First Edition: Monday, June 23, 2025

KFF HEALTH NEWS ORIGINAL STORIES

KFF Health News: Federal Proposals Threaten Provider Taxes, Key Source Of Medicaid Funding For States 
Republican efforts to restrict taxes on hospitals, health plans, and other providers that states use to help fund their Medicaid programs could strip them of tens of billions of dollars. The move could shrink access to health care for some of the nation’s poorest and most vulnerable people, warn analysts, patient advocates, and Democratic political leaders. No state has more to lose than California, whose Medicaid program, called Medi-Cal, covers nearly 15 million residents with low incomes and disabilities. That’s twice as many as New York and three times as many as Texas. (Wolfson, 6/23)

KFF Health News: Many Older People Embrace Vaccines. Research Is Proving Them Right.
Kim Beckham, an insurance agent in Victoria, Texas, had seen friends suffer so badly from shingles that she wanted to receive the first approved shingles vaccine as soon as it became available, even if she had to pay for it out-of-pocket. Her doctor and several pharmacies turned her down because she was below the recommended age at the time, which was 60. So, in 2016, she celebrated her 60th birthday at her local CVS. (Span, 6/23)

KFF Health News: KFF Health News' 'What The Health?': Supreme Court Upholds Bans On Gender-Affirming Care 
Meanwhile, the Senate is still hoping to complete work on its version of President Donald Trump’s huge budget reconciliation bill before the July Fourth break. But deeper cuts to the Medicaid program than those included in the House-passed bill could prove difficult to swallow for moderate senators. (6/20)

AFFORDABLE CARE ACT

The Hill: Trump Administration Makes Sweeping Changes To Obamacare, Ends ‘Dreamer’ Coverage
The Trump administration is shortening Obamacare’s annual open enrollment period and ending the law’s coverage of immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally as children, according to a final rule announced Friday. According to the rule, the federal open enrollment period will run from Nov. 1 through Dec. 31. Currently, federal open enrollment ends Jan. 15. States operating their own health insurance exchanges will have the flexibility to set their open enrollments, so long as they run no longer than nine weeks between the November and December dates. In addition to the shortened enrollment period, the administration said it is ending ObamaCare coverage for immigrants who came into the U.S. illegally as children, also known as “Dreamers.” (Weixel, 6/20)

MEDICAID AND THE GOP 'MEGABILL'

Politico: Senate GOP’s Plan To Push Food Aid Costs Onto States Axed From Megabill 
Senate Republicans’ plan to force states to share the cost of the country’s largest nutrition program to pay for their policy megabill has been halted by the chamber’s rules. The Senate parliamentarian determined that the cost-sharing plan would violate the so-called Byrd Rule, which limits what can be included in the reconciliation process, and would be subject to a 60-vote filibuster threshold, according to an advisory sent out Friday night by Senate Budget Committee Democrats. (Yarrow, 6/21)

Politico: Senate GOP Slashes Megabill's Tax Costs With New Accounting Method 
Tax legislation recently unveiled by Senate Republicans only costs $441 billion when tallied using a novel accounting method requested by the GOP. The new estimate by the Joint Committee on Taxation, which was released late Saturday night, shows how Senate Republicans were able to slash the costs of sweeping tax legislation set to be included in the GOP’s sweeping megabill by using a “current policy baseline” — a never-before-used technique that wipes out the cost of extending existing tax cuts that are set to expire at year’s end. (Guggenheim, 6/22)

Politico: Senate Parliamentarian Greenlights State AI Law Freeze In GOP Megabill
The Senate’s rules referee late Saturday allowed Republicans to include in their megabill a 10-year moratorium on enforcing state and local artificial intelligence laws — a surprising result for the provision that’s split the GOP. Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz (R-Texas) rewrote a House-passed AI moratorium to try to comply with the chamber’s budgetary rules. His version made upholding the moratorium a condition for receiving billions in federal broadband expansion funds. (Adragna, 6/22)

The New York Times: G.O.P. Can’t Include Limits on Trump Lawsuits in Megabill, Senate Official Rules
A Senate official rejected on Sunday a measure in Republicans’ sweeping domestic policy bill that could limit lawsuits seeking to block President Trump’s executive actions. ... Republicans are pushing their bill to carry out President Trump’s agenda through Congress using special rules that shield legislation from a filibuster, depriving Democrats of the ability to block it. (Edmondson and Gold, 6/22)

Roll Call: Senate GOP Mulls Shielding Rural Hospitals From Medicaid Cuts 
Senate Republicans say they are looking for ways to safeguard rural hospitals from proposed cuts to a key Medicaid funding method, amid concerns from the powerful hospital lobby and others that the budget reconciliation bill could force many facilities to close. (Raman and Hellmann, 6/20)

The Washington Post: Trump’s Tax Bill Has Become A Battlefield For Tobacco Giants
Two of the largest tobacco firms in the United States are waging a lobbying battle over a key provision in the GOP’s massive tax and spending bill. The version of the legislation that the House passed last month included language to claw back a $12 billion tax break that tobacco producers — most of them in North Carolina — use to make their products cheaper to export. The version of the legislation the Senate is considering would leave the tax break untouched. (Bogage, 6/20)

GUN VIOLENCE EPIDEMIC

AP: GOP Tax Bill Would Ease Regulations On Gun Silencers
The massive tax and spending cuts package that President Donald Trump wants on his desk by July 4 would loosen regulations on gun silencers and certain types of rifles and shotguns, advancing a longtime priority of the gun industry as Republican leaders in the House and Senate try to win enough votes to pass the bill. The guns provision was first requested in the House by Georgia Rep. Andrew Clyde, a Republican gun store owner who had initially opposed the larger tax package. The House bill would remove silencers — called “suppressors” by the gun industry — from a 1930s law that regulates firearms that are considered the most dangerous, eliminating a $200 tax while removing a layer of background checks. (Jalonick, 6/23)

The New York Times: Gunman Opens Fire on Michigan Church and Is Fatally Shot by Staff Members, Police Say
A man clad in a tactical vest and carrying a long gun and handgun opened fire on a Michigan church filled with children attending Vacation Bible School on Sunday before being fatally shot by two members of the church’s staff, officials said. The shooting, which was reported a little after 11 a.m. at CrossPointe Community Church in Wayne, Mich., which is about 25 miles west of Detroit, left one church staff member with a gunshot wound in a leg, the Wayne police chief, Ryan Strong, said at a news conference on Sunday night. (Holpuch, 6/22)

CBS News: In The Shooting Of An Indiana Kidney Doctor, Fresh Echoes Of The UnitedHealthcare Murder And The Specter Of Vigilante Violence
Dr. Andre Obua drove 18 hours from Miami to Terre Haute, Indiana. He pulled up to the home of a local kidney specialist and allegedly opened fire, striking the kidney doctor in the hand before being wrestled to the ground. The only thing more unexpected than the act of violence was the apparent motive. Accused in the shooting, which occurred one month after the brazen murder of the UnitedHealthcare CEO in New York City, was Obua, a highly educated medical resident with a promising career. But Obua had become fixated on one of the least-understood corners in the big business of medicine -- kidney dialysis. (Moriarty, Aviv, Samu, Gold and Mosk, 6/22)

ABC News: Prosecutors Trying To 'Bias' The Public Against Luigi Mangione, Defense Says
Prosecutors at the Manhattan district attorney's office intentionally violated Luigi Mangione's right to a fair trial by unnecessarily releasing his handwritten journal entries to "bias" the public, defense attorneys said in a new court filing. Prosecutors included the writings in a filing earlier this month that was meant to justify the filing of murder charges with a terrorism enhancement. One excerpt said, "I finally feel confident about what I will do. The details are coming together. And I don't feel any doubt about whether it's right/justified. I'm glad in a way that I've procrastinated bc it allowed me to learn more about UHC." (Katersky, 6/20)

VACCINES

NBC News: Outside Groups Organize To Form Unbiased, Independent Vaccine Panel
In the wake of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s decision to shake up a key federal vaccine advisory committee, outside medical organizations and independent experts are looking for alternate sources of unbiased information and even considering forming a group of their own. A leading contender is a new group led by Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert and the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) at the University of Minnesota. (Edwards, 6/22)

Politico Pro: RFK Jr.’s Vaccine Shakeup Injects Uncertainty Into Insurance Coverage
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s overhaul of the federal government’s approach to vaccines is complicating health insurers’ decisions on which shots to cover. Some national insurers told POLITICO they worry Kennedy’s firing of 17 members of the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel and hiring of eight others — some of whom have called into question the safety and efficacy of immunizations — could erode public trust in vaccines. And they are unclear of how to proceed, uncertain about whether their coverage will change if the government no longer recommends certain vaccines. (Hooper, 6/23)

The 19th: How Doctors Are Preparing For RFK Jr.’s Shifts On Vaccine Policy 
When it comes to vaccines, there are two kinds of parents coming into Dr. Megan Prior’s office in Washington, D.C., these days. One set are parents who pepper the pediatrician with increasingly panicked questions about the future availability of vaccines and whether their children can get any shots early. Then there are the parents who feel vindicated in their decision not to vaccinate their kids, despite vaccines’ overall safety and record of disease prevention. (Rodriguez, 6/20)

FUNDING AND RESEARCH CUTS

Stat: FDA Cuts Hamper Conflict Of Interest Reviews, Advisory Meetings
Even before he took over the Food and Drug Administration, Marty Makary called for frequent, transparent meetings of the independent panels that advise the agency on controversial regulatory decisions. But current and former agency staff, as well as medical ethics experts, say recent cuts at the FDA are already making it more difficult to plan and run those meetings — and to ensure that the members of those committees don’t have conflicts of interest, a stated priority of Makary and of health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (Lawrence, 6/23)

Axios: Accidental Death Data Threatened By Trump CDC Cuts
The CDC center that provides a window into how Americans are accidentally killed could see much of its work zeroed out under the Trump administration 2026 budget after it was hit hard by staff cuts this spring. (Reed, 6/23)

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: St. Louis Biomed Firm Left Reeling After Feds Cut Funding
Fimbrion Therapeutics, a small but successful biomedical research business based in the city’s Cortex Innovation Center, was close to developing a key drug in the arsenal against tuberculosis, the world’s deadliest infectious disease. After working five years and receiving nearly $4 million in small business innovation funding though the National Institutes of Health, Fimbrion last fall celebrated a glowing review by the NIH that all but guaranteed the company would receive the last grant it needed to develop the final version of the drug. (Munz, 6/22)

The New York Times: Here Is All The Science At Risk In Trump’s Clash With Harvard
The federal government annually spends billions funding research at Harvard, part of a decades-old system that is little understood by the public but essential to American science. This spring, nearly every dollar of that payment was cut off by the Trump administration, endangering much of the university’s research. (Badger, Bhatia and Singer, 6/22)

The New York Times: Missteps, Confusion And ‘Viral Waste’: The 14 Days That Doomed U.S.A.I.D. 
The rapid dismantling of the global aid agency remains one of the most consequential outcomes of President Trump’s efforts to overhaul the federal government, showing his willingness to tear down institutions in defiance of the courts. (Flavelle, Nehamas and Tate, 6/22)

The New York Times: What Remains Of U.S.A.I.D. After DOGE’s Budget Cuts? 
The few hundred programs that survived DOGE’s purge reveal the future of foreign aid. (6/23)

IMMIGRATION

The Guardian: ‘Ticking Time Bomb’: Ice Detainee Dies In Transit As Experts Say More Deaths Likely 
A 68-year-old Mexican-born man has become the first Ice detainee in at least a decade to die while being transported from a local jail to a federal detention center, and experts have warned there will likely be more such deaths amid the current administration’s “mass deportation” push across the US. Abelardo Avellaneda Delgado’s exact cause of death remains under investigation, according to Ice, but the Guardian’s reporting reveals a confusing and at times contradictory series of events surrounding the incident. (Pratt, 6/22)

AP: ICE Detains Marine Corps Veteran’s Wife Who Was Still Breastfeeding Their Baby
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers detained the wife of a Marine Corps veteran in Louisiana during a routine immigration appointment in New Orleans. To visit his wife, Adrian Clouatre has to make an eight-hour round trip from their home in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to a rural ICE detention center in Monroe. Clouatre, who qualifies as a service-disabled veteran, goes every chance he can get. (Brook, 6/23)

HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY

ABC News: Aflac Says Cyberattack Breach Could Expose Personal Data Of Customers
A group of cybercriminals hacked into data systems at insurance company Aflac, possibly gaining access to sensitive information such as Social Security numbers and health reports, the company said on Friday. Aflac, which boasts millions of customers, “identified suspicious activity” and “stopped the intrusion within hours,” the company said. The company attributed the attack to a “sophisticated cybercrime group” but did not identify the organization. (Zahn, 6/20)

REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH

The Washington Post: On Dobbs Anniversary, Senate Democrats Aim To Restart Abortion Conversation
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Washington) says the GOP is moving toward a “national abortion ban behind the scenes” and hopes a staged hearing will spotlight the threat. (Somasundaram, 6/22)

Chicago Tribune: New Chicago Clinic Provides ‘All-Trimester’ Abortions Up To Roughly 34 Weeks Of Pregnancy
A new Chicago clinic is providing abortions to patients up to roughly 34 weeks into pregnancy — the only standalone clinic in the Midwest to offer often-controversial terminations in the third trimester and among only a handful that do so nationwide. Hope Clinic, a longtime abortion provider in southern Illinois, opened a second location in the Uptown neighborhood June 2 advertising “all-trimester” abortions. (Lourgos, 6/22)

The Wall Street Journal: Republican’s Life-Threatening Pregnancy Collided With Florida’s Abortion Politics
Rep. Kat Cammack arrived at the emergency room in May 2024 terrified by what she had just learned: Her pregnancy could kill her at any moment. It would only get worse. The Florida Republican needed a shot of methotrexate to help expel her ectopic pregnancy, in which there is no way for the embryo to survive. Her state’s six-week abortion ban had just taken effect. She said doctors and nurses who saw her said they were worried about losing their licenses or going to jail if they gave her drugs to end her pregnancy. (Stech Ferek, 6/22)

STATE WATCH

The Texas Tribune: Texas Is Illegally Keeping Disabled People In Nursing Homes 
Texas has been violating federal law for decades by sequestering individuals with severe disabilities in poorly run nursing homes without offering them alternative living options and services in the community, a federal judge has ruled. (Simpson, 6/20)

AP: Texas Governor Vetoes Bill That Would Ban All THC Products
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott vetoed a bill Sunday to ban all THC consumables, allowing the booming market flush with THC-infused vapes, gummies and other products to continue to be sold across the state. Abbott, a Republican, waited until the final moment to veto the bill in what would have been one of the most restrictive THC bans in the country and a significant blow to the state’s billion-dollar industry. (Lathan, 6/23)

CIDRAP: US Adds 17 More Measles Cases As Georgia, Iowa Report New Infections 
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 17 more measles cases today in its weekly update, bringing its total for the year to 1,214 confirmed cases from 36 jurisdictions. Although measles cases have slowed since peaking in late March, the uptick in cases brings the country closer to surpassing the 1,274 cases reported in 2019, which to date is the highest number reported in a single year since the disease was eliminated from the United States in 2020. There were 285 confirmed measles cases in 2024.  (Dall, 6/20)

The New York Times: ‘I Feel Like I’ve Been Lied To’: When A Measles Outbreak Hits Home 
From a lone clinic in Texas to an entire school district in North Dakota, the virus is upending daily life and revealing a deeper crisis of belief. (Saslow, 6/22)

PUBLIC HEALTH

AP: Eastern Half Of US Sweltering Again, With Dangerous Heat Wave Expected To Last Until Midweek
Tens of millions of people across the Midwest and East endured dangerously hot temperatures again on Sunday as a sprawling June heat wave that gripped much of the U.S. was expected to last well into this week. Most of the northeastern quadrant of the country from Minnesota to Maine was under some type of heat advisory. So were parts of Arkansas, Tennessee, Louisiana and Mississippi, the National Weather Service said. Weather service offices throughout the region warned of sweltering and sometimes life-threatening conditions through Wednesday. “Please plan ahead to take frequent breaks if you must be outside, stay hydrated and provide plenty of water and shade for any outdoor animals,” the service office in Wakefield, Virginia, said on X. (Richmond and AP, 6/22)

Katie Couric Media: Feeling the Heat? Know These Signs and Symptoms of Heat Stroke
These rising temperatures are more than just uncomfortable — they can pose a serious danger to your health. According to scientists, the body’s resting core temperature typically hovers around 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, which is just 7 degrees away from heatstroke and the risk of death. Officials in NYC, where the heat wave is expected to hit midweek, are already warning, “This is the deadliest weather threat we face in New York City.” (Bonn, 6/22)

CIDRAP: Fungal Spores May Help Predict COVID-19, Influenza Activity
New findings presented at the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology suggest increased levels of fungal spores in the air are strongly linked to surges in cases of influenza and COVID-19. The study was based on daily spore samples taken in 2022 and 2024 in San Juan and Caguas, Puerto Rico, where fungal spores and pollen are endemic and present year-round. The data on spores was matched to data on the daily incidence of people diagnosed with COVID-19 and flu. (Soucheray, 6/20)