheim, King and Hill, 10/1)
KFF Health News: KFF Health News’ ‘An Arm and a Leg’: The Struggle To Afford Insurance In 2026 Hits Home
“An Arm and a Leg” senior producer Emily Pisacreta recently lost a job that provided her with health insurance. So now, for the first time, she will be signing up for Obamacare. Her search is off to a rocky start. Pisacreta gives listeners a sobering look at how the high price of health insurance plans could change her life and those of millions of others looking for Affordable Care Act plans, as premiums, on average, are projected to increase by more than they have in recent years. (10/1)
How the shutdown will affect schools, the EPA, immigration, and more —
AP: How A Government Shutdown Will Affect The Education Department
Title I money, which goes to schools with high concentrations of students in poverty, plus funding for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act would continue during a shutdown. (Ma, 10/1)
AP: How A Government Shutdown Impacts The EPA's Mission To Protect America's Health
The Environmental Protection Agency was already reeling from massive stuff cuts and dramatic shifts in priority and policy. A government shutdown raises new questions about how it can carry out its founding mission of protecting America’s health and environment with little more than skeletal staff and funding. In President Donald Trump’s second term, the EPA has leaned hard into an agenda of deregulation and facilitating Trump’s boosting of fossil fuels like oil, gas and coal to meet what he has called an energy emergency. (Borenstein, 10/1)
The New York Times: How Shutdown Gridlock Could Impede Disaster Preparedness
A government shutdown is converging with key deadlines for funding of disaster preparedness and federal flood insurance, threatening to expose thousands of Americans to flood losses and stall thousands of real estate sales. The National Flood Insurance Program, the main source of coverage against flood damage for most Americans, lapsed just after midnight Wednesday, at the same time a funding gap shut down the federal government. (Dance, 9/30)
Politico: How Trump Is Protecting His Priorities From A Government Shutdown
As Washington enters a government shutdown, the Trump administration has erected safeguards to ensure President Donald Trump’s most hardline priorities continue unscathed. ... That means offices tasked with immigration enforcement and tariff negotiations, two hallmarks of Trump’s presidency, will retain significantly more staff than they have in prior shutdowns, according to a POLITICO analysis of agency documents submitted to the White House in recent days and interviews with current and former administration officials. That’s even as hundreds of thousands of federal workers are sent home, hampering a variety of government functions including some routine food safety inspections, Social Security benefit verifications and the publication of employment numbers by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. (Ward, Messerly and Cai, 10/1)
