First Edition: Friday, Jan. 23, 2026

KFF HEALTH NEWS ORIGINAL STORIES

KFF Health News: Why Medication Abortion Is The Top Target For Anti-Abortion Groups In 2026
This week would have marked the 53rd anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide — that is, until 2022, when the court overturned it. Since then, abortion has been banned in 13 states and severely limited in 10 others. Yet anti-abortion activists remain frustrated, in some cases even more so than before Roe was overturned. (Rovner, 1/23)

KFF Health News: These 3 Policy Moves Are Likely To Change Health Care For Older People
Month after month, Patricia Hunter and other members of the Nursing Home Reform Coalition logged onto video calls with congressional representatives, seeking support for a proposed federal rule setting minimum staff levels for nursing homes. Finally, after decades of advocacy, the Biden administration in 2023 tackled the problem of perennial understaffing of long-term care facilities. Officials backed a Medicare regulation that would mandate at least 3.48 hours of care from nurses and aides per resident, per day, and would require a registered nurse on-site 24 hours a day, seven days a week. (Span, 1/23)

KFF Health News: ‘What The Health? From KFF Health News’: Health Spending Is Moving In Congress
Congress appears ready to approve a spending bill for the Department of Health and Human Services for the first time in years — minus the dramatic cuts proposed by the Trump administration. Lawmakers are also nearing passage of a health measure, including new rules for prescription drug middlemen known as pharmacy benefit managers, that has been delayed for more than a year after complaints from Elon Musk, who at the time was preparing to join the incoming Trump administration. (Rovner, 1/22)

ON CAPITOL HILL

The New York Times: Big Insurers Try To Shift Blame For High Health Costs To Hospitals And Drug Makers
In response to palpable, bipartisan frustration among lawmakers over soaring costs for medical care, the chief executives of the country’s largest health insurers on Thursday attempted to place the blame on others, namely hospitals and drug makers. But the executives, summoned to appear at back-to-back House hearings on the affordability of health care, said little that seemed to appease congressional representatives seeking ways to hold the insurance industry accountable. (Abelson, 1/22)

Bloomberg: Cigna Sees Up To $600 Million Earnings Hit From Pharmacy Plan
Cigna Group’s plan to end drug rebates will reduce earnings by $500 million to $600 million, the company’s chief executive officer said at a congressional hearing Thursday in which the country’s biggest health insurers were grilled about health-care affordability. It’s the first time Cigna has quantified the impact of its decision to end drug rebates, payments between drug companies and insurers that critics argue drive up health-care costs. (Tozzi and Reilly, 1/22)

Fierce Healthcare: House Passes Health Funding Package, Including PBM Reform
The House passed a key appropriations package that would fund the Department of Health and Human Services through Sept. 30, including a step toward reforms for pharmacy benefit managers. The package passed by a 341-88 vote, and it includes elements that would prevent PBMs from tying compensation in Part D to the list price of drugs, and boost price transparency for employers in their PBM contracts. Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Georgia, a pharmacist and vocal supporter of PBM reform, celebrated the passage in a statement. (Minemyer, 1/22)

VETERANS' HEALTH

Stars and Stripes: ‘Cost Explosion’ Or ‘Revolutionary Idea’? Lawmakers Debate VA’s Trillion-Dollar Plan To Expand Community Care
The Department of Veterans Affairs unveiled a massive plan Thursday for expanding its community care network with the purchase of $1 trillion in private health services over the next decade. At a contentious hearing of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, the VA’s chief financial officer detailed a proposal for restructuring community health care as a nationwide network of providers — including doctors, dentists and pharmacists — managed by third-party administrators. (Hersey, 1/22)

Military Times: VA Leader’s Policies Delaying Care, Destroying Work Force, Report Says
Under the Trump administration, wait times for mental health care at the Department of Veterans Affairs have increased while morale among employees has plummeted with the loss of 40,000 people, Senate Democrats said in a new report released Thursday. Actions taken by President Donald Trump, VA Secretary Doug Collins and the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, in the past year have affected services and research at the VA, harmed workers and delayed care and benefits to veterans, said Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, ranking Democrat on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. (Kime, 1/22)

Los Angeles Times: VA Promises Hundreds Of Tiny Homes On Its West L.A. Campus; Veterans Want Something Nicer 
A plan by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to put up to 800 new tiny homes this year on its West Los Angeles campus drew an immediate rebuke from veterans who won a federal court order requiring the agency to build thousands of new units of temporary and permanent housing there. “I don’t think that’s suitable at all,” said Rob Reynolds, an Iraq war veteran who speaks on behalf of several veterans who filed a 2022 federal lawsuit asking for more housing and an end to leases of large portions of the 388-acre campus to outside interests. The 8-foot-by-8-foot sheds have become a staple of quick solutions to homelessness but face the criticism of being cramped, flimsy and undignified. (Smith, 1/22)

ABORTION

AP: Trump Administration To Block Foreign Aid From Those Promoting Abortion, DEI And Gender Identity
The Trump administration is expanding its ban on U.S. foreign aid for groups supporting abortion services to include assistance going to international and domestic organizations and agencies that promote gender identity as well as diversity, equity and inclusion programs. An administration official said Thursday that the State Department would release final rules that expand the scope of the “Mexico City” policy that has already severely reduced assistance to international organizations that provide abortion-related care. The policy was first established under President Ronald Reagan, rescinded by subsequent Democratic administrations and reinstated in Trump’s first term. (Lee and Swenson, 1/22)

The New York Times: Trump Administration Cuts Off Funding For Fetal Tissue Research. Again
The National Institutes of Health said on Thursday it is ending support for all research that makes use of human fetal tissue, eliminating funding for projects both within and outside of the agency. A ban instituted in June 2019 by the first Trump administration ended all research done at the N.I.H. and led to the rejection of most external grant proposals. It was lifted in 2021 by President Joseph R. Biden Jr., restoring financing and allowing scientists to conduct research using tissue from elective abortions to study and develop treatments for diseases. (Caryn Rabin, 1/22)

CNN: ‘Mr. President, It’s Now Time’: Social Conservatives Beg Trump For Abortion Pill Crackdown Ahead Of March For Life 
As thousands of protestors demonstrate in Washington, DC, at Friday’s annual March for Life, the Trump administration faces a deadline to explain why it opposes a lawsuit that would achieve a key goal of its allies in the anti-abortion movement by ending the availability of abortion pills by mail. The lawsuit, brought by Louisiana against the President Donald Trump-appointed health officials, is one of several pressure points the anti-abortion movement is pressing to push the administration to limit access to medication abortion, which now accounts for roughly two-thirds of all abortions in the United States. (Sneed and Owermohle, 1/23)

MORE ON THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION

AP: Judge To Consider Whether Trump Can Withhold Money For Programs In 5 States
Five Democratic-controlled states are asking a judge Friday to order President Donald Trump’s administration to keep money flowing for child care subsidies and other programs aimed at boosting low-income families with children. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said it was pausing the funding because it had “reason to believe” the states were granting benefits to people in the country illegally, though it did not provide evidence or explain why it was targeting those states and not others. The states say the move was instead intended to damage Trump’s political adversaries. (Mulvihill, 1/23)

Phys.org: 9/11 WTC Health Program Workforce Cut By 25% Under Kennedy As Patient Count Rises, Advocates Say
The staff running the federal World Trade Center Health Program has been cut by 25% as the number of sick 9/11 survivors the group treats is expected to increase by 10,000 this year, the Daily News has learned. Survivor advocates are demanding U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. lift the agency's hiring freeze and fully staff the program before the personnel shortfall adversely affects first responders and survivors seeking help. (Tracy, 1/20)

AP: FDA Considers Whether Zyn Can Be Marketed As Safer Than Cigarettes
Americans who smoke may soon be hearing a lot more about Zyn, the flavored nicotine pouches that have generated billions in sales while going viral on social media. The Food and Drug Administration convened a public meeting Thursday to consider whether Philip Morris International should be allowed to advertise its pouches as a less-harmful alternative for adults who smoke cigarettes. Government documents and presentations made at the meeting suggest FDA regulators are leaning toward approving the company’s request. (Perrone, 1/22)

The New York Times: E.P.A. Promises a Ban on Animal Testing by 2035
The Environmental Protection Agency will stop using rabbits, mice, rats and other mammals to test the toxicity of chemicals by 2035, the agency said Thursday. Animal rights groups praised the move, while some environmental organizations said they worried that understanding the link between chemical exposure and cancer, or developmental or reproductive issues, would be harder to ascertain without animal testing. (Friedman, 1/22)

VACCINES

Stat: Top CDC Vaccine Adviser Questions Need For Polio Shot, Other Longstanding Recommendations
The chair of a federal vaccine advisory panel charted a new course for the committee in a podcast released Thursday — suggesting the public might want to reconsider the use of polio vaccines, arguing individual freedoms should be a north star of the panel, and pointing to the Covid pandemic as key to his thinking on health policy. (Cirruzzo, Branswell and Payne, 1/22)

Bloomberg: Moderna Curbs Investment In Vaccine Trials Due To US Backlash
Moderna Inc.’s chief executive officer said the company doesn’t plan to invest in new late-stage vaccine trials because of growing opposition to immunizations from US officials. “You cannot make a return on investment if you don’t have access to the US market,” Stéphane Bancel said in an interview with Bloomberg TV from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Regulatory delays and lack of support from US health officials are making the potential market size “much smaller,” he said. (Smith, 1/22)

NPR: Is This Controversial U.S.-Funded Vaccine Trial On Or Off?
This past week has brought a dizzying back-and-forth about a U.S.-funded medical research trial. Many public health experts call the study unethical and unnecessary, likening it to the infamous Tuskegee Experiment, while the Trump Administration has promoted it as a rare opportunity to study the potential negative effects of a vaccine. (Emanuel, 1/22)

CIDRAP: Texas Attorney General Takes Aim At Pediatricians Who Vaccinate, Claiming They Are Part Of Illegal Scheme
On the heels of a measles outbreak in Texas that killed two unvaccinated children, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton says he has opened an investigation into pediatricians who vaccinate because, he claims, they receive illegal financial incentives to do so. “I launched an investigation into unlawful financial incentives related to childhood vaccine recommendations,” he said in a press release yesterday. “I will ensure that Big Pharma and Big Insurance don’t bribe medical providers to pressure parents to jab their kids with vaccines they feel aren’t safe or necessary.” (Van Beusekom, 1/22)

CANCER

NBC News: Colorectal Cancer Is Now The Leading Cause Of Cancer Death In People Under 50
Colorectal cancer is now the leading cause of cancer deaths among people younger than 50 in the United States, according to a study published Thursday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Colorectal cancer death rates in that age group climbed by 1% every year since 2005, in stark contrast with the larger trend: Overall, cancer death rates in people younger than 50 have dropped by 44% since 1990. And of the five most common causes of cancer-related death in people younger than 50, colorectal cancer deaths were the only one to increase. (Sullivan, 1/22)

Bloomberg: New Potent Cancer Treatments Are Raising Heart Risks For Survivors
Sydney oncologist Bogda Koczwara knew something was wrong when a police officer she’d treated for non-Hodgkin lymphoma returned to her clinic exhausted. ... The chemotherapy had quietly damaged his heart muscle. The cancer never came back, but his heart never recovered. Koczwara says the case, in the late 1990s, was an early warning of what is now an established pattern. Cancer therapies are producing unprecedented numbers of long-term survivors, many of whom are living long enough to experience the delayed effects on their heart. (Gale, 1/23)

The New York Times: Some Immune Systems Defeat Cancer. Could That Become A Drug?
Is there a way to use the body’s way of fighting cancers to make a new drug? Perhaps, according to preliminary research studies. The idea is to exploit what is known about the growth of cancers. While many grow and spread and are deadly without treatment, some go away on their own or simply do not progress. They remain in the body, harmless and causing no symptoms. It’s contrary to conventional wisdom. (Kolata, 1/22)

HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY

Stat: One Hospital System May Soon Control Care In An Entire City 
One hospital system is about to control care for the most populous city in Alabama, unless antitrust officials decide to intervene. (Herman, 1/22)

The New York Times: Nurses In New York City Say They Deserve $200,000 A Year. Here’s Why. 
As a strike by health workers stretches into its second week, pay is a major issue in negotiations, even if it’s not discussed much on the picket line. (Goldstein and McGeehan, 1/22)

Minnesota Public Radio: St. Olaf College Students Work As EMTs, Helping Fill Ambulance Worker Shortage 
It is getting to be more difficult for ambulance services to find workers to staff their rigs. Ambulance services are experiencing a workforce shortage nationwide, and it’s felt most keenly in rural areas of the country, including right here in Minnesota. But a new pilot from a small liberal arts college south of the Twin Cities could help to fill the gap in its own backyard. (Work, 1/22)

Modern Healthcare: How CMS' Rural Emergency Hospital Program Helped These Providers
The rural emergency hospital program is helping keep facilities afloat, but fading momentum is fueling calls to ensure the initiative and its participants remain successful. The program, which began in 2023, requires small, rural hospitals to no longer provide inpatient care, participate in the 340B drug discount program and operate swing beds for long-term patients outside of distinct skilled nursing units, among other restrictions. In return, they receive a 5% boost to Medicare outpatient reimbursement and an average facility fee payment of more than $3.2 million a year. (Kacik, 1/22)

Modern Healthcare: HFMA Launches Vitalic Health Finance Initiative, Data Tracker
The Healthcare Financial Management Association has started an initiative to better understand the industry’s financial pain points and develop strategies to address them. The first leg of its effort, called Vitalic Health, is the development of a tracker evaluating the industry’s affordability, economics, purchaser satisfaction, social well-being, public health and environmental factors. The tracker found that with the exception of the coronavirus pandemic year of 2020, 2023 was the worst year financially for the industry since 1997. (DeSilva, 1/22)

Verite News: LCMC Health Using AI Software Without Patient Consent
LCMC’s pilot program with Nabla first ran in October 2024 and was fully approved by hospital leadership in August of last year. Since November, Nabla has been deployed for use by physicians, advanced practitioners and trainees across the hospital system and is integrated with Epic, the medical records software LCMC uses to store patient records. ... Despite Nabla’s ability to greatly reduce workload for providers, an AI health care ethics expert, the nurse’s union at University Medical Center (UMC) — operated by LCMC Health — and even Nabla’s co-founder have expressed concerns about the use of AI tools without informed patient consent. (Yehiya, 1/22)

PHARMA AND TECH

ProPublica: ProPublica Publishes Data On The Origins Of Generic Prescription Drugs
ProPublica on Friday published never-before-released data connecting generic drugs to the factories that manufactured them. The data powers Rx Inspector, our groundbreaking tool that allows you to find the factories where your generic drugs were made and their Food and Drug Administration inspection track records. The data, which ProPublica created by linking several FDA datasets, has never been made available by the agency before. It will allow anyone to connect prescriptions to the facilities they were manufactured in by linking National Drug Code numbers to FDA Establishment Identifiers of drug manufacturing facilities. (Roberts, 1/23)

Bloomberg: Llamas Are Big Pharma’s Secret Weapon to Find New Drugs
Scientists have discovered the potential of the animals’ antibodies to thwart multiple diseases, and now drug developers are collectively plowing billions of dollars into a field that may yield a fresh generation of life-changing medicines. The targets include some hard-to-treat conditions like cancer, nerve pain and a chronic skin ailment. The llamas are a vital part of the experiment. In between dust baths and grazing, they get injections to trigger the production of their precious antibodies. The animals are some of the few to produce the tiny proteins, dubbed nanobodies, which scientists praise as easy to produce, manipulate and engineer. (Pham, 1/23)

MedPage Today: Study Questions Benefit Of FDA-Cleared Device For ADHD
A phase IIb trial in England suggested that a stimulation device cleared by the FDA in 2019 for children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may not be effective. (Monaco, 1/22)

Modern Healthcare: FDA Clearances And Approvals: Boston Scientific, BD, Elekta
The Food and Drug Administration recently cleared and approved a variety of medical devices for clinical use, including a Boston Scientific catheter for use in atrial fibrillation treatment and Becton Dickinson’s breast biopsy system. Most of the devices received 510(k) clearance, meaning they are similar to other devices on the market and considered safe to use. One received premarket approval, meaning it is a highest-risk, or Class III, medical device that has been determined to be safe and effective. (Dubinsky, 1/22)

MedPage Today: FDA Warns On CVS Gel After Serious Injuries Reported
The FDA warned on wound and burn care products from MediHoney and CVS after more than a dozen serious injuries were reported. "Integra LifeSciences identified packaging failures related to the MediHoney Wound and Burn products that could lead to a breach in the sterile barrier," the FDA said, adding that "use of product with a breached sterile barrier could lead to patient infection." Similarly, certain batches of CVS Wound Gel may also carry an infection risk. (Ingram, 1/22)

Newsweek: Scientists Warn Of Deadlier-Than-Cancer Harm ‘No One At Davos’ Acknowledges
Warnings that antimicrobial resistance (AMR) could become a deadlier global threat than cancer were issued at Davos this week, with experts cautioning that the world is heading toward a preventable crisis that is not getting the attention it needs. Speaking at the Frontiers Science House, Vanina Laurent Ledru, chief public health and government affairs officer of Institut Mérieux and bioMérieux, said AMR is set to become the next pandemic, with the potential to kill more people than cancer by 2050 if governments fail to act. (Fleur Afshar, 1/22)

GUN VIOLENCE AND MENTAL HEALTH

The Washington Post: Walmart Found Negligent For Selling A Shotgun Used In A Suicide 
A federal jury on Thursday found Walmart negligent for selling a shotgun used in a suicide and awarded the family of the victim — who worked at the store — millions in damages. The verdict followed a 10-day civil trial in Maryland that focused on communications among employees inside a Walmart store 45 miles south of Washington. The family of the 23-year-old who took his life, Jacob Mace, said store managers knew Mace was suicidal and did nothing to ensure that he couldn’t buy a gun from the store. (Morse, 1/22)

LIFESTYLE AND HEALTH

The Washington Post: Obesity And High Blood Pressure May Play Role In Vascular Dementia, Study Says
Obesity in midlife may cause vascular dementia later in life by raising blood pressure over decades and quietly damaging brain vessels, according to new research released Thursday. The danger could be significant. Having a higher body mass index increases the risk of vascular dementia by roughly 50 to 60 percent, according to the study, published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. An association between obesity and dementia has long been the subject of study, and the new research strongly indicates there is indeed a link. (Johnson, 1/22)

The Washington Post: Ancient DNA Shows Syphilis Was Found In The Americas, Before Columbus
From a 5,500-year-old human shin bone, scientists have discovered a close cousin of the pathogen that causes syphilis, providing the oldest evidence yet that the disease has ancient roots in the Americas, millennia before European contact. ... The new study published Thursday in the journal Science adds to a growing body of evidence that the syphilis origin story is not just an Old World versus New World argument, but a much longer story about human coexistence with pathogens. (Johnson, 1/22)