First Edition: Friday, Dec. 19, 2025

KFF HEALTH NEWS ORIGINAL STORIES

KFF Health News: Guns Marketed For Personal Safety Fuel Public Health Crisis In Black Communities
Leon Harris, 35, is intimately familiar with the devastation guns can inflict. Robbers shot him in the back nearly two decades ago, leaving him paralyzed from the chest down. The bullet remains lodged in his spine. “When you get shot,” he said, “you stop thinking about the future.” He is anchored by his wife and child and faith. He once wanted to work as a forklift driver but has built a stable career in information technology. He finds camaraderie with other gunshot survivors and in advocacy. (Clasen-Kelly and Chang, 12/19)

KFF Health News: Scorpion Peppers Caused Him ‘Crippling’ Pain. Two Years Later, The ER Bill Stung Him Again
Maxwell Kruzic said he was in such “crippling” stomach pain on Oct. 5, 2023, that he had to pull off the road twice as he drove himself to the emergency room at Mercy Regional Medical Center in Durango, Colorado. “It was the worst pain of my life,” he said. Kruzic was seen immediately because hospital staff members were pretty sure he had appendicitis. They inserted an IV, called a surgeon, and sent him off for a scan to confirm the diagnosis. (Rosenthal, 12/19)

KFF Health News: Judge In Nursing Home Bankruptcy Case Gives Families Fresh Hope Of Compensation For Injuries, Deaths
A bankruptcy judge blocked an attempt by a nursing home chain’s primary investor to shield himself from settlement payments and liability in lawsuits alleging hundreds of patient injuries and deaths, encouraging those pursuing millions in damages. (Rau, 12/19)

KFF Health News: Inside The FDA’s Vaccine Uproar
Six days after a senior FDA official sent a sweeping internal email claiming that covid vaccines had caused the deaths of “at least 10 children,” 12 former FDA commissioners released an extraordinary warning in the Dec. 3 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. They wrote that the claims and policy changes in the memo from Vinay Prasad, the head of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, pose “a threat to evidence-based vaccine policy and public health security” and break sharply from long-standing scientific norms. (Gounder, 12/19)

KFF Health News: States Advance Medical Debt Protections As Federal Support Turns To Opposition
Lawmakers in several states are working to expand medical debt protections for patients, even after the Trump administration reversed course and told states they don’t have authority to take action on credit reporting. In Alaska and Michigan, legislators are nonetheless advancing bills to keep medical debt off consumer credit reports. (Bichell, 12/19)

KFF Health News: 'What the Health? From KFF Health News': Time’s Up For Expanded ACA Tax Credits
The enhanced premium tax credits that since 2021 have helped millions of Americans pay for insurance on the Affordable Care Act marketplaces will expire Dec. 31, despite a last-ditch effort by Democrats and some moderate Republicans in the House of Representatives to force a vote to continue them. That vote will happen, but not until Congress returns in January. (12/18)

TRANSGENDER CARE

NPR: Transgender Youth Face National Ban On Medical Care Under New Hospital Rules
Health officials from the Trump administration announced several moves Thursday that will have the effect of essentially banning gender-affirming care for transgender young people, even in states where it is still legal. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Dr. Mehmet Oz, who leads Medicaid and Medicare, announced the measures in a press conference at the headquarters of the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C. (Simmons-Duffin, 12/18)

MARIJUANA AND CANNABIS

Axios: Trump Reclassifies Weed As Section 3 Drugs, Approves Medicare Coverage
President Trump signed an executive order on Thursday that launches a pilot program authorizing Medicare to cover cannabis products for seniors. Trump's embrace of marijuana could be a game-changer for older people who are seeking alternative treatments for common ailments. (Lalljee, 12/18)

Stat: Trump’s Marijuana Reclassification Could Boost Research, Access 
Under the new classification, marijuana will remain an illegal drug under federal law. But the move could facilitate additional research into cannabis, federal officials said, even as others warned it would also boost the marijuana industry by allowing major tax breaks that were prohibited under the substance’s current classification. (Facher, 12/18)

San Francisco Chronicle: What Trump's Move To Declassify Marijuana Means For California
Finally, Donald Trump is potentially making America great when it comes to something close to California’s heart: weed. (Garofoli, 12/18)

MORE ON THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION

The New York Times: U.S. Will Pay $450,000 To Wildfire Fighters With Cancer 
The federal government has known for years that wildfire fighters, who spend weeks at a time in poisonous smoke, can develop deadly cancers from the exposure. Now, they will be eligible for a payment of nearly $450,000 and college tuition for their family if they die or become debilitated from a smoke-related cancer, under a law signed by President Trump on Thursday. (Dreier, 12/19)

The New York Times: Trump’s ‘Warrior Dividend’ for Troops Will Be Paid for by Pentagon Housing Funds
A “warrior dividend” bonus check that President Trump announced on Wednesday would go to more than 1.4 million active-duty service members by the end of the year is being funded by money Congress allocated earlier this year for military housing stipends, officials said on Thursday. (Ismay and Watkins, 12/18)

Los Angeles Times: ‘I Am Afraid That I Might Die Here’: ICE Detainee Fears ‘Imminent Death’ Without Lifesaving Care, Lawyers Say
A man held at California’s newest and largest immigration detention center could face “imminent death,” attorneys argued in an emergency motion filed late Tuesday, asking a federal judge to order ICE to immediately provide lifesaving medical care to him and another detainee. (Mejia, 12/17)

The New York Times: Trump Administration To Appeal Harvard Funding Case 
The Trump administration said late Thursday that it would appeal a ruling that sided with Harvard University in its fight with the government over free speech and billions of dollars in research funding. The government began blocking grant payments to Harvard on research projects in the spring, but restarted them soon after the Sept. 3 decision by Judge Allison D. Burroughs of the Federal District Court in Boston. On Thursday, the Justice Department, carrying out a pledge from the White House, said in a terse filing that it would pursue an appeal of that ruling before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. (Blinder, 12/19)

Stat: NIH Grant Policy Hurt Funding Chances For Early-Career Scientists 
A Trump administration change to how the National Institutes of Health awards grants has reduced early-stage investigators’ odds of securing funding, new data from the agency show. During the 2025 fiscal year, 18.5% of early-stage researchers who applied for grants equivalent to an R01, the agency’s most common type of award, were successful. That’s an 11 percentage point drop compared to the 2023 fiscal year, when the success rate for such applications was 29.8%. (Oza and Wosen, 12/18)

NBC News: How A Top-Tier Surrogacy Agency Became An FBI Target
The FBI is investigating a prominent surrogacy agency that shuttered abruptly earlier this month, leaving desperate parents-to-be out of tens of thousands of dollars and surrogates missing payments as their pregnancies progressed. The agency’s owner, Megan Hall-Greenberg, 49, effectively disappeared — she deleted her social media accounts, and clients and employees say she hasn’t replied to their messages since Dec. 3. (Abou-Sabe, Chaidez, Kreutz and Blankstein, 12/18)

VACCINES

CNN: Childhood Vaccines: HHS Planning To Overhaul Schedule To Recommend Fewer Shots, Source Says 
The US Department of Health and Human Services is planning to overhaul the schedule of recommended vaccines for children in the US, a person familiar with the plans told CNN on Thursday. The proposed new schedule would recommend fewer shots, bringing it closer in line with what’s recommended in other developed countries. The expectation is that the US schedule will be close to, if not identical to, recommendations in Denmark, according to the person, who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak about the matter. (Cancryn, Tirrell, Goodman and Dillinger, 12/18)

Stat: CDC Grant Goes To Danish Researchers With Ties To Tracy Beth Høeg
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has awarded a $1.6 million grant to controversial researchers at the University of Southern Denmark with ties to top Food and Drug Administration official Tracy Beth Høeg. The funding is for a study on hepatitis B vaccines that some experts say may be unethical and is unlikely to generate data relevant to use of the vaccine in this country. (Lawrence and Branswell, 12/18)

FDA AND PHARMACEUTICALS

Stat: FDA Voucher Program Has Led To Political Interference In Drug Reviews, Staffers Say
A new program intended to fast-track drug reviews at the Food and Drug Administration is quickly becoming a way for the White House and top political officials at the agency to exert control over which medicines make their way fastest to patients in the United States. (Lawrence, 12/19)

The New York Times: F.D.A. Turmoil Keeps Spotlight On Its Commissioner
Days after a division chief at the Food and Drug Administration resigned amid accusations that he used his federal power to seek revenge on a former business associate, the scandal took on a new life. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s health secretary, and his top deputies brought the matter to the White House as evidence that the F.D.A.’s leadership was in chaos. (Jewett, 12/19)

CIDRAP: US Sales Of Antibiotics For Livestock Climbed 16% Last Year, FDA Report Shows
Sales and distribution of medically important antimicrobial drugs used in US livestock rose 16% from 2023 to 2024 but is still 27% lower than peak sales in 2015, according to the newest report from the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) Center for Veterinary Medicine. The increase is a departure from the generally stable annual sales and distribution data reported to the FDA since 2017. For reference, last year’s report showed a 2% decline in sales. (Van Beusekom, 12/18)

ON CAPITOL HILL

Politico: Senators Leave For The Holidays Without Passing Funding Package 
Senate leaders gave up on trying to pass a government funding package before adjourning for the holidays, punting the issue to the new year — when lawmakers will have just a few weeks left to avoid a partial shutdown on Jan. 30. (Carney, Scholtes and Tully-McManus, 12/18)

MedPage Today: How To Improve The Health Payment System? Experts Count The Ways At Senate Hearing
What's the best way to make sure providers are encouraged to provide the highest quality care at the lowest price? Witnesses at a Senate hearing on the topic offered different answers to that question. ... "For every dollar a worker receives in wages, the same dollar used for employer-sponsored health insurance is worth $1.51. Over eight decades, this massive tax subsidy has driven American healthcare prices skyward. Employers and insurers have little incentive to control costs or make their workers healthy."(Frieden, 12/18)

AP: Speaker Johnson Confronts A Centrist Revolt On ACA Subsidies
Speaker Mike Johnson had a ready-made refrain when asked why Republicans weren’t moving to extend federal health care subsidies: their party wanted to help 100% of Americans with their costs, not just the 7% of Americans enrolled in Affordable Care Act plans. But not 100% of his conference agreed. A rare revolt from the moderate wing of the party has upended Johnson’s plans. (Cappelletti, 12/18)

MEDICARE

Politico: Pramila Jayapal Pushes Medicare For All Polling
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) wants Medicare for All back in the health care debate. The former Congressional Progressive Caucus chair plans to present polling to her House Democratic colleagues next month as she argues for the electoral merits of Medicare for All — even in battleground districts the party must win to flip the House next fall. The research, paid for by Jayapal’s leadership PAC and shared first with POLITICO, found one in five Republicans support a “government-provided system,” as do most independents. Democrats back Medicare for All by 90 percent. (Schneider, 12/18)

The Hill: Medicare Enrollees To Pay 50 Percent Less For Some Drugs Next Year: Study
Medicare enrollees could save roughly half of what they usually pay for certain drugs next year, according to a study from the AARP. The study, published Thursday, found that the out-of-pocket cost of 10 drugs included in the first round of Medicare drug price negotiation will decrease substantially in five states with high enrollment in the program — California, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania and Texas — once negotiated prices go into effect on Jan. 1, 2026. (Rego, 12/18)

Newsweek: Three Medicare Coverage Changes Happening Next Month
The new year will usher in several key changes to Medicare coverage, and seniors could see significant impact to their health care. While lower prescription drug costs are on the menu, seniors will also face shifts in pricing, insulin caps and a new out-of-pocket limit under Part D. (Blake, 12/18)

Modern Healthcare: CMS To End ACO REACH, Launch LEAD Model In 2027
ACO REACH will go away after four years and be replaced by a new Medicare accountable care organization model, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced Thursday. CMS introduced ACO Realizing Equity, Access and Community Health in 2022 as a successor to the Global and Professional Direct Contracting Model. Now, ACO REACH will sunset at the end of next year to make way for yet another iteration, dubbed Long-term Enhanced ACO Design, or LEAD, in 2027. (Early, 12/18)

HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY

San Francisco Chronicle: Providence Santa Rosa Pediatric Unit To Close In March
Providence Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, a major trauma center that has the only full-time inpatient pediatric unit between the North Bay and the Oregon border, will close the unit in March — raising concerns among local pediatricians that children who need hospitalization will have to be transferred to San Francisco or as far away as Sacramento. The hospital initially announced the closure in November, citing low usage rates and financial challenges in keeping the unit open, and on Thursday provided a clearer timeline for when it will happen. The unit will no longer admit patients as of March 27, 2026. (Ho, 12/18)

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: BJC, Aetna Reach Agreement To Keep BJC In Coverage Network
BJC Health will stay in Aetna's coverage network next year after both sides agreed to "all key terms," BJC Health said on Thursday. Coverage for Medicare Advantage plans will continue for another year, while employer-sponsored commercial plans will be covered by a "multi-year" deal, BJC said. (Suntrup, 12/18)

Modern Healthcare: UnitedHealthcare Delays Remote Patient Monitoring Coverage Cuts
UnitedHealthcare will postpone controversial changes to remote patient monitoring coverage, the insurer said Thursday. Last month, UnitedHealthcare said beginning Jan. 1 it would stop covering remote patient monitoring for most chronic conditions for both its commercial and Medicare members. The company, which received negative reactions from remote patient monitoring advocates after announcing the changes, will delay the policy changes until later in 2026 because of that feedback. (DeSilva, 12/18)

Modern Healthcare: Virtua Health, ChristianaCare End Merger Plans
Virtua Health and ChristianaCare have ended merger talks. The organizations agreed to terminate their nonbinding letter of intent signed in July, Virtua and ChristianaCare said Thursday in a joint news release. The health systems did not specifically say why they decided to nix merger plans that would have created a roughly $6 billion, nine-hospital combined system across more than 10 contiguous counties in New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Maryland. (Kacik, 12/18)

ProPublica: Inside the Free Clinic Caring for Those Who Can’t Afford the Only Hospital in Town
Albany, Georgia’s lone hospital — the region’s largest health care provider — is supposed to treat patients regardless of their ability to pay, but many residents have instead turned to the small, free Samaritan Clinic. (Campbell, Toral and Pons, 12/19)

Modern Healthcare: REIT-Acquired Hospitals At Greater Risk Of Bankruptcy: Harvard
Hospitals acquired by real estate investment trusts are at greater risk of bankruptcy or closure, according to Harvard researchers. A study, published Thursday in BMJ, examined acute-care hospitals that sold their real estate assets to REITs and subsequently leased the properties between 2005 and 2019. (Eastabrook, 12/18)

The Baltimore Sun: Opioid Prescription In Hospital Increases Chances For Dangerous Infection
About one in every 31 hospital patients will pick up an infection in the hospital, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. New research shows that being prescribed an opioid for pain relief could leave you twice as likely to get sick by depressing your immune system, or disturbing the balance of gut bacteria that can keep you healthy. (Hille, 12/18)

STATE WATCH

The New York Times: Prosecutors Say Minnesota’s Fraud Scandal Goes Further Than Previously Known
An investigation into fraud in Minnesota’s social services programs has broadened significantly, federal prosecutors said on Thursday. The prosecutors told reporters that they were investigating suspicious billing practices in 14 Medicaid-funded programs. Until now, the investigation had focused on only three safety net programs run by state agencies. (Londoño, 12/18)

The CT Mirror: Lamont Pitches Millions For Food Pantries, Planned Parenthood
Gov. Ned Lamont announced more than $41 million Thursday to aid residents losing nutrition assistance and offset vanishing federal funding for reproductive health services. The governor also expanded his own recent commitments to fight homelessness and provide relief for thousands losing federal assistance for health insurance. (Phaneuf and Carlesso, 12/18)

The Boston Globe: State Speeds Up Processing Times In Program For Homeless Families
Massachusetts state officials have made drastic improvements to a long-term housing program for homeless families following a 2024 Globe article that highlighted how slow processing times and bureaucratic hurdles had resulted in delays for families and providers. The state program, called HomeBASE, pairs homeless families with landlords who have vacant units and then subsidizes rent and other expenses for up to three years. (Gross, 12/18)

Iowa Public Radio: Polk County Health Officials Confirm Measles Case In Iowa Infant 
The Polk County Health Department identified the state's ninth case of measles this year in an infant who is too young to be vaccinated. Officials said Thursday that the child recently traveled to an area where the virus is spreading, and there are no known local public exposure locations. (Krebs, 12/18)

Wyoming Public Radio: Five New Cases Of Measles Found In Fremont County. Wyoming Totaled 14 In 2025
Five cases of measles have been identified in Fremont County, bringing the state’s total this year to 14. The Wyoming Department of Health says all five were close contacts and spread it to each other. The initial exposure happened out of state. (Ouellet, 12/18)

Stat: Supervised Drug Use Site Points To Overdose Deaths Averted 
OnPoint NYC, the nonprofit that was the first in the nation to openly offer supervised drug consumption services, celebrated its fourth anniversary Thursday by trumpeting its positive community impact, making its case triumphantly and with a touch of defiance following nearly a year of uncertainty and hostility from the federal government. (Facher, 12/18)

GUN VIOLENCE EPIDEMIC

The New York Times: Suspect In Brown University Shooting Found Dead In New Hampshire
The body of a man suspected in the killing of two students at Brown University and a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor was found in a storage unit in New Hampshire on Thursday night, law enforcement officials said. The authorities had swarmed the storage facility, in Salem, N.H., earlier in the evening in pursuit of a man wanted in connection with the two deadly attacks, which had stunned New England and set off days of frustrated searching. (Thrush, Marcius, Cramer and Blinder, 12/19)

The New York Times: Australia Announces Plan to Buy Back Guns in Wake of Hanukkah Attack
The Australian government will launch a gun buyback program to take hundreds of thousands of firearms off the streets, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Friday, following a shooting rampage at a Jewish holiday festival that killed 15 people. (Zhuang and Cave, 12/19)

Honolulu Civil Beat: Hawaii Gun Deaths: Amid Uptick, Leaders Take Debate Underground
Even as gun deaths in Hawaii have increased at a rate faster than most states over the past decade, the group meant to bring public health officials and law enforcement together to share and discuss trends hasn’t met in over a year. The Gun Violence and Violent Crimes Commission, created by lawmakers in 2020, has struggled to get off the ground. It’s never really been funded. There have even been several efforts to dissolve it, first by merging it with the also defunct Criminal Justice Data Sharing Working Group, then by moving the commission into a new state office for gun violence prevention. Both efforts failed. (Thompson, 12/17)

LIFESTYLE AND HEALTH

Fox News: Bad Gums Could Signal Trouble For Your Heart Health, New Research Warns
There is growing evidence that gum disease (periodontal disease) and heart disease may be connected, especially when it comes to plaque building up in arteries and the risk of major cardiovascular events. The American Heart Association (AHA) published a scientific statement this week sharing how inflamed gums and bacteria from the mouth can enter the bloodstream, triggering inflammation in the blood vessels. (Quill, 12/18)