First Edition: Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2025

KFF HEALTH NEWS ORIGINAL STORIES

KFF Health News: More People Are Caring For Dying Loved Ones At Home. A New Orleans Nonprofit Is Showing Them How
Liz Dunnebacke isn’t dying, but for a recent end-of-life care workshop in New Orleans, she pretended to be. Dunnebacke lay still atop a folding table that was dressed as a bed, complaining that her legs hurt. Registered nurse Ana Kanellos, rolling up two small white towels, demonstrated how to elevate her ankles to ease the pain. “ Mom’s legs are always swollen? Raise ’em up,” Kanellos said. About 20 New Orleans residents listened intently, eager to learn more about how to care for loved ones at home when they’re nearing the end of their lives. (Parker, 11/25)

KFF Health News: Not Serious Enough To Turn On The Siren, Toddler’s 39-Mile Ambulance Ride Still Cost Over $9,000
Elisabeth Yoder’s son, Darragh, was 15 months old in August when he developed what at first looked to his parents like hand, foot, and mouth disease. The common viral infection generally clears up in less than a week, but Darragh’s condition worsened over several days. His skin turned bright red. Blisters gave way to skin peeling off his face. ... Staff in the emergency room there quickly confirmed that Darragh had scalded skin syndrome and said he needed to be taken by a private company’s ambulance to Dayton Children’s, a hospital about 40 miles away. (Leys, 11/25)

HEALTH CARE COSTS AND COVERAGE

Axios: White House Delays Obamacare Subsidy Plan Rollout
The White House has postponed the rollout of a new GOP plan on Affordable Care Act subsidies amid pushback from Republicans in Congress. The issue could aggravate already frayed relationships with Hill conservatives who oppose an extension of enhanced tax credits that are due to expire at the end of the year. (Goldman, 11/25)

Politico: Republicans Face A Health Care Backlash In Georgia As Subsidies Set To Expire
Republicans across the country are in a bind of President Donald Trump’s making: After voting to end the 43-day federal shutdown, they have yet to articulate a plan to tackle the upcoming spike in health care premiums. That conundrum is coming into sharp relief in Georgia, a state with an especially high reliance on the Affordable Care Act, where Republicans have one of their best opportunities to pick up a Senate seat as they fight to maintain their grip on Congress. (Hernandez, 11/24)

Military.com: Exclusive: VA Eliminates CHAMPVA Backlog, Giving Veteran Families Faster Access To Health Care
The Department of Veterans Affairs has completely eliminated the backlog of CHAMPVA applications, ending years of delays that left thousands of Veteran spouses, dependents, survivors, and caregivers waiting for health care coverage, and ushering in what VA leaders say is a new era of faster, more efficient access for Veteran families. “We listened, and now the application backlog that caused so many unnecessary delays has been wiped out,” VA Secretary Doug Collins told Military.com in a statement. (Lindsay, 11/24)

THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION

The Hill: HHS Reinstates All Employees Fired During Shutdown
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has brought back everyone it laid off during the government shutdown, a top official told a California federal court Friday. The agency’s Office of Human Resources on Nov. 17 emailed the 954 employees who received reduction in force (RIF) notices during the shutdown informing them that those notices had been rescinded and that they “should return to work on their next regularly scheduled workday,” wrote Thomas Nagy Jr., HHS deputy assistant secretary for human resources, in a court filing. Those 954 employees were set to receive their retroactive pay for the entire shutdown period, from Oct. 1 to Nov. 12, Nagy wrote. (Weixel, 11/24)

Stat: Federal Biotech Commission Urges An Overhaul Of Research Funding 
A federal commission is calling for significant changes to the way the U.S. government funds and assesses scientific research. (DeAngelis, 11/25)

ProPublica: ICE Has Placed A Record 600 Immigrant Kids In Federal Shelters This Year 
Under a zero tolerance policy, the first Trump administration separated immigrant children from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border. New data suggests separations are happening all over the country, often after little more than a traffic stop. (Rosenberg, Ariza, Funk, Ernsthausen and Sandoval, 11/24)

The New York Times: Drug Arrests And Gun Seizures Fell As Homeland Security Pursued Immigration 
Amid President Trump’s immigration crackdown, special agents at the Homeland Security Department have made fewer arrests for drug crimes and seized fewer weapons than they did the previous fiscal year, according to internal government documents reviewed by The New York Times. The data comes from an internal report by Homeland Security Investigations, the agency’s crime-fighting arm. The report offers a comparison of enforcement statistics between Oct. 1, 2024, and Sept. 30, 2025, and the same period during the previous year. That time frame includes roughly four months of the Biden administration and eight months of the Trump administration. (Aleaziz, Nehamas, Keller and Berzon, 11/25)

CAPITOL WATCH

MedPage Today: FDA 'Priority Voucher' Program Comes Under Congressional Scrutiny
Two members of Congress launched an investigation into FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, MD, MPH, and his use of "priority vouchers" for expedited drug approvals, suggesting that the voucher program "could undermine public confidence in FDA's decisions and raise safety concerns." "We have significant concerns that this program will enable corruption by creating a new, lucrative gift for drugmakers and allies politically favored by President Trump," Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) wrote last Thursday in a letter to Makary. (Frieden, 11/24)

Boise State Public Radio News: Bipartisan Healthy Lungs For Heroes Act Would Pave Way For Wildland Fire Respirators 
Concerned about the long-term health risks faced by wildland firefighters, a bipartisan group of U.S. senators has introduced a bill to make respirators available to those workers. (Woodhouse, 11/24)

OUTBREAKS AND HEALTH THREATS

ABC News: More Than 25,000 Cases Of Whooping Cough Recorded This Year, Higher Than Pre-Pandemic Levels: CDC
More than 25,000 cases of whooping cough have been recorded in the U.S. so far this year, updated federal data shows. This marks the second year in a row with higher than usual cases, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). At the same time this year, around 33,000 cases reported. Cases are well above pre-pandemic levels. In 2019, about 18,600 whooping cough cases were recorded, CDC data shows. (Benadjaoud and Kekatos, 11/24)

CIDRAP: Utah, South Carolina See More Measles Cases Ahead Of Thanksgiving
The current US hot spots for measles activity both reported new confirmed cases over the weekend, including exposures at a high school and an international airport. Officials in Utah, which has been battling a simmering outbreak in the southwestern part of the state, confirmed five new measles patients in Wasatch County in the north, east of Provo. They are the first measles patients identified in that county this year. All five patients are students at Wasatch High School, according to The Salt Lake Tribune. Two more possible cases are being investigated, the newspaper reported. (Soucheray, 11/24)

CIDRAP: US COVID, Flu, And RSV Levels Low But Rising In Many Regions
US COVID, seasonal influenza, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) activity remains low but is growing in some parts of the country, according to the most recent respiratory illness update from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC monitors respiratory illness activity by looking at a range of diagnoses from emergency department (ED) visits, including the common cold, flu, RSV, and COVID. Nationally, levels of acute respiratory illnesses are low or very low, with only three states—Alabama, Arkansas, and New Hampshire—reporting moderate levels. (Bergeson, 11/24)

CIDRAP: Long COVID Takes $1 Trillion Global Economic Toll Each Year, Analysis Suggests
A brief communication published last week in NPJ Primary Care Respiratory Medicine outlines the substantial economic burden of long COVID worldwide, estimating that persistent symptoms after COVID infection cost the global economy roughly $1 trillion each year, or roughly 1% of global gross domestic product. The analysis looked at data across numerous studies and reports, analyzing long COVID’s impact on national economies, healthcare systems, labor markets, and quality of life. (Bergeson, 11/24)

HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY

Stat: Medicare Backs Off Plan For Quicker Clawback Of $7.8 Billion From Hospitals
Hospitals scored a win in Medicare’s final outpatient payment rule for 2026, as they persuaded federal Medicare officials to back off a plan that would have clawed back $7.8 billion a decade sooner than originally planned. (Herman, 11/24)

Modern Healthcare: Medicare Advantage Audit Ruling Appealed By CMS
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has reignited the fight over how the government can audit Medicare Advantage companies. CMS on Friday appealed to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals a federal court’s decision to vacate the 2023 Medicare Advantage Risk Adjustment Data Validation regulation. Under the rule, CMS eliminated a statistical tool known as the fee-for-service adjuster. The adjuster was used to compare Medicare Advantage insurance companies’ errors to those in traditional Medicare. (Tepper, 11/24)

Modern Healthcare: Cardiac Ablations Added To ASC-Covered Procedures List
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services added cardiac ablation procedures to its list of procedures covered in ambulatory surgery centers. The change is outlined in the agency’s 2026 Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System and Ambulatory Surgical Center final rule, which will take effect Jan. 1. The agency added 547 procedures to the list, many of which were cardiac ablation procedures. Among them are catheter procedures to destroy abnormal heart signals and block faulty heart signals at the heart’s electrical hub. (Dubinsky, 11/24)

Newsweek: Nurses Union Says Trump Policy Will Worsen Crisis-Level Conditions
The Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA), the largest union of registered nurses in the Commonwealth, said the Trump administration’s decision to snub the nursing profession will deepen the national health care crisis. Following direction from the Trump administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill, the Department of Education determined that nursing was among the programs that would now be excluded from the “professional degree” list. This would affect how those seeking a nursing degree would be reimbursed for student loan payments. (Giella, 11/24)

The Colorado Sun: Denver Metro Hospitals Made $1.3 Billion In Profits In 2024, But Little Of That Came From Treating Patients
The 28 hospitals in the seven-county Denver metro area made roughly $53 million in profit in 2024 from patient care. But other sources of income — which, depending on the hospital, may include investments, tax dollars, donations, and income from a federal prescription drug program — brought in more than $1.5 billion for the hospitals, helping offset additional expenses and delivering the heftier profit number. (Ingold, 11/24)

PHARMA AND TECH

MedPage Today: Abbott Reports 7 Deaths Linked To Glucose Sensor Problem
Abbott issued a medical device correction for some of its glucose sensors after internal testing found that some sensors may provide false low glucose readings. Hundreds of adverse events and seven deaths worldwide have been linked to the issue. The correction affects roughly 3 million FreeStyle Libre 3 and Libre 3 Plus sensors in the U.S. that were traced back to one particular production line. About half of these sensors are estimated to be expired or already used, according to the company's announcement. (Monaco, 11/24)

Stat: J&J’s Novel Alzheimer’s Drug Posdinemab Fails In Key Trial 
A promising Alzheimer’s disease treatment from Johnson & Johnson failed to slow the progress of the disease in a closely watched study, news that could dampen enthusiasm for a new class of potential medicines. (Garde and Mast, 11/24)

Stat: Novo Nordisk's Semaglutide Fails To Slow Alzheimer's Progression
Two trials testing the Novo Nordisk weight loss drug semaglutide in Alzheimer’s disease failed, the company said Monday, showing the medicine did not slow the progression of the condition versus placebo. (Joseph and Chen, 11/24)

Bloomberg: Ozempic And Other GLP-1s Are Now Being Marketed To People Who Aren't Obese
Weight-loss drugs are coming for a new kind of customer. “You don’t need to be obese to start a GLP-1,” reads an ad from a telehealth startup, the words scrawled in icing on a cake. Another one features a slender woman excited to lose a little weight before her wedding. Yet another says patients can drop 17 pounds in two months by microdosing copycat Ozempic. They’re part of a marketing blitz that’s ramped up in recent months, with ads plastered on billboards, in subway stations and online. (Nix and Muller, 11/24)

The Washington Post: Pregnancy Means Stopping GLP-1 Drugs, But That Presents Its Own Risks
People who stopped taking weight-loss drugs before or during pregnancy were associated with greater gestational weight gain and had a higher risk of preterm delivery and gestational diabetes compared with those who had not been prescribed the drugs before, according to a study published Monday in JAMA. (Malhi, 11/24)

CIDRAP: Public Understanding Of Antibiotics Is Insufficient, Global Study Finds
Despite the global expansion of antibiotic awareness campaigns over the past decade, the public's understanding of antibiotics remains insufficient, researchers reported last week in Clinical Microbiology and Infection. (Dall, 11/24)

WIRED: A Research Leader Behind ChatGPT’s Mental Health Work Is Leaving OpenAI
An OpenAI safety research leader who helped shape ChatGPT’s responses to users experiencing mental health crises announced her departure from the company internally last month, WIRED has learned. Andrea Vallone, the head of a safety research team known as model policy, is slated to leave OpenAI at the end of the year. (Zeff, 11/24)

STATE WATCH

ABC News: Food Banks, Pantries Say They're Still Seeing Surge Even After SNAP Benefits Restored
Although SNAP benefits returned for millions of Americans after the federal government shutdown ended earlier this month, food banks and pantries across the U.S. are still seeing droves of people showing up to receive aid. ... Despite many states saying that benefits would be available immediately following the disruption, workers at food distribution sites are seeing a surge of people -- a trend they say is likely to continue into the holidays. (Kekatos, 11/24)

Kansas City Star: Missouri Sued Over Keeping People With Mental Illness Jailed 
The families of six people detained in jails across Missouri sued state health officials on Monday, alleging that Missouri is illegally allowing individuals with mental health issues to languish behind bars. (Bayless, 11/24)

North Carolina Health News: NC Budget Stalemate Deepens Strain On Safety Nets, Health System, Advocates And Providers Say 
The cracks in North Carolina’s safety nets are widening under the compounding pressure of a months-long budget stalemate, and that’s putting the state’s most vulnerable residents at risk of falling through. (Fredde, 11/25)

Undark: Pharma Pushes Back On State PFAS Regulations
In January 2025, Minnesota’s law regulating PFAS, a class of synthetic chemicals used to make products resistant to heat, grease, oil, and water, came into effect. The statute, one of the strongest of its kind in the United States, banned the chemicals across 11 categories, from cookware to textile furnishings. Beginning in July 2026, the state will also require manufacturers to report the presence of PFAS in their products and, starting in 2032, prohibit companies from selling any product with intentionally added PFAS, with some exceptions. The goal, according to the state’s Pollution Control Agency, is to protect “human health, the environment, and taxpayer dollars” by reducing the use of PFAS. (López Lloreda, 11/25)

WUSF: ‘It’s Dismal’: Why Florida Struggles To Diagnose And Treat Lung Cancer Early 
Florida continues to struggle in its efforts to detect and treat lung cancer early, ranking low in several key measures, according to a new report from the American Lung Association. Nearly 27% of Floridians diagnosed with lung cancer do not receive any treatment — one of the worst rates in the nation. The state ranks 45th out of 49 states with available data. (Mayer, 11/24)

The Baltimore Sun: Rising Microplastics Endanger Chesapeake Bay Oysters, Human Health 
With global plastic production projected to top 445 million tons next year, Maryland scientists say microplastic pollution is posing growing risks to the Chesapeake Bay — and to the oysters and people who depend on it. (Godiner, 11/24)

Minnesota Public Radio: These Indigenous Lactation Advocates Are Supporting Native Communities With Breastfeeding 
On a cloudy November day on the west side of St. Paul, Camila Valenzuela-Panza pulls up to Alex McDougall and her husband and Josh’s home. She puts on her mask, knocks on the door and is greeted by two-week-old Diindiisi in McDougall’s arms. (Stroozas, 11/25)

SCIENCE AND INNOVATIONS

The Washington Post: Study Links Obstructive Sleep Apnea To Parkinson’s Disease
Researchers have found a potential link between obstructive sleep apnea and the development of Parkinson’s disease, according to a new study. Obstructive sleep apnea — a disorder in which a person experiences a fully or partially collapsed airway during sleep, causing a lack of oxygen and non-restorative rest — affects millions of Americans and often goes undiagnosed, according to the American Medical Association. Parkinson’s disease, an incurable progressive movement disorder, is the second-most common neurodegenerative disorder in the United States and is thought to affect around 1.1 million people. (Kasulis Cho, 11/25)

The Guardian: Brain Has Five ‘Eras’, Scientists Say – With Adult Mode Not Starting Until Early 30s
Scientists have identified five major “epochs” of human brain development in one of the most comprehensive studies to date of how neural wiring changes from infancy to old age. The study, based on the brain scans of nearly 4,000 people aged under one to 90, mapped neural connections and how they evolve during our lives. This revealed five broad phases, split up by four pivotal “turning points” in which brain organisation moves on to a different trajectory, at around the ages of nine, 32, 66 and 83 years. (Devlin, 11/25)

NPR: A Bowhead Whale's DNA Offers Clues To Fight Cancer
Scientists searching for novel ways to fight cancer think they may have uncovered a promising new lead tucked away inside the cells of the bowhead whale. The findings, published in the journal Nature, are part of a growing field examining the ways that long-lived animals like the bowhead manage to keep on trucking without being felled by malignant cells. (Daniel, 11/24)

LIFESTYLE AND HEALTH

The New York Times: Health Issues In Middle Age Can Be Linked To Pregnancy Years Earlier
Women with common pregnancy complications are at increased risk for cardiovascular and metabolic health problems later in life. But many patients remain unaware of the connection. (Friedman, 11/24)

The New York Times: Study Finds Mental Health Benefit To One-Week Social Media Break
Dialing down the use of social media for a week reduced symptoms of anxiety, depression and insomnia in young adults, according to a study published on Monday in the journal JAMA Network Open. Researchers followed 295 volunteers, ages 18 to 24, who opted to take a break from social media. Instructed to stay off social media as much as possible, the group on average reduced it to a half-hour per day from just under two hours. Before and after, the participants answered surveys measuring depression, anxiety, insomnia, loneliness and a number of problematic social media behaviors. (Barry, 11/24)