First Edition: Monday, Dec. 8, 2025

KFF HEALTH NEWS ORIGINAL STORIES

KFF Health News: A North Carolina Hospital Was Slated To Open In 2025. Mired In Bureaucracy, It’s Still A Dirt Field
Madison County, tucked in the mountains of western North Carolina, has no hospital and just three ambulances serving its roughly 22,000 people. The ambulances frequently travel back and forth to Mission Hospital in Asheville, the largest and most central hospital in the region. Trips can take more than two hours, according to Mark Snelson, director of Madison Medics EMS, the local emergency medical service. “When we get busy and all three of them are gone, we have no ambulances in our county,” he said. (Jones, 12/8)

KFF Health News: Watch: What Do Republicans Really Want On Health Care?
On What the Health? From KFF Health News, distributed by WAMU, chief Washington correspondent and host Julie Rovner sat down with Avik Roy, a GOP health policy adviser, to talk about how health care has evolved as a Republican issue. Roy, a co-founder and the chair of the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, said health care affordability has become a more salient issue for the GOP under President Donald Trump, with more people from working-class backgrounds voting Republican. (Rovner, 12/8)

KFF Health News: In RFK Jr.’s Upside-Down World Of Vaccines, Panel Votes To End Hepatitis B Shot At Birth
Recent weeks have brought good news about vaccines, with studies indicating that flu vaccination reduces heart disease, shingles vaccines can prevent or slow dementia, and a single human papillomavirus shot protects a girl from cervical cancer for the rest of her life. But in the upside-down world of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., vaccines are on the ropes. (Allen, 12/5)

KFF Health News: KFF Health News’ ‘On Air’: Journalists Dig Into Maine HIV Outbreak And Ever-Closer End To Enhanced ACA Subsidies
KFF Health News senior correspondent Aneri Pattani discussed Maine’s largest HIV outbreak to date, including the challenges in tracking transmission and treating people with the virus, on The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Public Health On Call on Dec. 1. (12/6)

VACCINES

Politico: Trump Asks RFK Jr. To ‘Fast Track’ Vaccine Schedule Review
President Donald Trump is all in on Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s plan to scrutinize the list of vaccines American children get. Trump directed Kennedy on Friday to review the childhood vaccine schedule and potentially revise it to align with those of other developed countries, most of which recommend fewer shots. (Gardner, 12/5)

The Hill: Trump Praises CDC's Revised Hepatitis B Vaccine Guidance
President Trump praised a Centers for Disease Control (CDC) panel’s vote to change guidance for hepatitis B vaccinations as a “very good decision” in a Friday night post on his social platform Truth Social. “Today, the CDC Vaccine Committee made a very good decision to END their Hepatitis B Vaccine Recommendation for babies, the vast majority of whom are at NO RISK of Hepatitis B, a disease that is mostly transmitted sexually, or through dirty needles,” Trump wrote. (Venkat, 12/5)

The New York Times: C.D.C. Vaccine Committee Ends Recommendation That All Newborns Receive Hepatitis B Shots
A federal vaccine committee took a major step toward Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s goal of remaking the childhood vaccine schedule on Friday, voting to end a decades-long recommendation that all newborns be immunized at birth against hepatitis B, a highly infectious virus that can cause severe liver damage. (Mandavilli, 12/5)

CNN: Insurance Coverage Of Hepatitis B Vaccine Won’t Change, Industry And Officials Say 
Parents will still be able to get the hepatitis B vaccine for their children at no cost even though the US Centers for Disease and Control Prevention’s vaccine advisers recommended a major change to the immunization practice. (Luhby, 12/7)

NBC News: Lawyer With Ties To Kennedy Sparks Outcry Over Vaccine Misinformation At CDC Advisory Meeting
An anti-vaccine lawyer who has regularly sued federal and state health agencies spoke Friday at a meeting of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory panel — an unheard-of departure for the committee, which for decades was a trusted source for vaccine recommendations. The lawyer, Aaron Siri, has also served as the personal attorney for Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime anti-vaccine activist. (Bendix, 12/5)

Politico: CDC Vaccine Panel Chair Compares Team To 'Puppets On A String' 
The newly appointed chair of the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel privately expressed concerns about the committee’s independence, according to a transcript of remarks obtained by POLITICO. Kirk Milhoan, who was named the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ chair earlier this week, said Friday he felt like committee members were “puppets on a string” rather than independent advisers. (Gardner and Gardner, 12/5)

The Hill: Former FDA Head Criticizes Trump's Hepatitis B Claims
Former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said Sunday that President Trump’s assertions about hepatitis B transmission are “simply not true.” Trump said earlier this week that the disease is “mostly” transmitted sexually or via dirty needles. “That’s the problem. That’s simply not true,” Gottlieb told host Margaret Brennan on CBS News’s “Face the Nation.” (Rego, 12/7)

Chicago Tribune: Illinois To Review Hepatitis B Vaccine Recommendations
Illinois will conduct its own review of a federal vaccine advisory committee’s decision to no longer recommend that all babies get the hepatitis B vaccine when they’re born — a move that’s been blasted by the Chicago-based American Medical Association and other health experts. (Schencker, 12/5)

MORE ON THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION

The New York Times: New Dietary Guidelines Delayed Until Early 2026
The new Dietary Guidelines for Americans will not arrive until early 2026, a representative for the Department of Health and Human Services told The New York Times on Thursday, marking a delay of the release of the government’s official advice on what to eat and drink for good health. For months, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s health secretary, has promised to overhaul the guidelines. Federal law requires that they are updated every five years; the current edition was supposed to be replaced by the end of 2025. (Callahan, 12/4)

The New York Times: MAHA Activists Urge Trump To Fire Lee Zeldin At The E.P.A. 
Several prominent activists in the “Make America Healthy Again” movement are urging President Trump to fire Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, over his decisions to loosen restrictions on harmful chemicals. In a petition circulated on social media, the activists wrote that Mr. Zeldin “has prioritized the interests of chemical corporations over the well-being of American families and children.” (Joselow, 12/5)

Axios: MAHA Group Begins State Election Endorsements
MAHA Action, a political advocacy group dedicated to advancing Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s agenda, made its first state-level election endorsement last week by wading into a key farm state's gubernatorial race. (Goldman, 12/8)

Stat: Trump NIH Cuts Threaten America's Next Generation Of Scientists 
The MOSAIC program is the type of early-career research grant that checks many of the boxes of the Trump administration. National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya listed “training future biomedical scientists” as one of his top priorities, and has spoken often about the need to support researchers at the start of their careers, when they tend to do their most original work. (Oza and Parker, 12/8)

The Washington Post: Trump Pardons Major Drug Traffickers Despite His Anti-Drug Rhetoric
The president has granted clemency to about 100 people accused of drug-related crimes during his two terms in office, a Post analysis shows. (Kornfield and Davies, 12/8)

The New York Times: Hundreds Rally For Boy, 6, Who Was Separated From His Father By ICE 
Hundreds of people gathered at a Queens playground on Sunday to protest the federal government’s forced separation of a 6-year-old migrant boy from his father after the two were arrested last month amid President Trump’s deportation crackdown. The boy, Yuanxin Zheng, is among the youngest migrants to be stripped from a parent by federal immigration authorities in New York City since the crackdown began. He and his father, Fei Zheng, were detained at what they believed was a routine check-in on Nov. 26. (Shanahan and Chu, 12/7)

AFFORDABLE CARE ACT

The Hill: Health Care Fight Hits Critical Juncture In House, Senate
The fierce fight over health care costs hits a crucial juncture this week, with a series of major developments that could make or break the future of enhanced ObamaCare subsidies. For months, GOP leaders have been squeezed between centrist Republicans clamoring to extend the Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits, which expire at year’s end, and more conservative lawmakers fighting to see them lapse. Democrats, from the sidelines, have fueled the clash by demanding a “clean” extension to prevent premiums from skyrocketing for millions of Americans in January. (Lillis and Brooks, 12/7)

Bloomberg: Johnson Recycles GOP Health Ideas Amid Gridlock Over Obamacare
Speaker Mike Johnson is pushing to unveil a Republican health care bill in the coming days for a vote by the end of the month, but the move is unlikely to resolve a congressional deadlock over expiring Obamacare subsidies. The GOP plan is likely to include ideas the party has floated in the past to create less comprehensive plans to compete with Obamacare and to divert premium tax credits for the insurance policies toward tax-sheltered savings accounts individuals can use to cover non-premium out-of-pocket costs. (Wasson, 12/5)

Politico: Cassidy Projects Optimism On Winning Bipartisan Support For His Health Care Plan
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said he planned to present Republican leadership with his health care plan as soon as Sunday night, predicting that the divisive proposal to put money directly in Americans’ health savings accounts could clear the 60-vote threshold needed to pass in the Senate. (Wendler, 12/7)

Modern Healthcare: Expiring ACA Subsidies Push States To Offer Premium Support
States are taking matters into their own hands as health insurance exchange customers confront huge rate hikes and shrinking federal aid. Congress continues to debate whether to extend the enhanced health insurance exchange subsidies that expire at the end of the year. But with enrollees facing net premiums that more than doubled on average for 2026, some states are devoting what resources they have to help. (Early, 12/5)

RURAL HEALTH

Politico: ‘Sort Of Blackmail’: Billions In Rural Health Funding Hinge On States Passing Trump-Backed Policies
The Trump administration offered states a deal: pledge to enact White House-favored policies for a chance to win a bigger share of the $50 billion aimed at transforming the nation’s struggling rural health care systems. The battle for those funds is now underway. (Ollstein, Reader and Crampton, 12/7)

The Washington Post: Rural America Relies On Foreign Doctors. Trump’s Visa Fee Shuts Them Out.
The overworked kidney doctors in this small town were supposed to get reinforcement this fall with the arrival of a new colleague from India. Patients already had appointments scheduled with the incoming nephrologist. Then the Trump administration demanded that companies pay a $100,000 visa fee to bring highly skilled workers from abroad, including doctors and medical professionals urgently needed in health care deserts. Nephrology Associates of the Carolinas could no longer afford to sponsor the Indian kidney specialist, and it has not found an American well suited for the job. (Ovalle, 12/8)

HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY

North Carolina Health News and Charlotte Ledger: Surprise! Hospitals Charge A Fee For Pre-Visit-Questionnaires
When Steve Hardman of Charlotte checked in to see a Novant Health sleep doctor earlier this year, the receptionist handed him a survey to fill out. Hardman, 66, had seen the questions before — Do you feel safe in your house? Can you afford food? He spent a few minutes checking off the answers and handed the form back to the front desk. A few weeks later, the bill arrived, and it included an extra $8 fee he hadn’t seen before. (Crouch, 12/8)

Stat: Health Insurer Prescription Costs Rise 20%, GLP-1s Cited As Cause
Health insurance companies have lamented fast-rising medical expenses for more than two years. This year is no different as Americans continue to get more care than insurers expected. One of the main culprits of that higher spending: prescription drugs, and GLP-1s in particular. (Herman, 12/8)

Modern Healthcare: Prime Healthcare Foundation, Prospect Medical Possible Deal Off
Prime Healthcare Foundation has declined to buy two Prospect Medical Holdings hospitals in Rhode Island. Ontario, California-headquartered Prime Healthcare operates 51 hospitals in 14 states. Of those, 18 are owned by the Prime Healthcare Foundation, a separate nonprofit organization, according to its website. Prime Healthcare Foundation would have owned the two Prospect hospitals. (DeSilva, 12/5)

Bloomberg: Goldman, Morgan Stanley Sweeten Healthcare Firm’s Debt Deal
A group of banks including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley improved terms of a debt offering for Sevita Whole Health LLC after an initial struggle to sell a loan for the healthcare services firm, according to people familiar with the matter. (Gurumurthy, Farr and Amodeo, 12/5)

ProPublica: Sick In A Hospital Town
The story of Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital — the dominant political and economic institution of Albany, Georgia — is the story of American health care. (Thompson and Burke, 12/7)

Modern Healthcare: Hospitals Prefer AI For Clinical, Admin Use: J.P. Morgan Chase
Health systems aren’t just excited about using artificial intelligence as a tool to improve back-office operations. They’re also keen to use it for clinical diagnosis. A report published this week by J.P. Morgan Chase examined major health tech trends including venture capital investment into AI. It also looked at how health systems plan to deploy the technology and who is using digital health technology most frequently. (Perna and Broderick, 12/5)

Stat: Is AI Ready To Interpret Chest X-Rays Without Human Supervision? 
In front of a room of radiologists, Warren Gefter pulled up a chest X-ray on a large screen. It looked like a standard, uncomplicated read. Heart: normal. Lungs: clear. But Gefter, a professor of radiology at Penn Medicine, wasn’t looking to his peers to interpret the scan. Instead, he highlighted what a generative artificial intelligence model had put in its written findings, along with those normal results: “Left hip prosthesis in situ.” (Palmer, 12/8)

PHARMA AND TECH

The Hill: High Blood Pressure Pills Recalled By NJ Firm: FDA
A New Jersey drugmaker has voluntarily recalled thousands of bottles of a combination high blood pressure medication over concerns the product could be cross-contaminated with another drug, the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) said. The recall covers more than 11,100 bottles of bisoprolol fumarate and hydrochlorothiazide tablets under the brand name Ziac. Testing of reserve samples showed presence of ezetimibe, a drug used for high cholesterol, FDA officials said in a report published online. (Ramsey, 12/6)

The New York Times: Kidney Recipient Dies After Transplant From Organ Donor Who Had Rabies 
A man died of rabies after getting a kidney transplant from another man who died of the virus, only the fourth instance in nearly 50 years in which an organ donor passed the virus to a recipient, federal officials said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Thursday that an Idaho man was on his rural property in October 2024 when a skunk approached him and scratched him on the shin. (Kirk, 12/6)

Fox News: Ultrasound Detects Dangerous Blockages From Cosmetic Filler Injections
Each year, more than 5 million cosmetic filler procedures are performed in the U.S. — but these injectables can potentially block key blood vessels, putting patients at risk for serious harm. In a study presented this week at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) in Chicago, doctors found that ultrasound technology can spot these dangerous blockages early enough to guide treatment and help prevent lasting injury. (Rudy, 12/7)

The New York Times: Cold Case Inquiries Stall After Ancestry.Com Revisits Policy For Users 
The genealogy site’s clarification of its terms and conditions has barred those working on unsolved crimes from access to the company’s vast trove of records. (Kilgannon, 12/7)

STATE WATCH

AP: California Officials Warn Foragers After Wild Mushroom Poisoning Outbreak
California officials are warning foragers after an outbreak of poisoning linked to wild mushrooms that has killed one adult and caused severe liver damage in several patients, including children. The state poison control system has identified 21 cases of amatoxin poisoning, likely caused by death cap mushrooms, the health department said Friday. The toxic wild mushrooms are often mistaken for edible ones because of their appearance and taste. (12/6)

Montana Free Press: In Laurel, Few Details Released About Potential Site Of Proposed State-Run Mental Health Facility
Montana state Sen. Vince Ricci, a Republican whose district stretches from west Billings to the nearby town of Laurel, has spent months trying to keep track of the state’s evolving plans to develop a new psychiatric facility somewhere in his neck of the woods. For a lawmaker used to being well-informed on state policy, it hasn’t been easy. The day after Thanksgiving, the administration of Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte officially announced it had picked the Laurel area as the site for the 32-bed facility intended to treat mentally ill people in the criminal legal system. (Silvers, 12/5)

The New York Times: A Small Illinois City At The Center Of A Seismic Shift In Abortion Access 
Carbondale, Ill., a liberal enclave within driving distance of 10 states with abortion bans, has become a hub for the procedure. Last year there were nearly 11,000 abortions in this city of 21,000. (Williamson, 12/7)

AP: State Court Hears Massachusetts Lawsuit Against Meta For Profiting From Addictive Platforms
Massachusetts’ highest court heard oral arguments Friday in the state’s lawsuit arguing that Meta designed features on Facebook and Instagram to make them addictive to young users. The lawsuit, filed in 2024 by Attorney General Andrea Campbell, alleges that Meta did this to make a profit and that its actions affected hundreds of thousands of teenagers in Massachusetts who use the social media platforms. (Casey, 12/5)

The Baltimore Sun: Toxic Plastics Aggravate Skin Condition For Baltimore Residents
The chemicals in plastic-bottled water, sodas and sugary junk foods in thin plastic wrappers can cause or worsen a rare but debilitating skin condition, according to a recent Johns Hopkins study. (Hille, 12/5)

The 74: Students Of Color Have Been Denied Dyslexia Diagnosis And Intervention
When Clarice Jackson raised concerns in 2000 about her adopted daughter’s inability to read two or three letter words by the fourth grade, she was told by Nebraska school officials it was because of the child’s early home life and her misbehavior in class. (Harkay, 12/5)

Chicago Tribune: Chicago Public Schools Measles Vaccination Rate Climbs
Chicago Public Schools has surpassed the recommended threshold for measles vaccinations, with about 96% of its student population now immunized, according to a Tribune analysis of newly released data. Last school year, coverage stood at roughly 94% — below the 95% benchmark that is widely accepted in public health circles, specifically for highly contagious diseases such as measles. (Moses, 12/5)

The Colorado Sun: Measles In Colorado: New Case Raises Concerns Of Silent Spread
Colorado on Friday reported its 33rd measles case of the year — in a child from Montezuma County who had not been vaccinated against the disease. The child has not traveled recently outside of Colorado and is not known to have had contact with other infected people, raising the possibility that measles is spreading undetected in southwestern Colorado. (Ingold, 12/5)

AGING

The Washington Post: Scientists Devise Method To Fight Aging At The Cellular Level 
Aging taps us on the shoulder in many ways: wrinkles, thinning hair, loss of flexibility, slowing of the brain. But the process also unfolds at a more fundamental, microscopic level, as the energy source inside most cells deteriorates. Scientists at Texas A&M University have discovered a way to recharge aging and damaged cells, an innovation that could lead to better treatment for a variety of conditions, including Alzheimer’s disease, muscular dystrophy and fatty liver disease. (Johnson, 12/8)

San Francisco Chronicle: How Reading Can Help Older Adults Boost Brain Health And Moods
Most older adults don’t read for pleasure these days, but the simple and affordable hobby can have lots of health benefits, including some surprising ones, say experts in aging and brain health. Reading is associated with reductions in stress and improved mood. And though the actual science is limited, scientists generally agree that reading can boost brain health by essentially working it like a muscle, keeping it strong and flexible. (Allday, 12/7)

NPR: Why A Drink With Alcohol Hits Harder With Age
Once upon a time, a drink or two at a holiday party went down the hatch with no problems. Now, it's a recipe for misery the next morning. Sound familiar? Dr. Monica Christmas of the University of Chicago Medicine says it's a common lament as people enter middle age. "You are not alone," Christmas says. "I am in that age range too and absolutely, [drinks] need to be spread out or it's all going to go straight to my head and I will need to sleep half the day away the next day." (Godoy, 12/8)

GLOBAL WATCH

CIDRAP: WHO Celebrates Progress Against Malaria, But Warns That Hurdles Remain
A new report this week from the World Health Organization (WHO) highlights the progress that’s been made in efforts to control malaria, along with the threats that could undo that progress. (Dall, 12/5)

Bloomberg: Eli Lilly, Pfizer Land On China’s First Private Insurance List
Eli Lilly & Co., Pfizer Inc. and Johnson & Johnson secured spots on China’s first innovative drug catalog, opening a new market channel and boosting sales prospects for costly, cutting-edge treatments. In all, 19 medicines made the list — a formulary of drugs deemed too expensive for state insurance but recommended for commercial health coverage — officials said in Guangzhou on Sunday. The drugs are for a range of conditions including cancer and Alzheimer’s, as well as rare genetic disorders. (Tong, 12/7)

The New York Times: The Married Scientists Torn Apart By A Covid Bioweapon Theory
In 2020, a Chinese virologist fled to the United States, aided by allies of President Trump who sought to promote her unproven theories about the origins of Covid-19. Her husband still can’t find her. (Baker, 12/7)