First Edition: Friday, Oct. 31, 2025 🎃

KFF HEALTH NEWS ORIGINAL STORIES

KFF Health News: Better Treatments Buoy Multiple-Myeloma Patients, Bound By Research Cuts And Racial Disparities

For more than a year, Diane Hunter, now 72, had been experiencing vague symptoms — pain in her spine and hips, nausea, exhaustion, thirst, and frequent urination. Her primary care physician had ruled out diabetes before finally chalking up her ailments to getting older. But months of intense back pain eventually landed her in the emergency room, where a doctor suggested that Hunter might have multiple myeloma. Hunter’s first question was, “What is that?” (Newsome, 10/31)

KFF Health News: A Bite, A Bill, And A Bureaucratic Chill In Winning Halloween Haikus

Nearly 100 health care-themed haikus crept into our inbox this Halloween. See the winning poems and top runners-up from KFF Health News’ seventh annual Halloween haiku contest, illustrated by Oona Zenda. The judges’ favorites were inspired by tick migration, Medicaid work requirements, and rising copays. (10/31)

KFF Health News: At The Hollow In Florida, The ‘Medical Freedom’ Movement Finds Its Base Camp

MAGA and MAHA are happily married in Florida, and nowhere more at home than in Sarasota County, where on a humid October night a crowd of several hundred gathered to honor state Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, his wife, and an unlicensed Canadian radiologist who treats cancer with horse paste. (Allen, 10/31)

KFF Health News: KFF Health News’ ‘What The Health?’: Happy Open Enrollment Eve!

Open enrollment for 2026 Affordable Care Act insurance plans starts in most states Nov. 1, with no resolution in Congress about whether to continue more generous premium tax credits expanded under President Joe Biden or let them expire at the end of this year. It is unclear whether the backlash from millions of enrollees seeing skyrocketing premiums will move Democrats or Republicans to back away from entrenched positions that are keeping most of the federal government shut down. (Rovner, 10/30)

AUTISM

The Hill: Kennedy: No Sufficient Evidence For Tylenol-Autism Link

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said there is not “sufficient” evidence that Tylenol causes autism, softening warnings he and President Trump have repeatedly made to discourage the medicine’s use by pregnant women and young children. During a press conference Wednesday, Kennedy reiterated that pregnant women should use Tylenol only when “absolutely necessary.” “We’ve all said from the beginning that the causative association between Tylenol given in pregnancy … is not sufficient to say it definitely caused autism, but it is very suggestive,” Kennedy said. (Weixel, 10/30)

The Washington Post: Covid In Pregnancy Tied To Autism, Developmental Issues, Study Says

Children born to mothers infected with covid-19 during pregnancy faced a higher risk of autism, along with other neurological differences such as delays in speech and motor development, according to a study published Thursday. The analysis of more than 18,100 births in Massachusetts, published in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology, is among the largest studies to date examining children born to women who contracted the virus starting in the early months of the pandemic through some of 2021, before vaccines were widely available. (Ovalle and Cha, 10/30)

Bloomberg: Food Aid For Millions At Risk As Senators Leave For Long Weekend

Senators failed this week to resolve a standoff over funding food aid during the government shutdown and plan to head home Thursday for a long weekend, leaving millions of low-income Americans struggling to purchase groceries starting Saturday. Nov. 1 will mark the first-ever lapse in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and make as many as 42 million food stamp recipients a casualty in the month-long clash over funding the government. (Wasson and Dennis, 10/30)

CNN: Food Banks, Nonprofits Face A ‘Perfect Storm’ Of Surging Demand As Shutdown Drags On

Demand has doubled at a Washington, DC, food bank over the past few weeks, while another in Texas has been forced to dip into emergency hurricane reserve funds to meet demand. Meanwhile, a Florida charity is giving out 300,000 meals per day but, an official there says, “still it’s not enough.” (Williams, Blackburn, Culpepper, Schiciano, Condon and Kirsch, 10/30)

The Hill: Trump Urges Democrats To Tackle ACA Premiums Hike

President Trump late Thursday once again slammed ObamaCare, demanding that Democrats “do something” ahead of an imminent spike in Affordable Care Act (ACA) premiums amid the federal funding impasse. “As I have said for years, OBAMACARE IS A DISASTER! Rates are going through the roof for really bad healthcare!!! Do something Democrats!!!” the president wrote in a Truth Social post. His comment comes as the government shutdown nears the one-month mark. Senate Democrats have refused to pass a stopgap bill unless their Republican counterparts agree to extend ACA subsidies that will expire at the end of the year. (Fields, 10/30)

PRESCRIPTION DRUG COSTS

Modern Healthcare: 340B Rebate Pilot To Include Some Drugs From Abbvie, Merck: HRSA

The Trump administration Thursday released a slate of pharmaceuticals to be included in its 340B Drug Pricing Program rebate pilot. Under 340B, safety-net providers pay 25%-50% less for prescription medications. The program will test allowing drugmakers to pay rebates after purchase to qualifying providers, rather than discounting prices upfront. It will begin Jan. 1 and run for at least a year. (Early, 10/30)

Bloomberg: Antibiotics Must Cost More Than M&Ms, Sandoz Tells Governments

Drugmaker Sandoz Group AG called on European governments to protect local antibiotics manufacturing from a flood of cheaper Chinese products resulting from US tariffs. The Swiss company said the price of the key ingredient in penicillin — a lifesaving product for bacterial infections like pneumonia — has roughly halved lately as Chinese suppliers turn from the US to Europe, putting pressure on its business. (Doenecke, 10/30)

Roll Call: Senators Have Outline For Drug Price Program, But Vote Is Elusive

Lawmakers impatient with the lack of progress on a key health care issue — the long-debated need for changes to what’s known as the 340B drug pricing program — say they are closing in on legislation aimed at what they say are abuses in the program. (Hellmann, 10/30)

TRANSGENDER CARE

NPR: Transgender Youth Health Care Would Be Nearly Banned Everywhere Under New Rules

Access to gender-affirming care for transgender youth will be dramatically restricted by the Trump administration under new proposals by the Department of Health and Human Services. NPR has obtained the draft text of a proposed rule that would prohibit federal Medicaid reimbursement for medical care provided to transgender patients younger than age 18. It also prohibits reimbursement through the Children's Health Insurance Program or CHIP for patients under age 19. (Simmons-Duffin, 10/30)

CNN: Confirmation Hearing Delayed For Trump’s Surgeon General Nominee As She Goes Into Labor With Her First Child

The Senate hearing for President Donald Trump’s nominee for surgeon general, Dr. Casey Means, is postponed as the nominee goes into labor with her first child, according to a Senate Health, Education Labor and Pension Committee spokesperson and a person familiar with Means. (Owermohle, 10/30)

The New York Times: R.F.K. Jr. Adviser Calley Means Has Left The White House

Calley Means, an influential adviser to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the brother of President Trump’s nominee for surgeon general, quietly departed the White House at the end of his term as a special government employee about a month ago, he said in an interview on Wednesday night. For much of the last six months, Mr. Means has acted as the health secretary’s right hand, coordinating a major presidential commission report on what it described as the dire state of children’s health and sparring on television and online with vaccine scientists and doctors who objected to Mr. Kennedy’s campaign to remake American medicine. (Mueller, 10/30)

MORE ON THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION

ProPublica: Red States To Be Hit Hard By Trump Disability Eligibility Rules

It’s never been easy to qualify for Social Security disability benefits. Christopher Tincher knows this firsthand. Tincher began his working life in a coal mine in Aflex, Kentucky, as a teenager in the 1980s. As mines across the region shuttered, he turned to scraping grills at a Hardee’s, then cleaning office buildings at night, then stocking shelves and changing tires at a Walmart in Arkansas. Later, he was hired by a nearby town’s wastewater department. Often, he had to wade into sewage to fix equipment and clean out feces, needles and tampons entering the treatment facility. (Hager, 10/31)

Stat: Insiders: Vinay Prasad 'Wreaking Havoc' At FDA After Return From Exile

A slow-boiling feud between Vinay Prasad and his staff at the Food and Drug Administration is threatening the future of the center that regulates the nation’s vaccines, biological products, and blood supply. (Lawrence, 10/31)

The Washington Post: Senators, Advocates Demand Explanation On Asbestos Risks From East Wing

Democratic senators and public health advocates are demanding that the White House and its contractors prove their rapid demolition of the East Wing last week did not expose workers and passersby to asbestos, a construction material that has been linked to cancer and lung disease. White House officials have said work to abate hazardous materials at the site was performed last month but have so far not provided documentation of what contractors did to mitigate risks associated with the material, which was widely used in building projects at the time of the East Wing’s 1902 construction and 1942 renovation. (Diamond and George, 10/30)

REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH

AP: Federal Judge Rules FDA Unlawfully Restricted Mifepristone Access

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration violated the law by imposing restrictions on accessing mifepristone, a medication for abortions and miscarriage management, a federal judge in Hawaii ruled Thursday. A lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union argues the FDA continues to overly restrict access to a safe medication without scientific justification. ACLU lawyers asked the judge to find that the FDA violated the law but didn’t seek an immediate elimination of the restrictions, which currently include special certification for prescribers and pharmacies and requiring patients to review a counseling form. (Sinco Kelleher, 10/30)

ABC News: Maine Abortion Clinics To End Primary Care Services After Being Denied Medicaid Funding

One of Maine's largest abortion care providers is ending primary care services on Friday after a court ruled that the Trump administration is not required to restore Medicaid funding. Maine Family Planning -- the largest network of sexual and reproductive health care clinics in the state -- is ending primary care services at three clinics in Ellsworth, Houlton and Presque Isle, affecting about 800 patients. (Kekatos, 10/30)

HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY

Montana Free Press: Nurses, Doctor Sue Montana Recovery Program In Class-Action Lawsuit

A group of Montana doctors and nurses is suing the national company that runs a rigorous, often mandatory monitoring program for health care providers grappling with addiction. The case is the latest instance of public criticism about how the state-mandated program for more than 60,000 medical licensees operates. (Silvers, 10/30)

Newsweek: New Orleans Nurses Announce Three-Day Strike In November

Nurses at University Medical Center New Orleans (UMCNO) announced Thursday that they will hold a three-day strike in November over staff retention concerns amid ongoing contract negotiations. This is the fifth time nurses at this hospital have gone on strike since contract negotiations began. Rose Cutropia, a nurse in the post-anesthesia care unit, told Newsweek that recruitment and retention are critical because UMCNO is the only Level 1 trauma center in the region. (Giella, 10/30)

Stat: Insurers Say They’ll Deploy More AI To Combat ‘Aggressive’ Coding By Hospitals

Health insurance companies are fighting fire with fire as they combat rising medical costs they say are being driven up, in part, by artificial intelligence. Large private insurers have continued to call out purportedly overzealous coding and billing as a source of ballooning health care costs. In particular, some have blamed the use of AI tools for some of the surge in claims from health care providers that have cut into their profits. (Palmer, 10/31)

The New York Times: Marthe Gautier, 96, Dies; Had Key Role In Down Syndrome Breakthrough

Dr. Marthe Gautier, a physician and researcher who had a major role in identifying the cause of Down syndrome but whose achievement was undermined when a male colleague took credit for her work, died on April 30, 2022. She was 96. (Grady, 10/30)

PHARMA AND TECH

Stat: Eli Lilly’s Weight Loss, Diabetes Drug Tops Keytruda As World’s Best-Selling Medicine

Merck, which has claimed bragging rights as the maker of the world’s best-selling drug, Keytruda, since 2023, has officially been surpassed by Eli Lilly. Lilly’s tirzepatide, marketed as Mounjaro for type 2 diabetes and Zepbound for obesity, saw $10.1 billion in sales in the third quarter, the pharma giant said Thursday, bringing year-to-date sales of the product to $24.8 billion. (Chen, 10/30)

The Wall Street Journal: The Day Pharma’s Weight-Loss Gold Rush Intensified

Weight-loss drugs are propelling a new gold rush for the pharmaceutical industry. On Thursday, Eli Lilly delivered a surge in quarterly revenue thanks to its medicines, while Novo Nordisk, the other big player in the market, took the unusual step of lobbing an unsolicited multibillion-dollar bid for a weight-loss-drug startup that had agreed to sell to Pfizer. (Loftus, 10/30)

AP: FDA Reports Recall Of Blood Pressure Medication Containing A Potential Carcinogen

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says drug makers have recalled more than a half-million bottles of the blood pressure medication prazosin hydrochloride over concerns it may include a cancer-causing chemical. New Jersey-based Teva Pharmaceuticals USA and drugs distributor Amerisource Health Services issued voluntary nationwide recalls earlier this month of more than 580,000 bottles of various strengths of prazosine capsules, according to the FDA. (10/31)

RACE AND HEALTH

Word In Black: Why Do We Believe Organ Donation Conspiracies?

Organs aren’t “harvested” or “kept on ice.” But countering mistrust and misinformation in the Black community isn’t easy. (Durham, 10/29)

Word In Black: He’s A Legendary Transplant Surgeon. At 88, His Work Isn’t Done

Dr. Clive O. Callender fought racism in medicine and built a movement that saved thousands of Black lives. (Durham, 10/22)

STATE WATCH

Mississippi Today: Mississippi Opens Long-Term Pediatric Medical Center For Youth With Complex Medical Conditions

Mississippi’s first skilled pediatric medical center celebrated its opening Tuesday with a ribbon cutting in Jackson. The Alyce G. Clarke Center for Medically Fragile Children will provide long-term care for patients younger than 19 years old with complex medical conditions and training for others’ families to care for them at home. It is a part of Children’s of Mississippi, the pediatric arm of the University of Mississippi Medical Center. (Dilworth, 10/30)

AP: People Who Died At Colorado Dairy Were Exposed To A Toxic Gas, Coroner's Report Says

Six people who died at a Colorado dairy farm this summer were exposed to hydrogen sulfide gas, authorities said Thursday. The Weld County coroner’s office drew its conclusions from autopsies and toxicology tests. The deaths of five men and a teenager on Aug. 20 sent shockwaves through the rural communities in and around Keenesburg, 35 miles (55 kilometers) northeast of Denver, where emergency responders entered a confined space to recover the bodies. Authorities had immediately expressed concern that the deaths were linked to harmful gases. (Lee and Govindarao, 10/31)

Stat: Health Care Politics: Governors Races A Test Run For The Midterms

Health care has become a central issue in the much-watched governors’ races that will be decided next week — and the results could redirect the parties’ midterm strategies or sway their approaches to federal health policy. (Payne, 10/31)

MENTAL HEALTH

CIDRAP: Serious Mental Illness Tied To Increased Risk Of Long COVID

Adults with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or recurrent major depressive disorder—especially those who are older, Black or Hispanic, have chronic conditions, have public health insurance, or were hospitalized during infection—are at elevated risk for long COVID, according to an analysis published yesterday in JAMA Network Open. (Van Beusekom, 10/30)

PUBLIC HEALTH

CNN: More Illnesses, Deaths Reported In Listeria Outbreak Tied To Recalled Pasta Salads, Meals Sold Nationwide

Two additional deaths have been reported in a listeria outbreak that’s been linked with recalled ready-to-eat pasta salads and prepared meals sold at major grocery chains including Trader Joe’s, Sprouts Farmers Market, Kroger and Walmart, health officials said Thursday. (Koda, 10/31)

CIDRAP: Suspected Measles Case-Patient Refuses Testing In Salt Lake County

Southern Utah has become the epicenter of measles activity in the United States in the past 2 months, but so far, Salt Lake County has not reported any infections. But a new probable case reported by the Salt Lake County Health Department changes that. Officials said a Salt Lake County resident is likely the area’s first case of measles but is refusing to submit to confirmatory testing. (Soucheray, 10/30)

CIDRAP: Avian Flu Detected In House Mice In Washington State

Six house mice in Grant County, Washington, have been identified as having avian influenza, a mammal detection that is likely linked to increased avian influenza among wild birds in the same county. According to an update from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), the mice were collected on October 15. (Soucheray, 10/30)

CIDRAP: Review: Human H5N1 Avian Flu Cases Can Be Asymptomatic, And The Virus Likely Spreads Among People

Asymptomatic human avian influenza A(H5N1) infections occur, and person-to-person transmission is likely in some settings, reveals a scoping review by US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) researchers. The study, published yesterday in JAMA Network Open, involved a search for studies on confirmed highly pathogenic H5N1 infection published through August 25, 2025. (Van Beusekom, 10/30)

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