First Edition: Wednesday, July 9, 2025

KFF HEALTH NEWS ORIGINAL STORIES

KFF Health News: World’s Premier Cancer Institute Faces Crippling Cuts And Chaos
The Trump administration’s broadsides against scientific research have caused unprecedented upheaval at the National Cancer Institute, the storied federal government research hub that has spearheaded advances against the disease for decades. NCI, which has long benefited from enthusiastic bipartisan support, now faces an exodus of clinicians, scientists, and other staffers — some fired, others leaving in exasperation. (Pradhan and Allen, 7/9)

KFF Health News: Insurers Fight State Laws Restricting Surprise Ambulance Bills
Nicole Silva’s 4-year-old daughter was headed to a relative’s house near the southern Colorado town of La Jara when a vehicle T-boned the car she was riding in. A cascade of ambulance rides ensued — a ground ambulance to a local hospital, an air ambulance to Denver, and another ground ambulance to Children’s Hospital Colorado. Silva’s daughter was on Medicaid, which was supposed to cover the cost of the ambulances. But one of the three ambulance companies, Northglenn Ambulance, a public company since acquired by a private one, sent Silva’s bill to a debt collector. (Bichell and Houghton, 7/9)

KFF Health News: KFF Health News' 'An Arm And A Leg': The Prescription Drug Playbook, Part II
In response to the high price of prescription drugs, “An Arm and a Leg” asked listeners to share their strategies for getting the medicine they need at prices they can manage. Host Dan Weissmann and producers Emily Pisacreta and Claire Davenport share tips from a retired hospital manager who now helps seniors find the right Medicare plans, a pharmaceutical sales rep, an employee benefits adviser, and a battle-worn hospital caseworker. Each brings surprising, maybe even lifesaving, information to the table. (Weissmann, 7/9)

KFF Health News: Listen To The Latest 'KFF Health News Minute'
Katheryn Houghton reads the week’s news: The Trump administration is cutting some programs intended to prevent gun violence, and seniors who don’t sign up for Medicare at age 65 can be on the hook for medical bills, even if they still have health insurance through work. ... Jackie Fortiér reads the week’s news: Gatherings called “memory cafés” can help both people with dementia and their caregivers reduce depression and isolation, and the looming end of some Affordable Care Act subsidies will make ACA plans much more expensive. (Cook, 7/8)

FEDERAL REORGANIZATION AND FUNDING CUTS

The New York Times: Trump Got The Green Light To Fire Federal Workers. Now, They Wait. 
For weeks, thousands of federal employees have been waiting for the Supreme Court to make a decision about their continued employment with the government. On Tuesday, they got their answer: The Trump administration could move ahead with mass layoffs. The question of whether the layoffs are legal remains unanswered. For now, workers remain in limbo, this time waiting for their agencies to decide who stays, who goes and when. (Sullivan and Cameron, 7/8)

NPR: Researchers Hold A 'Science Fair' For Projects Cut By The Trump Administration
Sumit Chanda, a professor of immunology and microbiology at Scripps Research who focuses on pandemics, has made a career out of preparing for disaster. In this 2023 photo, Sethuraman Panchanathan, then the director of the National Science Foundation, testifies at a Senate committee hearing. He's wearing a suit and is seated in front of a microphone. But Chanda faced a disaster of a different kind this year, when the future of his research was thrown into doubt by the Trump administration's cuts to science funding. (Neuman, 7/9)

Bloomberg: US Mental Health Jobs Boom Faces Sudden Stop As Trump Cuts Funds
Mental health providers, the fastest-growing industry in the US since the start of the pandemic, risk a sharp reversal of fortune as President Donald Trump seeks to eliminate billions of dollars in funding that enabled their expansion. In only a few months, the Trump administration has already sought to revoke more than $11 billion for addiction and mental health care and $1 billion for mental health services in schools. (Cobo and Ahasan, 7/8)

MEDICAID AND TRUMP'S ECONOMIC POLICY

Politico: Senate Finance Chair Endorses A Second Megabill This Fall 
Fresh from passage of President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” Senate Finance Chair Mike Crapo wants to pursue another party-line megabill and is tentatively eyeing fall for the next bite at the apple. “I’ve always been in favor of a three-bill strategy and there’s a ton of things that we need to do,” Crapo said in a brief interview Tuesday evening. Crapo largely declined to say what he would want to see in a second megabill, though he noted there are items that got left out of the final version of the massive domestic policy package Trump signed into law this past weekend. (Carney, 7/8)

Politico: Ron Johnson Believes He Will Get ‘Second Bite Of The Apple’ On Medicaid Cuts
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) believes he has a commitment from the White House and Senate GOP leadership to get another chance to repeal an expansion of Medicaid offerings — a controversial proposal that failed to make it the final version of President Donald Trump’s sweeping domestic policy package. “I think I pretty well have a commitment. They’re going to do that,” Johnson told reporters of the prospects that Republicans will reconsider a provision that would end the federal government’s 90 percent cost share of funding for new enrollees in states that expanded Medicaid under the Democrats’ 2010 health care law. (Guggenheim, 7/8)

NBC News: Medical Students Fret Over Student Loan Cap In 'Big, Beautiful Bill'
A provision tucked inside a sweeping bill signed into law by President Donald Trump last week will make it harder for thousands of aspiring doctors to finance their education as the country faces a growing shortage in that profession. The move will cap the amount of federal loans students can borrow for graduate school to $20,500 a year — with a total limit of $100,000 — and cap loans for professional programs, such as medical, dental or law school, at $50,000 a year, with a total limit of $200,000. (Pettypiece and Shabad, 7/8)

The Hill: GOP Faces ‘Big, Beautiful’ Blowback Risk On ObamaCare Subsidies Cuts
Medicaid cuts have received the lion’s share of attention from critics of Republicans’ sweeping tax cuts legislation, but the GOP’s decision not to extend enhanced ObamaCare subsidies could have a much more immediate impact ahead of next year’s midterms. Extra subsidies put in place during the coronavirus pandemic are set to expire at the end of the year, and there are few signs Republicans are interested in tackling the issue at all. To date, only Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) have spoken publicly about wanting to extend them. (Weixel, 7/8)

AP: Trump's Big Bill Cuts Medicaid, SNAP: How It Could Affect Babies
The impact of the massive spending bill that President Donald Trump signed into law on Independence Day is expected to filter down to infants and toddlers — a segment of the population that is particularly vulnerable to cuts to the federal social safety net. Many middle-class and wealthy families will see benefits from the new legislation, but programs that help low-income families keep babies healthy have been cut back. While state money funds public schools and preschool in some cases, programs supporting the youngest children are largely backed by the federal government. (Balingit, 7/9)

The Hill: Brooke Rollins Says Medicaid Recipients Could Bolster Farm Workforce
“There’s been a lot of noise in the last few days and a lot of questions about where the president stands and his vision for farm labor,” Rollins said during a news conference with Republican governors. “Ultimately, the answer on this is automation, also some reform within the current governing structure, and then also, when you think about there are 34 million able-bodied adults in our Medicaid program, there are plenty of workers in America.” (Crisp, 7/8)

THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION

Bloomberg: Pro-Trump Urologist Barry Zisholtz Appointed As Top Adviser To CDC Director
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has appointed a retired Georgia urologist who is a supporter of President Donald Trump as a senior adviser to the agency’s director, according to an internal email obtained by Bloomberg News. The doctor, Barry Zisholtz, is a “published medical researcher committed to service, faith and principled leadership,” according to a June 24 email from CDC Chief of Staff Matthew Buzzelli. (Nix, 7/8)

The Hill: Trump Threatens 200% Tariffs On Pharmaceutical Imports
President Trump on Tuesday threatened to impose up to 200 percent tariffs on pharmaceutical products imported into the U.S. “very soon.” “If they have to bring the pharmaceuticals into the country, the drugs and other things into the country, they’re going to be tariffed at a very, very high rate, like 200 percent,” Trump said during a Cabinet meeting. Trump said any tariffs would not take effect immediately. (Weixel, 7/8)

CBS News: Doctors Fear ICE Agents In Health Facilities Are Deterring People From Seeking Care
As the Trump administration continues its push to deport undocumented immigrants, doctors are hearing that some patients are avoiding getting the health care they need over fears that Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids could take place in medical settings. Dr. Céline Gounder, CBS News medical contributor and editor-at-large for public health at KFF Health News, told "CBS Mornings Plus" on Tuesday that she has not seen any official ICE raids in hospitals, but that ICE agents have been seen in hospitals as well as other health care facilities. (Moniuszko, 7/8)

LGBTQ+ HEALTH CARE

AP: Protesters Rally Against Closure Of Largest Gender-Affirming Care Center For Kids In The US
Growing up, Sage Sol Pitchenik wanted to hide. “I hated my body,” the nonbinary 16-year-old said. “I hated looking at it.” When therapy didn’t help, Pitchenik, who uses the pronoun they, started going to the Center for Transyouth Health and Development at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, the country’s biggest public provider of gender-affirming care for children and teens. It changed their life. But in response to the Trump administration’s threat to cut federal funds to places that offer gender-affirming care to minors, the center will be closing its doors July 22. (Furman, 7/9)

AP: Wisconsin Court Clears Way For Conversion Therapy Ban
The Wisconsin Supreme Court cleared the way Tuesday for the state to permanently enact a ban on conversion therapy in a ruling that gives the governor more power over how state laws are enacted. The court ruled that a Republican-controlled legislative committee’s rejection of a state agency rule that would effectively ban the practice of conversion therapy for LGBTQ+ people was unconstitutional. The decision, which has a broad impact far beyond the conversion therapy issue, takes power away from the Legislature to block the enactment of rules by the governor’s office that carry the force of law. (Bauer, 7/8)

CLIMATE AND HEALTH

The New York Times: Trump Hires Scientists Who Doubt The Consensus On Climate Change
The Energy Department has hired at least three scientists who are well-known for their rejection of the overwhelming scientific consensus on climate change, according to records reviewed by The New York Times. The scientists are listed in the Energy Department’s internal email system as current employees of the agency, the records show. They are Steven E. Koonin, a physicist and author of a best-selling book that calls climate science “unsettled”; John Christy, an atmospheric scientist who doubts the extent to which human activity has caused global warming; and Roy Spencer, a meteorologist who believes that clouds have had a greater influence on warming than humans have. (Joselow, 7/8)

AP: Experts Say US Attitudes Toward Extreme Weather Events Like Texas' Flash Flooding Need Updating
Climate change is making extreme weather events more frequent and intense, according to climate scientists and government data. But people and governments are generally living in the past and haven’t embraced that extreme weather is now the norm, to say nothing about preparing for the nastier future that’s in store, experts in meteorology, disasters and health told The Associated Press. (Borenstein, 7/9)

AP: Texas Flooding Underscores Trump's Challenges In Replacing FEMA
Just weeks ago, President Donald Trump said he wanted to begin “phasing out” the Federal Emergency Management Agency after this hurricane season to “wean off of FEMA” and “bring it down to the state level.” But after months of promises to overhaul or eliminate the federal agency charged with responding to disasters, Trump and his administration are touting a fast and robust federal response to the devastating Texas floods. In doing so, they are aligning more closely with a traditional model of disaster response — and less with the dramatic reform the president has proposed. (Aoun Angueira, 7/9)

ABC News: Natural Disasters Like Texas Floods Can Affect Mental Health, According To Experts
Central Texas is continuing to recover from devastating rains and "catastrophic" flooding that damaged homes and businesses and killed more than 100 people, many of whom were children. Victims and first responders may suffer physical injuries from natural disasters, such as floods, but psychologists and disaster experts say such events can also exact a heavy mental health toll – and the resources to address that cost may not always be available. (Kekatos, 7/8)

CNN: Extreme Heat Is A Killer. A Recent Heat Wave Shows How Much More Deadly It's Becoming As Humans Warm The World 
Extreme heat is a killer and its impact is becoming far, far deadlier as the human-caused climate crisis supercharges temperatures, according to a new study, which estimates global warming tripled the number of deaths in the recent European heat wave. (Paddlson, 7/9)

North Carolina Health News: Thousands In NC Prisons Endure Summer Heat Without Air Conditioning
April Barber Scales recalls her 18 summers spent incarcerated without air conditioning at the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women in Raleigh — the state’s largest women’s prison — as physically and mentally demanding as she said relief from the grueling heat was hard to come by. She dripped sweat constantly, felt endlessly sticky and even saw people faint from the heat. (Crumpler, 7/9)

Military.com: Colonel Retaliated Against Major For Talking To Congress About Hawaii Drinking Water Contamination, Report Says
An Air Force colonel retaliated against an Army major for speaking out to Congress and a Department of Defense watchdog about the contamination fallout from the 2021 Red Hill fuel leak that tainted drinking water in Hawaii, a new report details. The 25-page report said that investigators substantiated an allegation that an Air Force colonel had retaliated against Army Maj. Amanda Feindt after she had meetings with members of Congress about the Red Hill contamination and pressured her not to continue communication. (Novelly, 7/8)

HEALTH INDUSTRY AND PHARMACEUTICALS

San Francisco Chronicle: UC Health And Blue Shield Of California Reach New Contract
After weeks of contract negotiations that threatened to disrupt medical care for tens of thousands of Californians, UC Health and Blue Shield of California on Tuesday reached a new agreement. The deal means patients who get medical care at UCSF and five other UC Health academic medical centers statewide through Blue Shield can continue accessing services at in-network rates. This had been up in the air, with the previous contract slated to expire Aug. 9. If the two sides had not reached an agreement, patients would potentially have had to find a new doctor, new insurer, or pay out-of-network rates. (Ho, 7/8)

CBS News: Health Care Workers In Stillwater Begin 4-Day Unfair Labor Practice Strike
Health care workers in Stillwater, Minnesota, kicked off a four-day unfair labor practice strike Monday. Over 80 workers across multiple departments of the HealthPartners Stillwater Medical Group are represented by SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa. Ninety-nine percent of the workers voted to strike if a deal could not be reached. Workers began a picket in front of the HealthPartners Clinic Stillwater facility in the morning and held a rally at noon. (Premo, 7/8)

Chicago Tribune: Northwestern Memorial Hospital Plans New Tower With More Than 200 Beds
Northwestern Memorial Hospital is hoping to build a new tower on its Streeterville campus with more than 200 beds to better meet demand, according to an application filed with the state. (Schencker, 7/8)

Modern Healthcare: ChristianaCare, CHOP Partner On Pediatric Care In Four States
ChristianaCare and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia plan to partner to improve care for pediatric patients in four states by spring 2026, the providers announced Tuesday. The partnership will be co-branded and is not a joint venture, with each organization remaining independent, according to Dr. Kert Anzilotti, chief medical officer and president of the Medical Group of ChristianaCare. (DeSilva, 7/8)

AP: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital's Fundraiser Selects New CEO In Midst Of Global Expansion
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital’s fundraising organization, ALSAC, promoted Ike Anand Tuesday to become its new president and chief executive officer. The leadership change comes as ALSAC -- which raised more than $2.5 billion for the Memphis-based hospital in 2024, according to tax filings – navigates a global expansion and an increasingly complicated funding landscape in the United States. (Gamboa, 7/8)

Modern Healthcare: Alignment Health's Medicare Star Ratings To Be Recalculated
Alignment Healthcare will get a boost to its Medicare Advantage star ratings after a federal court decided the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services erred in its assessment of the company’s quality performance. The health insurer sued CMS in January, alleging a flawed methodology resulted in a Medicare Advantage HMO in Arizona being rated 3.5 stars out of five instead of four. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled partly in the company’s favor on June 9, Alignment Healthcare announced in a news release Tuesday. (Tepper, 7/8)

Fierce Healthcare: Hospital Obstetrics Closures Prevalent From 2010-2022: Study
Nearly all states saw declines in the number of acute care hospitals offering obstetric services between 2010 through 2022, with seven states seeing a quarter or more of their hospitals dropping obstetric care, according to new analysis. The shutdowns were spread across urban and rural hospitals alike, but more pronounced in the latter. Twelve states lost obstetric services among a quarter or more of their hospitals, and by 2022, there were eight states in which more than two-thirds of all rural hospitals did not offer obstetric care, researchers found. (Muoio, 7/8)

Fierce Healthcare: Judge Hits CVS Omnicare With $948M In Fraud Case Penalties
A New York judge has ordered CVS Health's Omnicare subsidiary to pay $948.8 million in fees and damages as part of a False Claims Act whistleblower case. In April, a federal jury determined that Omnicare submitted more than 3.3 million fraudulent claims for prescriptions between 2010 and 2018, which led to $135.6 million in overpayments from the government. (Minemyer, 7/8)

COVID AND FLU

Bloomberg: Covid-19 Variant Nimbus Dominant In US As Vaccine Access In Flux
A new Covid-19 variant, officially known as NB.1.8.1 and nicknamed Nimbus, is now the most common strain in the US, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC said it is “aware of increasing detections” of Nimbus in the US, where it monitors spread of the virus through nasal and wastewater samples collected via its airport screening program. Nimbus makes up between 13% and 68% of circulating Covid strains, according to a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services. (Amponsah, 7/8)

AP: Chinese National Charged With Hacking US Universities For COVID-19 Research
A Chinese national has been arrested on suspicion of hacking into several U.S. universities’ computer systems to steal COVID-19-related research, authorities announced on Tuesday. Xu Zewei is charged in a nine-count indictment in the Southern District of Texas for his alleged involvement in computer intrusions between February 2020 and June 2021. Another Chinese national, Zhang Yu, was also charged in the indictment. (7/8)

CIDRAP: Experimental Flu Drug May Protect Better Than Flu Vaccines, Company Data Show
A new influenza drug that lasts for an entire flu season may outperform flu vaccines, according to the results of a large phase 2b trial highlighted in a news release by the drug's manufacturer, Cidara Therapeutics of San Diego. Single doses of 150 milligrams (mg), 300 mg, and 450 mg provided 58%, 61%, and 76% protection from symptomatic flu, respectively, for about 6 months after injection, according to the data, which has been submitted to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). (Wappes, 7/8)

STATE WATCH

MedPage Today: New MAHA Laws Require Nutrition CME For Doctors
New "Make America Healthy Again" (MAHA) laws in Louisiana and Texas will require physicians to complete continuing medical education (CME) in nutrition. The new mandate in Louisiana was touted in a recent announcement from HHS, and the Texas action was signed into law last month. Starting in 2026, physicians and physician assistants in Louisiana will be required to complete a minimum of 1 hour of continuing education on nutrition and metabolic health every 4 years, according to the new law. The state's medical board will adopt rules to determine the specific content of the continuing education. (Henderson, 7/8)

Minnesota Public Radio: UCare Drops Medicaid Coverage For Thousands Of Minnesotans 
Tens of thousands of Minnesotans will need to find new health insurance by September. UCare, one of the state’s largest health insurers, announced it is dropping state-funded coverage for 11 counties — affecting about 80,000 Minnesotans — amid its own financial woes. (Wurzer and Raschke, 7/8)

St. Louis Public Radio: St. Louis Planned Parenthood To Again Resume Abortion Appointments 
Planned Parenthood’s Central West End clinic in St. Louis will again offer abortions to patients following an order from a judge in Jackson County released last week. Circuit Judge Jerri Zhang on Thursday again put a hold on many of Missouri’s abortion restrictions, including a 72-hour waiting period and certain abortion facility-specific licensing requirements. (Fentem, 7/8)

Chicago Tribune: Illinois Fines Abortion Doctor After Allegedly Botched Procedure
A Champaign abortion provider accused in a lawsuit of perforating a patient’s uterus and leaving half a fetus inside her body has been reprimanded and fined in connection with that case by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, according to records obtained by the Tribune. (Lourgos, 7/8)

WSHU: CT Sees Spike In Fatal Overdoses
Twenty-two people died in Connecticut from fatal overdoses during a 72-hour period last weekend. Advocates say a toxic supply of fentanyl is to blame. (Fabbo, 7/8)

MedPage Today: Plasticizer Spread Rapidly Through Illicit Drug Supply
The latest adulterant in illicit fentanyl was not a sedative or other psychoactive substance but a plasticizer, and it spread across the U.S. in a relatively short period of time, a review showed. BTMPS, which has a chemical name of bis (2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-4-piperidyl) sebacate, was first detected in June 2024 by community drug checking programs in Philadelphia and Portland, Oregon, after fentanyl samples tested positive for an unknown adulterant, according to Alex Krotulski, PhD, of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, and colleagues. (Fiore, 7/8)

The Colorado Sun: Why Has Colorado Seen So Many Breakthrough Measles Infections?
Two shots of the MMR vaccine are thought to give an individual a 97% chance of avoiding a measles infection when exposed. And that number has a near-echo in the most recent measles outbreaks nationwide — 92% of the people infected have been unvaccinated or had an unknown vaccination status, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But, in Colorado, six out of 16 infections have been in people who are fully vaccinated — what are known as breakthrough cases. That’s more than a third. (Ingold, 7/8)

PUBLIC HEALTH

CBS News: A Virus Might Trigger Or Contribute To Parkinson's Disease, Northwestern Medicine Researchers Find 
New research from Northwestern Medicine has discovered that a virus that is usually harmless could trigger or contribute to Parkinson's disease. Parkinson's disease is a neurogenerative disease that affects more than 1 million people in the U.S. Speaking to CBS News Chicago on Tuesday afternoon, Northwestern Medicine chief of neuroinfectious diseases and global neurology Dr. Igor Koralnik said while some cases are caused by genetics, the cause is unknown in most. (Saavedra and Harrington, 7/8)

San Francisco Chronicle: Stanford Test Shows Organ Age, Links ‘Old’ Brain To Alzheimer’s Risk
A team of Stanford scientists has developed a tool that can determine from a blood test whether a person’s brain, heart or other organs appear “younger” or “older” than their chronological age, according to new research. Additionally, the scientists found that older-appearing organs are associated with a higher risk of developing a disease or other complication in that organ. Of most interest, though, was the brain: An “extremely aged” brain was associated not only with an increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, but a 182% increased risk of dying in the next 15 years. (Allday, 7/9)

ABC News: 1 In 3 Teens Have Prediabetes, New CDC Data Shows
An estimated 1 in 3 teens and preteens, ages 12 to 17, have prediabetes, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC data means an estimated 8.4 million young people -- or 32.7% of the U.S. adolescent population -- had prediabetes in 2023, the most recent data available. With prediabetes, blood sugar levels are higher than normal but not high enough for a Type 2 diabetes diagnosis. (Benadjaoud, 7/9)