Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
First Edition: Friday, July 24, 2026
KFF HEALTH NEWS ORIGINAL STORIES
KFF Health News: ‘The Child Is Terrified’: Doctors On The Front Lines Of A Measles Comeback Speak Out
This isn’t just a bad year for measles. It looks to be the start of a bad era. Confirmed measles cases just hit a 35-year high, and it’s only July. Together with last year, the number of cases has exceeded the combined total over the previous 25 years. The vast majority of cases stem from domestic outbreaks fueled by low rates of vaccination—and rates are declining. (Maxmen, 7/24)
KFF Health News: Watch: GOP Senator Says Trump’s Tariffs Could Mean Safer Drugs — For A Price
President Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs on imported generic drugs could raise some prices for patients, a key GOP lawmaker on health issues said this week. But he said that’s a potentially worthwhile trade-off to protect the nation’s drug supply. (Rovner and Norman, 7/24)
KFF Health News: To Afford Aging In Place, Older Adults Turn To ‘Golden Girls’ Housing
Shirley Jennett, a retired nurse, loves her spacious ranch-style house in Denver, with its big backyard and gazebo. “I want to stay here,” she vowed. “And die here.” She might pull that off. In relatively good health, Jennett still drives to lunch with friends, does her own housekeeping and grocery shopping, and plows through a book a day, usually a mystery. But her children worry about her living alone at 89, especially after she has had a couple of falls. (Span, 7/24)
KFF Health News: 'What The Health? From KFF Health News': A Shrinking Safety Net
A new report finds that participation in the federal food stamp program is down far more than was predicted when the Republican-led Congress approved cuts in 2025. That portends a similar fate for Medicaid, as states ready comparable changes. Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, and Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico Magazine join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss the news. Also, as part of the “How Would You Fix It?” series, Rovner interviews GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. (7/23)
CONFIRMATION HEARINGS
The New York Times: Key Republican Senator Says He Will Support Erica Schwartz For C.D.C. Director
President Trump’s nominee to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention won the support of a crucial Republican on Thursday after a page on the agency’s website about vaccines and autism was modified to address his objections. (Stolberg, 7/23)
Stat: Senate Health Panel Delays Vote On Erica Schwartz To Run CDC
The Senate’s health panel delayed until next week a vote on Erica Schwartz to run the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, after postponing a separate vote on Sean Kaufman for a key public health preparedness role. (Cirruzzo, 7/23)
Stat: Confirmation Delayed For Controversial Pandemic Preparedness Chief
A Trump administration nominee to lead an agency focused on public health disasters had his confirmation vote postponed amid a lack of support just minutes before it was scheduled to take place, after he was lambasted during a confirmation hearing last week for his past anti-vaccine statements. (Cirruzzo, 7/23)
AFFORDABLE CARE ACT
Fierce Healthcare: HHS Appeals Vacatur Of 2025 ACA Program Integrity Rule
A Maryland judge's decision to toss several provisions of a 2025 regulation on Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplaces, several of which overlap with more recent rulemaking, has been appealed by the Department of Health and Human Services. According to court documents, HHS filed its appeal last week and a case was opened in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit on Tuesday. Maryland District Judge Brendon Hurson had ruled in favor of plaintiffs—several cities and patient advocacy groups—last month. (Minemyer, 7/23)
Healthcare Dive: Molina Plans Additional ACA Cuts In 2027
Molina Healthcare plans to further shrink its Affordable Care Act business in 2027 in a bid to eke out profits from the smaller and sicker insurance marketplace, after the expiration of more generous subsidies caused millions of Americans to flee the exchanges. Molina’s ACA membership fell from 655,000 people at the end of 2025 to 283,000 people in the second quarter, after the insurer raised rates 30% on average to contain rising costs and reduce its exposure to the exchanges, according to results posted aftermarket Wednesday. (Parduhn, 7/23)
The CT Mirror: Lamont Pledges To Extend ACA Subsidies. His Opponents Are Split
Connecticut will provide residents with financial assistance again in 2027 to partly offset expired federal aid for Affordable Care Act health plans, Gov. Ned Lamont said after a campaign event in New Haven earlier this month. (Golvala and Phaneuf, 7/23)
Wyoming Public Radio: A Tale Of Two States: New Mexico And Wyoming In A Post-ACA Subsidy Era
All U.S. states except one in the Mountain West are seeing a decline in the number of people paying for Affordable Care Act coverage. Nationwide, five million fewer people are enrolled than last year, federal data shows. (Kinsey and Merzbach, 7/23)
THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION
MedPage Today: HHS Changes Two Vaccine Committee Charters
HHS has altered the charters of two vaccine-related committees: the Advisory Commission on Childhood Vaccines (ACCV) and the National Vaccine Advisory Committee (NVAC). The timing isn't unusual, as both charters are up for renewal, said Richard Hughes IV, JD, MPH, the attorney leading the American Academy of Pediatrics' lawsuit against HHS changes to vaccine policy. (Fiore, 7/23)
The Washington Post: Education Dept. Eliminates Tool Used To Prove Racial Discrimination
The Education Department on Thursday killed decades-old rules that have allowed statistical disparities to be used as proof of racial discrimination, the most recent move by the Trump administration to overhaul the government’s enforcement of civil rights law. The move follows years of conservative complaints about “disparate impact analysis,” which incorporates use of data to show discrimination. (Meckler, 7/23)
Bloomberg: Hidden Cost Of Trump’s USAID Cuts: Floods, Disease And Poverty
James Mwazighe watched the flood waters nearly engulf his daughter’s bed as seasonal rains swept across southern Kenya in March. Jane, his usually playful 2-year-old, lay writhing in pain from malaria, her tiny body ravaged by severe diarrhea. His nearby farmland — normally a bounty of bananas, maize and beans — was a swamp. (Sanchez, Marks and Karra, 7/23)
'MAKE AMERICA HEALTHY AGAIN'
Stat: FDA Panel Backs Compounded BPC-157, KPV Peptides In Win For RFK Jr.
In a win for peptide proponents and for health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an advisory panel to the Food and Drug Administration recommended on Thursday that compounding pharmacies be allowed to manufacture the drugs BPC-157, KPV, TB-500, and MOTS-c. The FDA panel will vote on additional compounds on Friday. (Todd and Lawrence, 7/23)
The Washington Post: Peptide Boom Has States Scrambling To Protect Consumers, Post Investigation Finds
Your favorite local restaurant or hair salon is subject to more inspections and oversight than the medspa down the street selling peptide injections. (Weber, 7/24)
The New York Times: What To Know About Peptides The FDA Is Considering For Use
An advisory committee to the Food and Drug Administration convened Thursday to evaluate whether compounding pharmacies should be allowed to produce seven peptides that were previously banned over safety concerns. (Smith, 7/23)
Stat: UPF Food Bill Shows How MAHA Has Scrambled Capitol Hill Politics
Amid debates over whether the political influence of the Make America Healthy Again movement is on the wane, a new bill advanced in the Senate on Wednesday shows that concerns over ultra-processed food continue to upend the usual partisan stances in Washington. (Todd, 7/24)
MORE FROM CAPITOL HILL
MedPage Today: Calls For Update On McConnell's Health Grow Louder
Frustrations are growing as Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has been absent from the Senate for 40 days, leading to speculation about his health and the truth of his statement from nearly 2 weeks ago. (Henderson, 7/23)
The Hill: Dr. Anthony Fauci To Face Rand Paul In Senate Hearing Next Week
Dr. Anthony Fauci will testify next Wednesday in front of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee after being subpoenaed, panel Chair Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said Thursday. (Weixel, 7/23)
CYCLOSPORIASIS OUTBREAK
The Washington Post: CDC Expands Largest Known U.S. Cyclospora Outbreak To 9 States
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has linked four additional states to a multistate cyclosporiasis outbreak traced to shredded iceberg lettuce sourced from central Mexico, according to two individuals familiar with the investigation. The newly linked states — Illinois, Kansas, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania — join Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia, and expand the nation’s largest known cyclosporasis outbreak. (Sun and Ye, 7/24)
CNBC: Cyclospora Outbreak Tests RFK Jr.’s Promise To Overhaul Food System, Rebuild Trust In CDC
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took the helm of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services last year promising to overhaul the U.S. food system and restore confidence in the agencies that oversee it. “It is difficult to quantify precisely, but it is clear that the cuts to federal funding over the past year or so have reduced our capacity to respond to outbreaks like this,” said Craig Hedberg, co-director of the Minnesota Integrated Food Safety Center of Excellence. (Peebles, 7/23)
The Hill: How DOGE Ending USAID Hit US Efforts On Cyclospora Outbreak
When the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) last year, it set off a chain of events that is still being felt in the sluggish federal response to a record number of cyclosporiasis infections. (Weixel, 7/23)
REPRODUCTIVE AND MATERNAL HEALTH
The Hill: Democratic Caucus Files Amicus Brief In Mifepristone Telehealth Case
The entire congressional Democratic caucus filed an amicus brief urging a federal appeals court to retain the Food and Drug Administration’s current rules for prescribing abortion pills. (Weixel, 7/23)
The Texas Tribune: Ruling Overturns Closure Of Texas Midwife’s Clinics
A Texas appeals court on Thursday dismissed an injunction that forced a Houston-area midwife to close her clinics, ruling that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office relied solely on an anonymous email as evidence that she violated the state’s 2022 abortion ban. (Langford, 7/23)
Verite News: ‘Pray About It, And Then Do Something’: New Orleans Church Works To Break Stigma Around Maternal Mental Health Problems
It was February 2013 when Jasmine Luter’s world suddenly went dark. Luter had just arrived home from the hospital after giving birth. Exhausted from the labor, the nursing and a lack of sleep, she said she lay down for a nap. When she woke after sunset, she said, she noticed something was “off.” “I can’t really describe it except I just felt off,” Luter said. Luter heard people in the living room of her Metairie home — family members visiting with the new baby boy. To this day she struggles to describe the experience, but she remembers feeling heavy. (Stewart, 7/24)
LGBTQ+ HEALTH
The 19th: Tennis Is The First Major Women’s Sports League To Require Genetic Testing
The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) has taken a step beyond most other women’s sports leagues by requiring genetic sex testing for female athletes. (Rummler, 7/22)
HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY
Modern Healthcare: Aetna, UnitedHealthcare See Medicare Advantage Star Ratings Boost
Dozens of Medicare Advantage insurers are due higher quality bonus payments after the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services revised their 2026 scores. (Tepper and Broderick, 7/23)
Chicago Tribune: Northwest Community Hospital Plans $175M Cancer Center
Endeavor Health Northwest Community Hospital hopes to move forward with plans to build a new $175 million cancer and neuroscience center after a state board approved the project earlier this week. (Schencker, 7/23)
PHARMACEUTICALS
Stat: Sanofi Insulin Product, Lantus Solostar Pen, Reported In Short Supply
People with diabetes who use a popular long-acting insulin pen made by Sanofi have had to become pharmacy scouts in recent weeks as they encounter supply issues. (Cueto, 7/23)
Los Angeles Times: New Drug Could Help People Stricken With Valley Fever
As the fungus that causes valley fever expands across the western United States and cases skyrocket in California, researchers say they may have found a new drug that can help those suffering from the most advanced form of the disease. And they’re hoping that someday the antifungal drug known as olorofim can be given to patients in earlier stages of the illness — before the fungal infection becomes too perilous. (Rust, 7/23)
Stat: European Medicines Agency Looks To Bolster Clinical Trial Transparency
In a boost for greater clinical trial transparency, the European Medicines Agency is taking what consumer advocacy groups are calling unexpectedly “rapid action” to ensure that study results are made public as required by law. (Silverman, 7/23)
STATE WATCH
Chicago Tribune: Illinois To Lay Off Workers, Reduce Operations At Choate
Gov. JB Pritzker’s administration is significantly reducing staffing at a long-troubled downstate center for people with mental health issues and developmental disabilities, state and union officials said Thursday. (Olander, 7/23)
The New York Times: Los Angeles Homeless Population Grows Again, After 2 Years Of Decline
Homelessness increased in Los Angeles over the past year, according to numbers that will be released by the region’s homelessness authority on Friday, setting up Mayor Karen Bass for a fresh round of criticism amid an already bruising re-election campaign. The city’s homeless population increased by 3.4 percent from last year, based on the most recent point-in-time count, an annual January census of the region’s homeless population, according to two people who were not authorized to release the data before tomorrow’s announcement. (Cowan and Hubler, 7/23)
New Hampshire Public Radio: Planning For End-Of-Life Medical Care Sound Scary? These NH Doctors Want To Help
On a hot July day, a group of Cheshire Medical Center patients are sitting in an air-conditioned conference room at the hospital. They’re all mostly over 50 years old, and they’re here for a presentation on advance directives — plus the free pizza that comes with it. (Harris, 7/23)
Public News Service: Extreme Weather Exacerbates Wyomingites’ Mental Health Risks
More frequent and severe wildfires, prolonged drought, deadly storms and other effects of a changing climate are affecting Wyomingites’ mental health. Symptoms can range from anxiety and feelings of helplessness to post-traumatic stress disorder and increases in violence and suicide, according to research from Canada's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. (Galatas, 7/23)
PUBLIC HEALTH
The Washington Post: U.S. Homicides Could Fall To A Historic Low This Year, Report Shows
Homicide rates are falling precipitously in many cities across the United States, dropping by 18 percent since the same period last year, and by the end of 2026 the murder rate could plummet to its lowest nationwide in more than a century, according to a new midyear crime trends report. (Mettler, 7/24)
Fox News: Microplastics Found At Higher Levels In Heart Attack Patients' Blood
Patients experiencing severe heart attacks may have significantly higher concentrations of micro- and nanoplastics in their blood compared to individuals with stable heart conditions, according to new research. Italian researchers analyzed blood samples from the coronary arteries of 61 patients undergoing angiograms, a procedure that analyzes blood vessels for irregularities. (Quill, 7/23)
HealthDay: Black MS Patients Dying Younger Than Whites, Study Warns
Black people with multiple sclerosis (MS) die from the disease at a younger age than white people, a new study reports. The death rate among Black patients with MS peaks between ages 65 and 74, while white patients are most likely to die between 75 and 84, researchers report in the September issue of the journal Neurology Open Access. (Thompson, 7/24)
CIDRAP: Antibiotic Resistance In Children Is Rising And Likely To Get Worse, Study Finds
New research indicates that antimicrobial resistance (AMR) rates have increased significantly in children over the last two decades, rendering many first-line treatment options ineffective and now increasingly threatening second-line and last-resort options. (Dall, 7/23)
The Guardian: Replacing Gas Stove Can Help Asthmatics As Much As Some Drugs, US Experts Find
A US study has found a 70% drop in hospital admissions and days off from work or school when people with poorly controlled asthma had their gas stove and hob replaced with electric. Ohio’s publicly owned MetroHealth began the study in December 2024 but funding was terminated early by the incoming Trump administration. It had been designed to investigate if replacing gas cooking improved asthma for 1,200 people living near Cleveland, Ohio. (Fuller, 7/24)
The Dallas Morning News: Over 1 Million Cartons Of Eggs Recalled Due To Salmonella Risk
More than a million cartons of eggs are being recalled from retail outlets after Texas farms reported potential salmonella contamination, according to a Wednesday statement from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration. (Jorgensen, 7/23)
The Washington Post: Fruit Puree Pouches Recalled Over Possible Plastic Contamination
The packaging of certain fruit puree pouches sold at Target, Kroger and Meijer stores nationwide could pose a health risk. On Friday, PT Organics Limited voluntarily recalled a portion of its Pumpkin Tree Peter Rabbit Organics Banana & Strawberry four-ounce (113-gram) pouches after being notified by its supplier about a defect in packaging that could result in “a thin, soft strand of the inner pouch material becoming detached, and leaving the pouch when squeezed,” according to a statement published on the company website. The Food and Drug Administration posted the company’s announcement on July 21. (Sloan, 7/23)
