Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
First Edition: Friday, Oct. 23, 2026
KFF HEALTH NEWS ORIGINAL STORIES
KFF Health News: GOP Congressman In California Swing-District Race Defends Vote For Medicaid Cuts
Ulises Hernandez has had health coverage through Medicaid for as long as he can remember. But he had never waited as long for care as he did in September after a dental crown slipped down his throat during a procedure. He spent eight hours in an emergency room waiting for care and more than two days without food. Sitting in his wheelchair to protest looming federal Medicaid cuts outside Republican U.S. Rep. David Valadao’s Bakersfield office, Hernandez described his wait as a foreshadowing of what’s ahead. (Fortiér, 10/23)
KFF Health News: Shopping For An ACA Plan This Year? Here’s What You Need To Know
Consumers who buy Affordable Care Act health insurance are going to see changes both big and small as open enrollment for 2027 coverage kicks off. These include premium increases, possible additional identity checks, potential delays in working with a broker, and new limits on which immigrants can get subsidies. Shoppers need to plan accordingly. Open enrollment starts Nov. 1 in most states. Idaho, Connecticut, and Massachusetts start earlier, and some states are already allowing “window shopping” to check premium rates. (Appleby, 10/23)
KFF Health News: Medicaid At Risk For Hundreds Of Thousands Of Lawfully Present Immigrants
Refugees. Sex-trafficking victims. People fleeing war. They’re among the hundreds of thousands of immigrants living in the country legally who no longer qualify for Medicaid. The change, in effect since Oct. 1, is part of the 2025 Republican tax law, which cuts Medicaid spending by an estimated $900 billion through 2034. (Jones, 10/23)
THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION
Bloomberg: Calley Means Resigns As Top RFK Jr. Adviser, Impacting MAHA Food Policy Push
Calley Means, a top adviser to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., resigned Thursday, dealing a setback to the administration’s efforts to overhaul the US food system. Means’ departure is likely to come as a relief to big food companies, who had fought against his efforts to create a federal definition of ultra-processed food. He played a leading role in attempting to hold together Kennedy’s coalition of supporters, known as the Make America Healthy Again movement, ahead of the midterm elections. Means was also a driving force behind a proposal to increase transparency into food ingredients the administration released this summer. (Peterson and Cohrs Zhang, 10/22)
Bloomberg: RFK Jr. Pushes Peptide Access, Compounding Pharmacies Face New Reporting Rules
The White House is reviewing a proposal to broaden access to peptides that includes more patient protections than initially expected, according to people familiar with the matter. Widening access to peptides has become a contentious issue at the health department. Most of the compounds haven’t undergone the strict testing required of drugs and can’t legally be sold for human use. Still, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has enthusiastically backed the products, while staff scientists at the Food and Drug Administration have been more cautious. (Cohrs Zhang, Griffin, Muller and Phengsitthy, 10/22)
MedPage Today: National Plan For Alzheimer's And Dementia Gets An Update From HHS
HHS announced an update Thursday to the National Plan to Address Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias that includes investment in projects focused on earlier detection and intervention. "Under President Trump, HHS is shifting the national strategy toward prevention, earlier detection, and faster development of better diagnostics and treatments," HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a news release. (George, 10/22)
The Washington Sun: HHS Was Caught With Erroneous Legal Citations
A filing from the Department of Health and Human Services had "entirely fictitious" citations, and a federal labor agency suggested AI was used. (Fivas, 10/22)
Fierce Healthcare: Few Americans Say CDC, FDA Are Doing A Good Job: Survey
The American public is viewing the performance of federal health agencies as worse than ever before, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in particular taking the sharpest hits in recent years, according to a recent annual poll from Gallup. The survey, which reached 1,000 people during the first half of September, found 26% of respondents rating the CDC as doing either an “excellent” or “good” job (with other options being “only fair,” “poor” or “no opinion”). That’s a five-percentage-point decline from 2025, about 14 percentage points lower than ratings given through the COVID-19 pandemic and well below a high point of 66% back in 2017. (Muoio, 10/22)
Bloomberg: US Proposes Curbs On Investment In Chinese Biotech Firms
The Trump administration is seeking to restrict American investment in Chinese biotechnology companies, potentially complicating financial ties at a time when US drugmakers are increasingly turning to China for new medicines. The Treasury Department on Thursday proposed adding biotechnology to a list of sensitive technologies subject to investment limits involving foreign adversaries, citing national security concerns. (Muller and Tong, 10/22)
ProPublica: The DOE Keeps Appealing Claims By Sick Hanford Nuclear Site Workers
Lonnie Rouse shuffled into a wood-paneled conference room at the Washington state Capitol in March 2018. It had been nearly a decade since medical experts diagnosed him with a neurological disease they attributed to his exposure to chemicals at work. In the time since, he had acquired a stutter, begun limping and lost several teeth biting into a banana. For nearly 20 years, Rouse had packaged plutonium and monitored radioactive waste at the Hanford Site, a now-decommissioned Department of Energy nuclear weapons production plant in south-central Washington and one of the most contaminated nuclear sites in the country. (Giordano and Block, 10/22)
CAPITOL WATCH
The 19th: Lawmakers Push For Release Of Pregnant Woman Detained At Arizona ICE Facility
Lawmakers are calling for the immediate release of 24-year-old Maria Alejandra Valero Brinez, who said she is five months pregnant and having potentially dangerous complications while detained in Arizona’s Eloy Detention Center. (Kutz and Luthra, 10/22)
The Hill: Lawmakers Question Ethics Of CDC Hepatitis B Trial In Africa
Top Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee demanded answers Thursday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) about the agency’s funding of a controversial hepatitis B clinical trial in Guinea-Bissau. The CDC awarded $1.6 million last year to Danish researchers to conduct the study in Guinea-Bissau, a small country in West Africa where nearly 1 in 5 people are infected with the hepatitis B virus. Guinea-Bissau doesn’t vaccinate against hepatitis B at birth, but the country plans to institute the birth dose by 2028. (Weixel, 10/22)
OUTBREAKS AND HEALTH THREATS
ABC News: France Reports 1st Known Human Case Of Shamonda Virus
France has reported the first documented human case of the Shamonda virus, which was previously detected only in animals. The patient was immunocompromised and died, health officials said. The Shamonda virus is spread by tiny biting flies, which are known as midges. In animals, the virus has been shown to cause fever, diarrhea, reduced milk production, and reproductive disorders, including abortions and fetal malformations, according to the World Organization for Animal Health. (Benadjaoud, 10/22)
MedPage Today: CDC Issues Emergency Response For Florida Dengue Outbreak
The CDC has issued a Level 3 emergency response for dengue outbreaks in Florida and another U.S. territory, the agency's eighth emergency response activation this year. Florida is in the midst of its largest dengue outbreak in decades, with 745 cases this year; 425 of those have been locally acquired, and most are concentrated in the Tampa area. That figure marks the largest dengue outbreak in the continental U.S. since 1935. (Fiore, 10/22)
The Hill: Foreign Travelers Will Face New CDC Certification Requirements
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will require foreign travelers heading to the U.S. to certify they have not traveled to the Congo in the last three weeks amid a widespread outbreak of Ebola. Reuters first reported on the new requirement Thursday, citing a CDC memo. The CDC initially held rules barring any travelers — including U.S. citizens — from the Congo within 21 days before departure. (Mancini, 10/22)
AP: Ebola Patients From Kenya And Nigeria May Have Met At Uganda Airport
The first Ebola patients confirmed in Kenya and Nigeria might have crossed paths at an airport in Uganda earlier this month, African health officials said Thursday as they race to trace and slow an outbreak that has spread to several African countries. Both patients are known to have traveled through Uganda’s Entebbe International Airport on Oct. 3, said Dr. Wessam Mankoula, head of emergency preparedness and response at the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Adetayo, 10/23)
ProPublica: Bird Flu Is Raging On A Mink Farm. It Could Spark A Human Pandemic, Experts Say, But Officials Won’t Act
The strain of bird flu that’s ripped through American barns for the last four years has killed two people who caught it from sick animals. But as far as anyone can tell, humans can’t spread it. The virus has remained a true “bird” flu, tailored to attach to avian cells, not invade human throats and noses, where coughing and sneezing reliably spew droplets. Under the right conditions, however, that could change. A single mutation could give the bird flu a foothold in people and spark a pandemic that experts fear could be deadlier than COVID-19. (Lash and Leopo, 10/23)
CIDRAP: As Measles Soars In Pennsylvania, Some Parents Are Vaccinating Their Babies Early
Laura Esch was in disbelief. Her local paper was reporting that Pennsylvania had its first two measles-related deaths in 35 years. Both were infants. The story included a video of Gov. Josh Shapiro speaking at the hospital where she had delivered her younger daughter, Lucy, just a few months prior. It felt like the COVID-19 pandemic all over again, Esch told CIDRAP News. Only this time she was a mom. (Boden, 10/22)
The Washington Post: More Than 27 People Sick After Salmonella Outbreak From Raw Oysters
Federal health officials are investigating a multistate salmonella outbreak that has been linked to raw oysters and sickened 27 people across a dozen states. Five of the cases have involved hospitalizations, health officials said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said an investigation is underway of infections linked to raw oysters harvested by the Little Wicomico Oyster Co. from the Little Wicomico River’s harvest area in Virginia. (Hedgpeth, 10/22)
HEALTHCARE COSTS AND COVERAGE
Modern Healthcare: HHS, CMS Face Second ACA Broker Freeze Lawsuit
A federal freeze on new insurance agents and brokers registering to serve health insurance exchange customers faces a new legal challenge. The trade group Health Agents for America sued the Health and Human Services Department and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland on Wednesday. The plaintiff claims the federal government violated the Administrative Procedure Act of 1946 and exceeded its statutory authority. (Tong, 10/22)
The Hill: Medicare Advantage Plan Cancellations By Humana, UnitedHealthcare To Reach 1 Million
UnitedHealthcare and Humana are canceling Medicare Advantage plans, a move that will affect nearly one million people. The companies are the two largest private health insurance companies for older adults in the U.S. and are ending plans in specific areas where they are making less money, a shift that comes as Medicare enrollment season starts. The decision was made to protect corporate profits, Fortune reported. (Whiteside, 10/22)
Modern Healthcare: Medicaid Work Rules Lift Molina Healthcare’s Pay, CEO Says
Six states are giving Molina Healthcare raises next year to account for the expected impact of Medicaid work requirements and more frequent eligibility verifications, Chief Financial Officer Mark Keim said Thursday. Across the company’s Medicaid portfolio, states are proposing an average 7% increase to Molina Healthcare’s Medicaid pay next year, CEO Joe Zubretsky told investor analysts on the company’s third-quarter earnings call on Thursday. This represents a break from precedent. Traditionally, states rely on historical medical cost data to determine what Medicaid insurance companies are paid. (Tepper, 10/22)
Stat: Gilead Pays $45 Million To Settle Kickback Case Filed By Texas AG
Gilead Sciences agreed to pay $45 million to settle allegations of paying kickbacks that improperly influenced prescriptions paid for by the Texas Medicaid program, the latest pharmaceutical company to reach a deal with the state over marketing practices. (Silverman, 10/22)
HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY
WUSF: Moffitt Opens Pasco Facility With Focus On Cancer Treatment
Moffitt Cancer Center on Thursday opened a 250,000-square-foot research facility on its new Pasco County campus designed to bring cancer scientists from multiple disciplines together to accelerate the development of new treatments. (Mayer, 10/23)
Modern Healthcare: UPMC, Memorial Hermann Invest In Pediatric Day Centers
Some health systems are investing in pediatric day centers as more states look to them to keep medically complex children out of the hospital and reduce Medicaid spending. Patients under age 18 with complex conditions comprise 6% of pediatric Medicaid patients. However, they account for about 40% of Medicaid spending, according to Children’s Hospital Association. (Eastabrook, 10/22)
Chicago Tribune: Nurses At 4 Endeavor Health Hospitals Move To Unionize
Nurses at Endeavor Health’s north suburban hospitals filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board on Thursday to hold a union election – a move that could lead to the unionization of more than 2,400 nurses. (Schencker, 10/22)
PHARMA AND TECH
The Washington Post: Major Medical Lab Operator Believes Cyber Breach Exposed Patient Records
One of America’s largest lab diagnostic companies said Thursday morning it had been the subject of a cybersecurity breach that it believed led to unauthorized access of patient records. Quest Diagnostics disclosed in a filing to shareholders that it learned Wednesday of unauthorized access to a system used by doctors and other health care professionals to order tests and view lab results. (Waldvogel, 10/22)
STATE WATCH
The Washington Post: Free Lunch Programs Vanish, Bills Climb As SNAP Cuts Ripple Through Schools
Enrollment in the nutrition assistance program dropped following last year’s sweeping GOP tax bill. Fewer children and schools now qualify for free school meals. (Lumpkin, 10/22)
San Francisco Chronicle: Scammers Are Targeting Californians With Fake Prescription Calls
California health officials are warning residents about a phone scam where callers impersonating Department of Public Health employees ask for sensitive personal and financial information. The department on Thursday said it has received multiple reports of scammers pretending to be CDPH personnel and asking people to verify information about pharmacy visits and prescription requests. (Ho, 10/22)
Los Angeles Times: Supplement Sold At Gas Stations Blamed For California Man's Opioid Overdose
Public health officials in San Francisco reported a death associated with MGM-15, a lab-created and modified form of 7-OH. (Garcia, 10/22)
HR Dive: California Rule Would Clarify Protections For Postpartum Depression, Telework Accommodations
California tends to lead the way on employment regulations across the country, often having more extensive laws than other states. “As the workplace continues to change, our state’s civil rights protections have to keep pace,” California Civil Rights Department Director Kevin Kish said in a statement. “Pregnant workers and new parents have the right to take time off and ask for changes at work to help them stay on the job. These proposed updates will help ensure that California law not only meets but exceeds protections at the federal level.” (Christ, 10/21)
WBEZ: Illinois Law Promising Doulas Was Supposed To Help Families. It’s Failing Them Instead.
To help prevent more pregnant women from dying, the Pritzker administration promised that private insurers would cover the cost of doulas to support families. But in many cases, they’re turned away or forced to pay thousands out of pocket. (Schorsch, 10/22)
Verite News New Orleans: No Medicaid At New Orleans’ Planned Parenthood Yet, Aid Instead
Planned Parenthood’s New Orleans Health Center reopened last week (Oct. 14), but some patients will notice differences in how they access care compared to before the clinic closed a year ago. The center is under new management, Planned Parenthood Great Plains. As a new healthcare provider in Louisiana, the affiliate is still securing contracts with most private insurance providers and Medicaid plans. (Parker, 10/22)
Verite News New Orleans: BJ’s Lounge To Host Musical Benefit For Louisiana Abortion Fund
For the fifth year in a row, the Bywater bar BJ’s Lounge is gathering musicians for a show to raise money for the Louisiana Abortion Fund (LAAF), a nonprofit organization that connects people with lawful abortion care in other states. BJ’s started the annual benefit show in 2022 — just nine days after federal abortion protections were overturned in the Supreme Court’s ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, triggering a Louisiana state law that banned abortions in nearly all cases. (Perdomo, 10/22)
The Baltimore Sun: 'Produce Subscriptions’ Promise Groceries For Some Baltimore Residents
Baltimore residents battling chronic illnesses could soon have fresh fruits and vegetables delivered to their homes for free, part of a $10 million Maryland initiative that will distribute food through 14 community partnerships statewide. (Pryce, 10/23)
The Washington Post: Virginia State Sen. L. Louise Lucas Indicted In Connection With Marijuana Business
The Justice Department indicted Virginia state Sen. L. Louise Lucas, one of the most powerful Democrats in the commonwealth, as part of a long-running corruption investigation involving a family-run marijuana business. The indictment, which was returned by a federal grand jury in Virginia last week and unsealed Thursday morning, alleges that Lucas and her relatives set up a business to sell marijuana before the substance was legalized for recreational sales in the commonwealth. (Stein and Rizzo, 10/22)
PUBLIC HEALTH
POP CULTURE AND CELEBRITIES
The New York Times: Hall Of Fame RB Marshall Faulk Shares Parkinson’s Diagnosis, Says He’s ‘In A Good Place’
Marshall Faulk has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, the 53-year-old Pro Football Hall of Fame running back shared on The Caring Neurologist podcast this week. Faulk, who said he’s “in a good place,” has been living with the diagnosis for over a year and called himself “one of the lucky ones” after catching the disease early. The former St. Louis Rams and Indianapolis Colts star is currently the head football coach of the Southern University Jaguars in Louisiana. (Yousuf, 10/22)
