Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
First Edition: Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025
KFF Health News: The Growing Inequality In Life Expectancy Among Americans
The life expectancy among Native Americans in the western United States has dropped below 64 years, close to life expectancies in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Haiti. For many Asian Americans, it’s around 84 — on par with life expectancies in Japan and Switzerland. Americans’ health has long been unequal, but a new study shows that the disparity between the life expectancies of different populations has nearly doubled since 2000. “This is like comparing very different countries,” said Tom Bollyky, director of the global health program at the Council on Foreign Relations and an author of the study. (Maxmen, 1/22)
KFF Health News: Long-Covid Patients Are Frustrated That Federal Research Hasn't Found New Treatments
Erica Hayes, 40, has not felt healthy since November 2020 when she first fell ill with covid. Hayes is too sick to work, so she has spent much of the last four years sitting on her beige couch, often curled up under an electric blanket. “My blood flow now sucks, so my hands and my feet are freezing. Even if I’m sweating, my toes are cold,” said Hayes, who lives in Western Pennsylvania. She misses feeling well enough to play with her 9-year-old son or attend her 17-year-old son’s baseball games. (Boden, 1/22)
KFF Health News: Listen To The Latest 'KFF Health News Minute'
This week on the KFF Health News Minute: AI tools in medicine might not save money, and credit agencies can no longer include medical debt on credit reports.
The Washington Post: Trump Officials Pause Health Agencies’ Communications, Citing Review
The Trump administration has instructed federal health agencies to pause all external communications, such as health advisories, weekly scientific reports, updates to websites and social media posts, according to nearly a dozen current and former officials and other people familiar with the matter. The instructions were delivered Tuesday to staff at agencies inside the Department of Health and Human Services, including officials at the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Institutes of Health, one day after the new administration took office. (Sun, Diamond and Roubein, 1/22)
The New York Times: U.S. Orders Federal D.E.I. Efforts To Shut Down By Wednesday Night
The Trump administration on Tuesday ordered that officials overseeing diversity, equity and inclusion efforts across federal agencies be placed on leave and to take steps to close their offices by Wednesday evening. In a memo from the Office of Personnel Management, the heads of departments and agencies were ordered to purge such officials by placing all D.E.I. staff on paid administrative leave, effective immediately, by 5 p.m. Wednesday, and to make plans for staff reductions by the end of the day on Jan. 31. (Green, 1/22)
The Guardian: Trump Pardons Ross Ulbricht, Founder Of Silk Road Drug Marketplace
Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that he had granted a “full and unconditional” pardon to Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the illegal online drug marketplace the Silk Road. Ulbricht has been incarcerated since 2013 and was sentenced to life in prison in 2015 for running the underground market where drug dealers and others conducted more than $200m in illicit trade using bitcoin. ... “The scum that worked to convict him were some of the same lunatics who were involved in the modern day weaponization of government against me. He was given two life sentences, plus 40 years. Ridiculous,” the president said in a Truth Social post. (1/21)
ABC News: 22 States Challenge Trump's Executive Order Cutting Birthright Citizenship
According to the lawsuit filed by the 18 states, about 150,000 children born each year to two parents who are noncitizens and lack legal status could lose access to basic health care, foster care, and early interventions for infants, toddlers, and students with disabilities. "They will all be deportable, and many will be stateless," the lawsuit said. (Katersky and Charalambous, 1/22)
The New York Times: Undocumented Women Fear For Unborn Children After Trump’s Birthright Citizenship Order
Andrea Chavez, who arrived in the United States illegally almost two decades ago, gave birth to a baby girl last year in Maryland. Within days, the child had a Social Security number. Ms. Chavez’s cousin Maria Calderas, who is undocumented and just a few months into her own pregnancy, faces the prospect that her child will not be able to secure the same citizenship rights that her niece now has. (Jordan, 1/21)
The 19th: What Trump's Immigration Executive Orders Could Mean For Domestic Violence Victims
Just a day after Trump issued a slate of executive orders aimed at restricting immigration, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced it was rescinding protections for “sensitive zones” where undocumented immigrants were protected from deportation. Some immigrant rights advocates are particularly worried that this could deter women experiencing domestic abuse from going to women’s shelters, which will no longer be protected from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). (Kutz, 1/21)
Politico: AI Order Fizzles
The health tech industry is breathing a little sigh of relief after President Donald Trump revoked former President Joe Biden’s executive order on artificial intelligence Monday. The repeal isn’t likely to have a big impact. But some in the health industry had been worried about future implications of Biden’s 2023 executive order, which, among other things, required companies with models trained using enormous computing power to regularly send detailed reports to federal regulators, regardless of the company’s size. (Reader, Paun, Payne and Schumaker, 1/21)
Fox News: Trump And A Healthier America Welcomed By Doctors
With President Donald Trump back in the White House, many of America’s doctors are welcoming the new administration’s greater focus on health and wellness. The Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) initiative — led by incoming Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — aims to improve nutrition, eliminate toxins, preserve natural habitats and fight the chronic disease epidemic, according to its website. (Rudy, 1/21)
Bloomberg: What Health-Care CEOs Fear and Cheer About Trump 2.0
“The new administration will bring radical change,” said Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer. “There are several people that think for our industry, the risks outweigh the opportunities. There are other people — among them, myself — who think that the opportunities outweigh the risks.” Here’s what other executives had to say. (Garde, Muller, Kresge, Smith and Langreth, 1/21)
Bloomberg: Novartis CEO Says Concerns On Trump Health Policy Are Overblown
Moves by the incoming Trump Administration may be a boon to drugmakers, Novartis AG Chief Executive Officer Vas Narasimhan said, while concerns over vaccine policies and public health funding are “overblown.” Novartis wants to work to reverse some of the previous administration’s policies which had a “chilling effect on innovation,” Narasimhan said in an interview. He cited former US President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, which permitted the government to negotiate drug prices. (Kresge, 1/21)
MedPage Today: Physician Content Creators Weigh In On TikTok's Uncertain Future
Promises of a TikTok ban have loomed over the popular video app for months, and a brief pause in operations this weekend gave millions a taste of what a full ban would entail. Several popular physician content creators who post videos on multiple social media sites, including TikTok, told MedPage Today why they're staunchly opposed to a TikTok ban, noting that it would result in the loss of an outlet for sharing information and dispelling rampant misinformation. (Robertson, 1/21)
The Washington Post: Democrats Move To Protect Medicaid, Wary Of Trump’s Looming Changes
Liberal lawmakers and advocates are moving to shield the Medicaid program from potential cuts under the Trump administration, pledging to resist major changes to the safety-net health program that more than 70 million Americans depend on for coverage. Protect Our Care, an advocacy group aligned with Democrats, on Tuesday will launch a $10 million “Hands Off Medicaid” campaign that highlights how the program helps protect Americans who are older, disabled or low-income, among other vulnerable populations. (Diamond and Stein, 1/21)
The Hill: Trump’s Hands-Off Abortion Stance Faces Political Reality
President-elect Trump campaigned on leaving abortion decisions to the states, but that could prove a tough promise to keep as he returns to the Oval Office. Anti-abortion groups want Trump to quickly take executive action to re-impose federal restrictions from his first term; Republicans in Congress are poised to send him new abortion legislation; and his Justice Department will need to decide whether to continue defending Biden-era abortion policies across several ongoing federal cases or drop them completely. (Weixel, 1/20)
Nebraska Examiner: Lawmaker Proposes New Medication Abortion Requirements, Documentation In Nebraska
A pregnant woman seeking a medication abortion in Nebraska would be required under a new bill to attend an in-person appointment with her physician before receiving the drugs and a follow-up appointment after to document any “adverse events.” Legislative Bill 512, by State Sen. Rick Holdcroft of Bellevue, has proposed the Chemical Abortion Safety Protocol Act. It would apply to any “abortion-inducing drug” that has the specific intent of terminating a pregnancy. State law already prohibits telemedicine for receiving abortion medications, but Holdcroft said his goal is to prevent physicians from flying into Nebraska just to prescribe the drug, then leave. (Wendling, 1/21)
The Courier-Journal: Two Bills Would Allow Abortion Exceptions In Kentucky. Will They Move Forward?
Once again, Kentucky legislators have filed bills that would add exceptions to the commonwealth's near-total ban on abortions. And once again, they face an uncertain future in two chambers with Republican supermajorities that are divided on the issue. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle filed two bills to open up abortion access under certain circumstances during the first week of the legislative session, which began in early January and will reconvene in the first week of February. (Aulbach, 1/22)
CBS News: Blue Cross Blue Shield Of Michigan Offers Employee Buyouts
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan is offering employee buyouts as the insurance company looks to reduce administrative costs. According to the Blue Cross, the company has opened a Voluntary Separation Offer period that offers a financial incentive to non-union employees, including more than 700 employees who are eligible for retirement in 2025. Employees have until the end of January to accept the offer. (Buczek, 1/21)
CBS News: Maryland Leaders Take Steps To Reduce Emergency Room Wait Times
A study released by the Maryland Hospital Association in March 2024 said Maryland had the worst hospital wait times in the country as of 2021. ... In response to the ongoing issues, the Maryland General Assembly passed House Bill 1143, which established the Maryland Emergency Department Wait Time Reduction Commission (HSCRC). The commission's goal is to develop strategies to help state and local hospitals reduce ED wait times. The commission will terminate on June 30, 2027. (Olaniran and Baylor, 1/21)
WUSF: Tampa General Hospital Performed The Most Transplant Surgeries In The U.S. In 2024
Almost 900 people received life-changing transplants at Tampa General Hospital last year, the most of any transplant center in the country. Tampa General’s Transplant Institute completed 889 transplant procedures, including 500 kidneys and 279 livers, the hospital announced this month. Data from the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network shows the hospital had more transplants than Arizona’s Mayo Clinic (883), Vanderbilt University Medical Center (875) and the Cleveland Clinic Foundation (845). (Belcher, 1/21)
NBC News: Texas Medical School Leader Resigns After Investigation Revealed Bodies Were Used Without Consent
The president of the University of North Texas Health Science Center is stepping down, four months after an NBC News investigation uncovered that the center had failed to contact families before using their loved ones’ corpses for medical research. In an announcement Monday, the University of North Texas System Board of Regents said it had accepted Sylvia Trent-Adams’ resignation. (Hixenbaugh, 1/21)
Fortune Well: Lilly Weight-Loss Pill Orforglipron Could Get FDA Approval In 2026, CEO Dave Ricks Says
Have you been mulling over the idea of taking weight-loss medication but unable to take the plunge, so to speak, with injectables? Help may soon be on the way. Eli Lilly & Co., the Fortune 500 pharma firm that manufactures weight-loss injection Zepbound (tirzepatide), has a comparable oral medication in the works that could be approved by the Food and Drug Administration as early as next year, according to CEO Dave Ricks. (Leake, 1/22)
NPR: FDA Allows Standalone Use Of Nasal Spray Antidepressant Spravato (Esketamine)
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has expanded its approval of Spravato, an antidepressant nasal spray. The drug is now cleared for use as a standalone treatment for depression. Spravato is made from esketamine, one of two mirror-image molecules found in the anesthetic ketamine. It was approved in 2019 for use in adults with major depressive disorder who did not respond to at least two other antidepressants. (Hamilton, 1/21)
Stat: 'Gold Rush' In Cancer Therapy For Key Type Of Bispecific Antibody
Immune checkpoint inhibitors, drugs that can help make the immune system recognize and destroy cancer more aggressively, are one of the most important medicines in cancer treatment today. Merck’s Keytruda has been used against dozens of different cancers in millions of patients, making it the top-selling drug in the world, with over $25 billion in revenue in 2023. Opdivo, from Bristol Myers Squibb, earned $10 billion in 2023. (Chen, 1/22)
Stat: Sanofi Warned By FDA Over 'Significant' Problems At A Key Manufacturing Plant
The Food and Drug Administration has warned Sanofi about a series of “significant” manufacturing problems, including contamination, at a key facility in Massachusetts where the company makes ingredients used to produce various medicines. (Silverman, 1/21)
The Colorado Sun: Fight Over The 340B Prescription Drug Program Comes To Colorado
Colorado is on the verge of a massive fight at the state Capitol over a multibillion-dollar federal health care program you may have never heard of. The program goes by the super-unsexy name of 340B, and it pulls together a battle royale of health care industry heavyweights: hospitals versus pharmaceutical companies versus pharmacies versus insurers. (Ingold, 1/22)
AP: Election Results Fuel GOP Push For Proposals Rolling Back Trans Rights
Republicans and Democrats in Kansas agree that concerns about the economy drove voters to support President Donald Trump by a 16% margin. They also know that ads from Trump and others targeting transgender rights resonated with voters. So while Kansas Republicans say property tax cuts are their top priority, they also are pushing to ban gender-affirming care for young people, including puberty blockers, hormones and, even though they are rare for minors, surgeries. They say that, too, resonates strongly with voters. (DeMillo, Hanna and Lathan, 1/22)
CBS News: Positive Case Of Legionnaires' Disease Found At Maryland Correctional Facility
A positive case of legionnaires' disease has been found at the Dorsey Run Correctional Facility in Jessup, the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services said Sunday. According to the DPSCS, an inmate at the facility was experiencing shortness of breath, and a persistent cough earlier this week. He was taken to a local hospital, where he tested positive for legionnaires' disease. The inmate is still hospitalized, and his condition is improving, DPSCS said. (Olaniran, 1/21)
The New York Times: Southern U.S. Braced For Power Outages Due To Snow: How To Stay Safe
With a powerful winter storm moving into parts of the southeastern United States on Tuesday, officials have begun warning residents unused to frigid temperatures how to stay safe. Gov. Jeff Landry of Louisiana urged residents to stay inside during the storm but cautioned that power outages were likely. He included a warning not to use gas or electric stoves or ovens to heat homes — which can create a serious danger of fire or carbon monoxide poisoning. (Gross and Robertson, 1/21)
Axios: LA Wildfires: What's Missing From AQI
The air quality index (AQI) in many LA regions looks good, but that doesn't mean the air is safe. The AQI in your weather app doesn't account for all pollutants caused by wildfires. AQI wasn't set up to monitor ash falling from the sky. (Mallenbaum, 1/21)
Central Florida Public Media: New Legislation Aims To Add Statewide Heat Protections For Florida's Outdoor Workers
A bill co-sponsored by Orlando lawmakers would create protections for the estimated 1.8 million employees working outdoors in Florida's increasingly hot summers. Last year, ahead of the warmest summer on record, the state Legislature stripped local governments of the power to protect workers from heat. That move came as Miami-Dade County was preparing to add heat safety rules for employers. (Byrnes, 1/21)
The Wall Street Journal: The Alcohol Industry Is Hooked On Its Heaviest Drinkers
Most ads for liquor or beer include a reminder to “drink responsibly.” Still, the alcohol industry depends on people who drink more than public-health officials say is safe. A fifth of adults account for an estimated 90% of alcohol sales volumes in the U.S., according to an analysis published in 2023 by equity research firm Bernstein. (Cooper, 1/21)
The Guardian: Fitness And Muscle Strength Could Halve Cancer Patient Deaths, Study Suggests
Muscular strength and good physical fitness could almost halve the risk of cancer patients dying from their disease, according to a study that suggests tailored exercise plans may increase survival. The likelihood of people dying from their cancer has decreased significantly in recent decades owing to greater awareness of symptoms, and better access to treatment and care. However, despite notable advances, the side-effects of treatment, including on the heart and muscles, can affect survival. (Gregory, 1/21)
