First Edition: Wednesday, June 11, 2025

KFF HEALTH NEWS ORIGINAL STORIES

KFF Health News: Four Ways Trump’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ Would Undermine Access To Obamacare
Major changes could be in store for the more than 24 million people with health coverage under the Affordable Care Act, including how and when they can enroll, the paperwork required, and, crucially, the premiums they pay. A driver behind these changes is the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” the name given to spending and tax legislation designed to advance the policy agenda of President Donald Trump. It passed the House on May 22 and is pending in the Senate. (Appleby, 6/11)

KFF Health News: What Are ‘Improper’ Medicaid Payments, And Are They As High As A Trump Official Said?
Responding to charges that President Donald Trump’s tax and spending bill would cut Medicaid coverage for millions of Americans, Trump administration officials misleadingly counter that it targets only waste, fraud, and abuse. During an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Russell Vought, the administration’s director of the Office of Management and Budget, framed Medicaid as sagging under the weight of improper payments. (Jacobson, 6/11)

KFF Health News: Watch: RFK Jr. Dismisses All 17 Members Of Vaccine Advisory Committee
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced on June 9 he is removing the entire independent committee that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccine usage, claiming members had too many outside conflicts. KFF Health News’ Céline Gounder joined CBS Evening News to discuss what this means for the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, known as ACIP. (6/10)

KFF Health News: Echoing 2020, Police Use Rubber Bullets Against Protesters In Los Angeles
Weapons dubbed “less lethal” are once again being used in Los Angeles, this time against people protesting the Trump administration’s immigration raids. During the 2020 protests sparked by the police killing of George Floyd, KFF Health News and USA Today documented the harm that rubber bullets and other “less lethal” projectiles can cause. Here’s what we found. (6/10)

KFF Health News: Listen To The Latest 'KFF Health News Minute'
Katheryn Houghton reads the week’s news: More than 100 rural hospitals have stopped delivering babies since 2021, and the federal government failed to warn the public about a major E. coli outbreak. Jackie Fortier reads the week’s news: New programs teach Black kids to swim competitively and help their parents learn too, and people in prison are often denied basic health care at the end of their lives. (6/10)

MEDICAID AND TRUMP'S ECONOMIC POLICY

Politico: House GOP Finalizes Tweaks To Keep Megabill On Track In Senate
House Republicans have finalized changes to the party-line tax and spending package the chamber passed last month — necessary to keep the bill in compliance with Senate rules. The amendment, which House Republicans teed up in the Rules Committee Tuesday evening and plan to adopt on the floor Wednesday, would among other things nix a policy cracking down on the fraud-plagued employee retention tax credit created during the pandemic. Republicans were relying on this provision to recoup $6.3 billion in savings to offset the massive legislation. (Scholtes, Hill and Tully-McManus, 6/10)

AP: The Numbers Behind Trump's Proposed Changes To Food Aid
President Donald Trump’s plan to cut taxes by trillions of dollars could also trim billions in spending from social safety net programs, including food aid for lower-income people. The proposed changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program would make states pick up more of the costs, require several million more recipients to work or lose their benefits, and potentially reduce the amount of food aid people receive in the future. (Lieb, 6/11)

LAW AND ORDER

Newsweek: LA Could Face Losing Millions For Police Using Nonlethal Bullets 
As protests have intensified, there have been reports that the LAPD is using rubber bullets against protesters. An Australian journalist was also struck. A British news photographer said that he had to undergo emergency surgery after a plastic bullet hit his thigh. In previous cases, court ordered payments to people who officers shot with rubber bullets. In March 2023, a federal jury awarded $375,000 to Deon Jones after he was shot in the face with a rubber bullet by an LAPD officer during a May 2020 protest. (6/9)

WIRED: What Tear Gas And Rubber Bullets Do To The Human Body
Though not explicitly designed to kill, these so-called “less-lethal” weapons can cause serious health effects—and, in some cases, lasting harm. The use of these weapons can result in respiratory problems, head injuries, and even death. In the United States, police force of all types results in 75,000 nonfatal injuries requiring hospital treatment and 600 to 1,100 deaths every year, according to the Law Enforcement Epidemiology Project at the University of Illinois Chicago. (Mullin, 6/10)

FDA

The New York Times: F.D.A. To Use A.I. In Drug Approvals To ‘Radically Increase Efficiency’ 
The Food and Drug Administration is planning to use artificial intelligence to “radically increase efficiency” in deciding whether to approve new drugs and devices, one of several top priorities laid out in an article published Tuesday in JAMA. Another initiative involves a review of chemicals and other “concerning ingredients” that appear in U.S. food but not in the food of other developed nations. (Jewett, 6/10)

FUNDING AND RESEARCH CUTS

The Guardian: Trump Administration To Cut All USAID Overseas Roles In Dramatic Restructuring 
The Trump administration will eliminate all USAID overseas positions worldwide by Sept. 30 in a dramatic restructuring of remaining US foreign aid operations. In a Tuesday state department cable obtained by the Guardian, secretary of state Marco Rubio ordered the abolishment of the agency’s entire international workforce, transferring control of foreign assistance programs directly to the state department. (Gedeon and Tait, 6/10)

The Hill: Senators Grill NIH Director In Budget Hearing: 4 Takeaways
National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya faced questions from senators during an Appropriations subcommittee hearing Tuesday, as the federal government agency has taken hits to its staffing levels and grant-making ability since under President Trump. Senators focused on the Trump administration’s requested 2026 budget, which calls for cutting NIH’s funding by $18 billion from 2025 levels. (O’Connell-Domenech, 6/10)

VACCINES

Bloomberg: RFK Jr. Says He Won’t Put Anti-Vaxxers On Key Vaccine Panel
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pledged to bring in “highly credentialed physicians” and “not anti-vaxxers” to fill newly vacant slots on an influential committee that advises the US government on vaccine policy. Kennedy made the remarks roughly 24 hours after he abruptly dismissed all 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices in an unprecedented move he said was needed to restore public confidence in vaccine science. The new members will be in place before the panel’s next scheduled meeting that starts June 25, Kennedy said Tuesday. (Cohrs Zhang, 6/10)

Politico: HHS Justifies Decision To Stop Recommending Covid Shots During Pregnancy With Studies Supporting The Shots’ Safety
The Department of Health and Human Services is circulating a document on Capitol Hill to explain its decision to remove the Covid-19 vaccine recommendation for pregnant women — citing studies that largely found the shot is safe. The document, which HHS sent to lawmakers days before Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced his plan to fire the panel that advises the CDC on immunizations, says that studies have shown that women who got the vaccine during pregnancy had higher rates of various complications. (Gardner and Gardner, 6/10)

NBC News: CDC Staff And Retired Workers Call For Kennedy’s Resignation In A Protest Outside Headquarters
Tuesday’s scheduled all-hands meeting at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would have been the first during the new Trump administration. Instead, after it was canceled at the last minute, dozens of current and former employees at the country’s leading public health agency rallied outside CDC headquarters in Atlanta to protest what they described as a wave of unlawful firings, the dismantling of lifesaving programs and the censorship of science. (Zadrozny, Bendix and Edwards, 6/10)

MedPage Today: AMA Calls For Senate Investigation Of RFK Jr.
Physicians called on HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to immediately reverse his decision to fire all 17 sitting members of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), and called for a Senate investigation into his actions. Less than 24 hours after Kennedy announced that HHS had removed all of CDC's vaccine advisors, American Medical Association (AMA) delegates passed an emergency resolution urging Kennedy to reverse this move during their annual meeting. (Firth, 6/10)

Stat: Ousted CDC Vaccine Adviser Says RFK Jr.’s Message Is Clear: ‘Scientific Expertise Is No Longer Of Use’
Helen Chu went through a multi-year process to finally gain a seat on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccines experts panel, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. There was a lengthy application process, and extensive conflict-of-interest vetting, followed by training about how the committee conducts its operations. Chu, a professor of infectious diseases at the University of Washington, was appointed last year to a four-year term on the committee. (Branswell, 6/10)

Stat: Fact-Checking A Vaccine Promise RFK Jr. Made During Confirmation
On Monday, health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gutted the panel of experts that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccines. That’s put the spotlight on a key Senate Republican health leader who sharply criticized Kennedy’s views on vaccines, then decided to support him anyhow. (Cirruzzo and Hogan, 6/10)

'MAHA' AND RFK JR.

CBS News: HHS Budget Proposal Eliminates CDC's Chronic Disease, Global Health Centers In Favor Of New "MAHA" Agency
The Department of Health and Human Services' budget request for the 2026 fiscal year consolidates the department's 28 divisions to 15 to make way for a new "institution of public health." The new agency, the Administration for a Healthy America, has a $20.6 billion budget designed to support Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s "Make America Healthy Again" agenda. That includes taking over — and significantly reducing — funds for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's chronic disease and global health centers along with some of the institutes that are currently part of the National Institutes of Health. (Gold and Ingram, 6/10)

AP: Top RFK Jr. Aide Attacks US Health System While Running Company That Promotes Wellness Alternatives
Calley Means has built a following within the “Make America Healthy Again” movement by railing against the failings of the U.S. health system, often pinning the blame on one issue: corruption. Means, a top aide to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., was hired as a White House adviser in March. He has used that perch to attack the nation’s leading physician groups, federal agencies and government scientists, claiming they only protect their own interests in the nation’s $4.9 trillion-a-year industry. (Perrone, 6/10)

Politico: There’s One Vice RFK Jr. Isn’t Talking About
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has made it his mission to remind Americans that they need to get off the couch and lay off the junk food. But there’s one vice he’s not talking about: smoking. That’s troubled anti-smoking activists, researchers who focus on the diseases tobacco causes and Democrats in Congress who point out that smoking, despite a marked decline in recent years, still leads to more preventable deaths than anything else. (Nguyen and Lim, 6/10)

Stat: Texas Considers MAHA-Style Warning Labels On Popular Foods
Europe’s comparatively cautious approach to food additives is the envy of health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the Make America Healthy Again movement. A Texas bill now before Gov. Greg Abbott aims to help close the gap by slapping warning labels on foods that contain any of 44 additives and dyes. (Todd, 6/11)

LGBTQ+ HEALTH

AP: Southern Baptists Overwhelmingly Call For Ban On Gay Marriage 
Southern Baptist delegates at their national meeting overwhelmingly endorsed a ban on same-sex marriage — including a call for a reversal of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 10-year-old precedent legalizing it nationwide. They also called for legislators to curtail sports betting and to support policies that promote childbearing. The votes Tuesday came at the gathering of more than 10,000 church representatives at the annual meeting of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination. (Smith, 6/10)

HEALTH INDUSTRY AND PHARMACEUTICALS

Modern Healthcare: CVS, Cigna Noncompete Lawsuit Settled
CVS Health and the executive at the center of a legal dispute with Cigna have resolved a case over a noncompete clause. Amy Bricker was president of Cigna subsidiary Express Scripts when CVS Health announced her hire as executive vice president and chief product officer for its consumer business in January 2023. Cigna swiftly sued to prevent Bricker from taking the new job on the grounds that doing so violated her employment contract. (Tepper, 6/10)

The Guardian: UnitedHealth Faces Federal Scrutiny Into Whistleblower Claims 
Attention comes in wake of ex-employees’ allegations that insurer paid nursing homes to reduce hospital transfers and used improper tactics to gain Medicare Advantage enrollees. (Gedeon and Joseph, 6/10)

Stat: Congressional Report: Organ Transplant Groups Use Loophole To Boost Ratings
A bipartisan congressional report to be released publicly Tuesday alleges that the organizations responsible for recovering donated organs for transplantation use a federal loophole to miscount the number of organs to boost performance ratings and stay certified. (Cirruzzo, 6/10)

Bloomberg: Home Health Aide Overtime Pay: Trump Labor Department Reviewing Rules
The US Department of Labor is reassessing a decade-old rule that extended pay protections to home health aides, a move that has the potential to impact the wages of millions of US workers. In a footnote in a court filing last month, the agency said it “intends to reconsider” regulations issued in 2013 under President Barack Obama, which expanded the scope of minimum wage and overtime rules to cover so-called “direct care” workers such as home health aides and certified nursing assistants. (Eidelson, 6/10)

Fierce Healthcare: Mukkamala Sworn In As AMA President, Underwood President-Elect
The American Medical Association underwent its annual leadership change on Tuesday, inaugurating otolaryngologist Bobby Mukkamala, M.D. as the 180th president of the nation’s largest physician association. The organization’s House of Delegates, composed of its member physicians and residents, also chose urologic surgeon William Underwood III, M.D., as its president-elect. Underwood will assume the presidency in June 2026. (Beavins, 6/10)

The Hill: Noah Wyle Pushes For Mental Health Funds For Health Workers
Noah Wyle is heading to the pit of political power, with a visit to Capitol Hill to push for funding for programs aimed at improving mental health services for health care workers. “The Pitt” and former “ER” star will touch down in Washington on Thursday to lead a panel discussion at the Cannon House Office Building focused on the “daily mental health, financial, and bureaucratic challenges for doctors and nurses today.” Wyle will be joined by his mom, Marjorie Speer, a retired nurse, along with more than a dozen health care professionals. (Kurtz, 6/10)

MedPage Today: Many Doctors Would Consider Assisted Dying At Their End Of Life
Many physicians said they would consider assisted dying if they were faced with advanced cancer or severe Alzheimer's disease, survey data showed. In eight jurisdictions spanning five countries, about half of physicians would consider euthanasia a good or very good option if they had very painful end-stage cancer (54.2%) or severe end-stage Alzheimer's disease (51.5%), reported Sarah Mroz, PhD, of Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium, and co-authors. (George, 6/10)

Stat: CHAI And The Joint Commission Will Write ‘Playbooks’ For Using AI
The Joint Commission, the nation’s oldest health care accreditation organization, is forming a partnership with the Coalition for Health AI to develop guidelines for responsible use of health AI, and a new certification program, STAT has learned. (Trang, 6/10)

Modern Healthcare: Mayo Clinic Invests In Ambient Clinical Intelligence Hellocare.Ai
Mayo Clinic is investing in an ambient clinical artificial intelligence startup, the health system said Tuesday. The Rochester, Minnesota-based health system made an undisclosed investment and entered into a collaboration focused on ambient clinical intelligence with Hellocare.ai, a healthcare artificial intelligence and virtual care company. (Turner, 6/10)

Bloomberg: Lilly Pacts Bar Telehealth Firms From Selling Copycat Zepbound
Eli Lilly & Co. will only work with telehealth firms that agree to stop selling copycat versions of weight-loss drugs, diminishing the likelihood of a partnership with one most visible players in the industry, Hims & Hers Health Inc. Hims teamed up with Novo Nordisk A/S in April to offer its rival drug Wegovy at a discounted price to patients who use its platform. The telehealth company — and its investors — had been hoping for a similar agreement with Lilly, which is working with several of Hims’ competitors to distribute lower-cost Zepbound. (Muller, 6/10)

STATE WATCH

AP: Louisiana Looks To Target Out-Of-State Doctors Who Prescribe Abortion Pills
Louisiana lawmakers on Tuesday approved a measure that targets out-of-state doctors and activists who prescribe, sell, or provide pregnancy-ending drugs to residents in the reliably red state where abortions are banned with few exceptions. Louisiana law already allows women to sue doctors who perform abortions on them in the state. The bill expands who can be sued. It includes those out of the state, who may be responsible for an illegal abortion whether that be mailing, prescribing or “coordinating the sale of” pregnancy-ending pills to someone in Louisiana. (Cline, 6/10)

The Texas Tribune: Amarillo Breaks Ground On New State Psychiatric Hospital 
State officials broke ground Tuesday at the site of the future psychiatric hospital in Amarillo, bringing the Panhandle one step closer to inpatient mental health care. The hospital is the long-awaited result after the Texas Legislature in 2023 approved $159 million to build an inpatient psychiatric hospital in Amarillo. Mental health advocates in the area say it is desperately needed to bring mental health resources closer to the largely rural region that’s home to nearly 436,000 people. (Carver, 6/10)

AP: Silicon Valley City Makes Homeless People Eligible For Arrest If They Refuse 3 Offers Of Shelter
Homeless people who reject three offers of shelter will be eligible for arrest on trespassing after the San Jose City Council voted Tuesday for a policy change they hope will encourage unhoused people to trade in their tents on sidewalks for beds indoors. The vote was 9-2 in favor of adding a “responsibility to shelter” provision to the city’s encampment code of conduct, which also includes expectations that homeless people will not pitch tents near schools and playgrounds or block public rights of way. (Har, 6/10)

ProPublica, Street Roots: Portland Homeless Deaths Quadrupled Despite Investment In Safety
As the city of Portland, Oregon, clawed its way out of the pandemic, it faced a new set of crises: The city’s homeless population was growing. Tents lined some city blocks. High-powered business associations held press conferences demanding the city remove homeless people and touted self-funded surveys saying that without action, businesses and residents would flee the city. By late spring 2021, the city committed to a new strategy that then-Mayor Ted Wheeler said would “reprioritize public health and safety among homeless Portlanders,” ultimately allocating $1.3 billion by the end of 2024. (Rambo, 6/11)

The Guardian: US To Put Four Prisoners To Death This Week As Trump Pushes For Executions 
Four executions are scheduled across the US this week, marking a sharp increase in killings as Donald Trump has pushed to revive the death penalty despite growing concerns about states’ methods. Executions are set to take place in Alabama, Florida and South Carolina. A fourth, scheduled in Oklahoma, has been temporarily blocked by a judge, but the state’s attorney general is challenging the ruling. (Levin, 6/10)

PUBLIC HEALTH

The Guardian: Scientists Warn Against Attempts To Change Definition Of ‘Forever Chemicals’ 
A group of 20 internationally renowned scientists have issued a strong warning against attempts to narrow the definition of “forever chemicals” in what they describe as a politically or economically motivated effort to weaken regulation of the potentially harmful chemicals. (Salvidge, 6/10)

Bloomberg: Trump Poised To Repeal Biden Curbs On Power Plant Pollution
The Trump administration will propose scrapping Biden-era climate mandates requiring the nation’s power plants to curb planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions as soon as Wednesday, according to people familiar with the matter. The Environmental Protection Agency is also set to advance a plan for easing limits on mercury and other toxic air pollution from the facilities, said the people, who asked not to be named because the measures aren’t yet public. (Natter and Dlouhy, 6/10)

New Hampshire Public Radio: To Protect Against Ticks, Scientists Say We Need To Get Better At Tracking Them 
Warming temperatures caused by climate change have allowed for the expansion of tick habitats, with populations moving farther north. An increase in the number of days above freezing has also expanded their reproduction period. (Vaz, 6/10)

CNN: Spinach, Strawberries Top New ‘Dirty Dozen’ List Of Pesticide-Laden Produce 
More than 90% of samples of a dozen fruits and vegetables tested positive for potentially harmful pesticide residues, according to the 2025 Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce. Dubbed the “Dirty Dozen,” the list is compiled from the latest government testing data on nonorganic produce by the Environmental Working Group, or EWG, a health advocacy organization that has produced the annual report since 2004. (LaMotte, 6/11)

ABC News: What To Know About Stinging Asian Needle Ants Detected In 20 States
An invasive species of stinging ant is spreading across the United States with detections in at least 20 states. ... Asian needle ants can sting when bothered, which can lead to symptoms such as skin reactions including hives and itching; low blood pressure; swollen tongue or throat; nausea, vomiting or diarrhea; dizziness or fainting; weak or rapid pulse; and wheezing or difficulty breathing, the USFS said. More severe symptoms can include anaphylaxis -- a potentially life-threatening allergic reaction -- or psychological reactions, such as a feeling of impending doom, according to the agency. (Kekatos, 6/10)