First Edition: Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025

KFF HEALTH NEWS ORIGINAL STORIES

KFF Health News: Trump’s Medicaid Cuts Were Aimed At ‘Able-Bodied Adults.’ Hospitals Say Kids Will Be Hurt
Republicans insist that President Donald Trump’s cuts to Medicaid were aimed at reducing fraud and getting more of its adult beneficiaries into jobs. But the side effects may include less care for sick kids. Some children’s hospitals collectively stand to lose billions of dollars in revenue once Trump’s wide-ranging tax and spending law, which Republicans called the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” is fully enacted, according to the Children’s Hospital Association. (Galewitz, 9/10)

KFF Health News: Lice Pose No Health Threat, Yet Some Parents Push Back On Rules To Allow Affected Kids In Class
Any evidence of lice was once a reason for immediate dismissal from school, not to return until the student’s head was lice-free. But what are known as “no-nit” policies have been dropped in favor of “nonexclusion” rules, prioritizing class time over any nuisance caused by parasites the size of sesame seeds. That leniency, of late, is coming back to bite some schools. Parents in Massachusetts, Texas, Ohio, and Georgia are petitioning for their districts to revive strict rules on nits and live lice. (Farmer, 9/10)

KFF Health News: RFK Jr. Said ‘Everybody Can Get’ A Covid Vaccine. Is That True?
When health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testified before the Senate Finance Committee on Sept. 4, several senators criticized him for restricting the covid-19 shots after promising in November he wouldn’t “take away anybody’s vaccines.” “Did you hold up a big sign saying that you were lying when you said that?” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) asked Kennedy. (Abels and Ramirez Uribe, 9/10)

KFF Health News: Listen To The Latest 'KFF Health News Minute'
Katheryn Houghton reads the week’s news: New research shows that regular, moderate use of devices like computers and smartphones can be good for the cognitive health of older people, and human resources departments can help employees get health insurance companies to pay for covered care. (9/9)

CHILDREN'S HEALTH

Stat: RFK Jr. Releases MAHA Report On Fighting Childhood Chronic Disease 
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made his chronic disease-fighting plan, a version of which was leaked last month, official on Tuesday. The final version looks markedly similar to the draft that made rounds and garnered heavy criticism in recent weeks, but with more detail. (Cueto and Todd, 9/9)

The New York Times: Read The MAHA Strategy Report
A report from the White House outlines strategies to combat childhood chronic disease and attempts to set a MAHA agenda for the country. (9/9)

Los Angeles Times: MAHA Child Health Report Ignores Gun Violence, The Leading Cause Of Child Death
Absent from the document was any mention of guns, the leading cause of death for people under the age of 18. Firearms have been the leading cause of death for children ages 1 to 17 every year since 2022. More than 2,500 kids died from gunshot wounds in 2022, the last year for which complete data is available, and guns were responsible for 30% of all deaths of 15- to 17-year-olds, the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions found after analyzing data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Guns’ absence from the MAHA strategy raised alarm among pediatricians and public health experts.(Purtill, 9/9)

The 19th: The EPA Ended Her Research Into How Climate Change Endangers Children
Jane Clougherty has dedicated the majority of her professional life to researching the health effects of air pollution and, more recently, extreme heat. But in May, she got an email from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that ground her potentially life-saving work to a halt. (Kutz, 9/9)

Capital & Main: MAHA Promised Healthier Kids. But School Lunches May Deliver Less.
The rise of Make America Healthy Again arrived with big promises for kids: an end to chronic disease, a focus on nutrition and healthier school meals. For school food professionals and public health advocates, it seemed like an unexpected win that could benefit the millions of children who rely on federal school meals, often the most nutritious — and sometimes the only reliable — food they receive all day. That push to improve children’s health from a Republican administration was all the more surprising, considering the political attacks Michelle Obama endured when she campaigned to improve school nutrition. (Stukin, 9/8)

AUTISM

MedPage Today: RFK Jr. May Link Vax Aluminum Adjuvant And Autism, Former FDA Chief Says
Scott Gottlieb, MD, who served as FDA commissioner from 2017 to 2019 during President Donald Trump's first term, expressed concern about the future of the U.S. pediatric vaccine schedule in an interview with CNBC on Monday. Notably, Gottlieb said during the interview that he believes HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. could use a forthcoming agency report to claim an association between alum -- an aluminum-based adjuvant used in some vaccines -- and autism, and that this claim could ultimately "take down the whole pediatric vaccine enterprise." (Henderson, 9/9)

AP: RFK Jr.'s New Report Calls For More Scrutiny Of Vaccines And Autism
The Trump administration directed the nation’s public health and environmental agencies to prioritize investigations into vaccine injuries, prescription drug use and autism’s causes in its latest “Make America Healthy Again” report released Tuesday. The 20-page report, overseen by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., echoes many of the talking points Kennedy and those in his wide-ranging and politically diverse “MAHA” movement have united around. (Seitz, 9/10)

PHARMACEUTICALS

The Wall Street Journal: Trump Executive Action Cracks Down On Pharmaceutical Ads
President Trump on Tuesday signed an executive action calling for stepped-up federal enforcement of rules for pharmaceutical ads. Here’s what to know: In conjunction with the action, the Food and Drug Administration said it is sending thousands of enforcement letters to drugmakers related to misleading ads. In addition, the Department of Health and Human Services is planning to close what the administration sees as a loophole allowing certain broadcast ads to give abbreviated descriptions of drug side effects. (Essley Whyte, Andrews and Lukpat, 9/9)

Modern Healthcare: 340B Drug Spending Rose 565% From 2010-2021, CBO Reports
Spending on prescription medications under the 340B Drug Pricing Program grew more than sixfold from 2010 to 2021, according to a report the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office published Tuesday. Safety-net providers participating in 340B spent $43.9 billion on covered drugs in 2021, a 565% increase from $6.6 billion in 2010, the legislative branch agency reported. The findings are limited to the 90% of 340B providers that use the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Prime Vendor Program. (Early, 9/9)

HEALTH CARE RECORDS AND DATA

AP: Judge Blocks Trump Administration's Subpoena Of Trans Patients' Records
A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to subpoena medical records of transgender patients who received gender-affirming care at Boston Children’s Hospital. In a ruling on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Myong Joun said the administrative subpoena served by the U.S. Department of Justice was improper and “motivated only by bad faith.” The Justice Department said the information was needed to investigate possible fraud or unlawful off-label promotion of drugs, but the information requested — including actual patient records — seemed to be unrelated, the judge said. (Boone, 9/10)

MedPage Today: CDC Infectious Disease Data Project Shelved
HHS has put on ice a CDC project that would make information about dozens of diseases available in near real time, CDC sources told MedPage Today. Since early summer, the team has been working on a more user-friendly website that would make case counts on 127 notifiable conditions available in one place, alongside expert commentary. But when they asked for approval to launch it, HHS put it on hold indefinitely, several sources said. (Fiore, 9/9)

CDC LEADERSHIP

NBC News: Former CDC Director Susan Monarez To Testify At Senate Committee Hearing
The Senate committee that oversees the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will hold a hearing next week with testimony from former CDC Director Susan Monarez, whom the Trump administration abruptly fired last month after she refused to resign under pressure. The hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, chaired by Bill Cassidy, R-La., will take place Sept. 17 and focus on oversight of the CDC. (Leach, Thorp V and Richards, 9/10)

PUBLIC HEALTH

CNN: US Death Rate Dropped Back To Pre-Covid Levels In 2024, CDC Report Says 
The death rate in the United States returned to pre-pandemic levels in 2024 as Covid-19 fell out of the top 10 leading causes of death, according to a report published Wednesday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (McPhillips, 9/10)

COVID VACCINES

MedPage Today: Physicians Group Recommends All Adults Get A COVID Booster
The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) split with federal health officials and recommended that all U.S. adults get an updated COVID-19 vaccine for the upcoming respiratory virus season. In particular, people 65 years or older, those at increased risk for severe outcomes, and anyone who has never received a COVID-19 shot before should be prioritized for vaccination, AAFP said. (Rudd, 9/9)

San Francisco Chronicle: California Rejects CDC, Backs Medical Groups On COVID Vaccines
In a break from the past, California is endorsing COVID-19 vaccine recommendations from national medical professional organizations rather than federal health officials. State public health departments typically adopt vaccine recommendations from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which takes their cues from a scientific advisory panel composed of experts who specialize in vaccines and infectious diseases. (Ho, 9/9)

CIDRAP: Pfizer Reports Strong Phase 3 Clinical Data For 2025-26 COVID Vaccine
Yesterday Pfizer and BioNTech reported phase 3 clinical trial data for their updated COVID vaccine, Comirnaty. That vaccine is authorized for use by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for seniors 65 and older and for younger adults with at least one underlying health condition. The data show at least a fourfold increase in neutralizing antibodies, reinforcing preclinical data, and Pfizer has submitted these data to the FDA. (Soucheray, 9/9)

The Wall Street Journal: Health Officials Hunt For Cases Connecting Covid Shot And Harm In Pregnant Women
Top health officials under Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are compiling examples of harmful effects of Covid shots on pregnant women to share with the public, people familiar with the matter said, furthering the administration’s scrutiny of vaccines and a debate with GOP lawmakers over their efficacy. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary and one of his top deputies, vaccines chief Vinay Prasad, are seeking to waive privacy protections around certain data on Covid vaccines and pregnant women, people familiar with the matter said. (Essley Whyte, 9/9)

CNN: Florida’s Surgeon General Said He Didn’t Calculate The Costs Of Ending Vaccine Mandates In The State. But Scientists Have. 
Florida’s surgeon general said Sunday that he had not weighed the cost – in terms of infections, hospitalizations or deaths – of ending vaccine mandates in his state. But scientists who have done those calculations say those costs may be high. (Goodman and McPhillips, 9/9)

The Washington Post: How To Find A Covid Vaccine Without A Prescription
Getting an updated coronavirus vaccine can be particularly challenging this year. The Food and Drug Administration approved those shots for people who are 65 and older or have underlying conditions that elevate their risk of severe disease, narrowing the pool of Americans who have easy access to the shots. (Ovalle, 9/9)

CIDRAP: Studies Show How Common Long COVID Is Globally And In Teens
Long COVID, the post-infection condition that can encompass a number of symptoms in the weeks following an active COVID-19 infection, is shown to be highly prevalent in a new global analysis of studies published in Open Forum Infectious Diseases. A second study in The Journal of Infectious Diseases describes the prevalence of long COVID in adolescents in the summer of 2022, and shows that while many teens report lingering symptoms, most are resolved by 3 months post-infection. (Soucheray, 9/9)

FIREFIGHTERS' HEALTH

The New York Times: U.S. Wildfire Fighters To Mask Up After Decades-Long Ban On Smoke Protections 
The U.S. government will provide wildfire fighters with masks to protect against smoke — reversing a decades-long ban that exposed workers to toxins known to cause cancer and other serious diseases. The Forest Service posted new guidance on Monday acknowledging for the first time that masks can protect firefighters against harmful particles in wildfire smoke. The move is part of a flurry of safety improvements in recent weeks as the government faces increasing pressure to aid firefighters. For years, the Forest Service had barred workers from wearing masks, arguing that they were too cumbersome for the job. (Dreier, 9/9)

San Francisco Chronicle: California Pledges Millions Of Dollars To Study Firefighter Health
Cal Fire will spend $9.7 million on research into how worsening wildfires and other exposures may be increasing the risk for cancer among California firefighters, the governor’s office announced Tuesday. Researchers from UCLA and UC Davis will evaluate the health of 3,500 firefighters over two years and look for signs that they have been exposed to cancer-causing substances or have experienced biological changes that increase their odds of getting the disease. (Johnson, 9/9)

HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY

Modern Healthcare: CMS Drops Medicare Advantage Unused Benefits Notification Policy
Medicare Advantage carriers will not be required to remind members about unused supplemental benefits, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services notified insurers Monday. CMS will not enforce the mandate “while it reconsiders the regulatory requirements,” the agency wrote in a memo to health insurance companies. The policy was scheduled to take effect next year. (Tong, 9/9)

Modern Healthcare: UnitedHealth, HCSC Cut Medicare Advantage Commissions
UnitedHealthcare is backing away from many Medicare Advantage plans as it seeks to restore profitability to the business. The UnitedHealth Group subsidiary will cease paying commissions on new sales of 18% of its products for 2026, the company notified third-party marketers Tuesday. UnitedHealthcare will pay only partial commissions for another 2% of its Medicare Advantage plans. The insurer will continue to compensate brokers for renewals. (Tepper, 9/9)

Modern Healthcare: UnitedHealth Expects Most Medicare Advantage Members In Top Plans
The vast majority of UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage members will be enrolled in policies with high quality scores next year, parent company UnitedHealth Group announced Tuesday. UnitedHealthcare anticipates that 78% of its Medicare Advantage enrollees in 2026 will have plans in contracts that earned at least four out of five stars under the Star Ratings quality measurement program. That compares with 71% this year. (Tepper, 9/9)

Modern Healthcare: Pacs Group's CFO Derick Apt Resigns
Pacs Group Chief Financial Officer Derick Apt resigned from the troubled nursing home company last week after he allegedly accepted improper gifts from related parties. The company said in a Monday Securities and Exchange Commission filing that Apt resigned Sept. 2 after an audit committee alleged he violated the company’s code of conduct by accepting high-value items from individuals associated with entities that do business with Pacs Group. Efforts to reach Apt were unsuccessful. (Eastabrook, 9/9)

Modern Healthcare: How Hospital Presumptive Eligibility Can Help With Medicaid Cuts
Hospitals are ramping up strategies to prevent Medicaid patients from losing coverage as they try to get ahead of federal policy changes. A growing number of providers are pursuing hospital designations that allow them to streamline the Medicaid enrollment process, known as presumptive eligibility. Others are enlisting vendors to collect and organize patient data and partnering with community organizations to bridge coverage gaps. (Kacik, 9/9)

Newsweek: How Health Systems Are Turning Living Rooms Into Hospital Rooms
Erica Olenski's North Texas home is a constant churn of activity, as is typical for a family with two young boys. Scattered about are baseball bats, book bags, bicycles. But that's where the ordinary ends. Olenski's son, August, was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer in May of 2019, at 5 months old. For the next six years, their home served as a personal intensive care unit. (Kayser, 9/10)

STATE WATCH

The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer: Cleveland’s Safety Net Hospital Could Close, Mayor Justin Bibb Says 
Mayor Justin Bibb predicted in a recent Politico interview that MetroHealth System could “go out of business” if the federal government cuts Medicaid funding to hospitals.“ Cleveland is home to our only safety net hospital, Metro Hospital (sic), and they could go out of business if these cuts go through,” Bibb said in the interview. (Washington, 9/9)

Axios: New York Scraps Expanded State Health Coverage, Citing GOP Budget Law
New York plans to phase out a program that offers zero-premium health coverage for working-class residents due to funding cuts in the GOP's tax and spending package, Gov. Kathy Hochul's office tells Axios first. (Goldman, 9/10)

The Colorado Sun: Anthem And Rocky Mountain Health Plans Won't Pull Back In Colorado
Two major health insurers in Colorado — Anthem and Rocky Mountain Health Plans — have reversed their plans to withdraw from several counties next year. (Ingold, 9/9)

Wyoming Public Radio: Mountain West Has One Of The Worst Nursing Shortages In U.S. 
The Mountain West is home to states with some of the worst nursing shortages in the country. Utah is at the top of the shortage list, with about 1.4 nurses per 100 people, according to an analysis of data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Council of State Boards of Nursing. Idaho, Wyoming, Arizona and Colorado trail close behind, with at least 25% fewer nurses than the national average (2.2 nurses per 100 people). (Merzbach, 9/9)

The 19th: New Mexico Will Be The First State To Make Child Care Free
In an unprecedented move, New Mexico is making child care free. Beginning in November, it will be the first state in the nation to provide child care to all residents regardless of income, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced this week. (Carrazana, 9/9)

AP: Former CVS Executive Helena Foulkes Is Running For Governor Of Rhode Island
Former CVS Health executive Helena Foulkes announced her second campaign for Rhode Island governor on Tuesday, challenging incumbent Gov. Dan McKee in the Democratic primary. Foulkes finished a close second to McKee in the 2022 primary after a late surge in the polls and a last-minute endorsement from The Boston Globe’s editorial board. McKee is seeking his second full term after stepping up from the lieutenant governorship when Gov. Gina Raimondo was tapped as U.S. commerce secretary in the Biden administration in 2021. (9/9)

OUTBREAKS AND HEALTH THREATS

The Boston Globe: First Human Case Of EEE Reported In Maine, Officials Say
Health officials in Maine on Tuesday said the Eastern Equine Encephalitis virus has been detected in a resident from Penobscot County, the first human case of the virus in the state this year. The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention announced the case on social media and said the risk level for EEE is currently “severe” in Penobscot, Piscataquis, Somerset, and Waldo counties, areas that have had a history of EEE activity in recent years. (Stoico, 9/9)

CIDRAP: Six Recent Sporadic Borealpox Cases In Alaska Tied To Rodents
A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention–led study links spillover from small mammals such as voles and squirrels to cases of borealpox in five adults and one child in Alaska from 2020 to 2023. (Van Beusekom, 9/9)

The New York Times: Scientists Begin Testing Bird Flu Vaccine In Seals
Wildlife veterinarians have begun testing bird flu vaccines in marine mammals, which have suffered enormous losses in the ongoing global outbreak. The first trial, which began in July, is tiny, enrolling just six northern elephant seals that were already being rehabilitated at the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, Calif. But if the results are promising, the researchers hope to quickly begin vaccinating wild Hawaiian monk seals, an endangered species that they fear could be wiped out by the virus. (Anthes, 9/9)

CIDRAP: CDC Says Avian Flu May Infect The Gut, Though Risk Is Low
Given ongoing detections of H5N1 avian flu in poultry, dairy cows, and wildlife, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) yesterday addressed the potential for the threat of contracting the virus by eating or drinking potentially contaminated food or beverages, such as raw milk, saying the risk is low but possible. (Schnirring, 9/9)

LIFESTYLE AND HEALTH

Medical Xpress: Blood Test Identifies HPV-Associated Head And Neck Cancers Up To 10 Years Before Symptoms
In a study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Mass General Brigham researchers show that a novel liquid biopsy tool they developed, called HPV-DeepSeek, can identify HPV-associated head and neck cancer up to 10 years before symptoms appear. By catching cancers earlier with this novel test, patients may experience higher treatment success and require a less intense regimen, according to the authors. (9/9)

Stat: How The Myth That Nicotine Causes Cancer Is Hurting Public Health
A majority of people in the U.S. wrongly believe that nicotine is the substance in cigarettes that causes cancer. In fact, “the harm from smoking comes from the burning of the ingredients in a cigarette, not from the nicotine itself,” said Jamie Hartmann-Boyce, a health policy researcher at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. More than 70 carcinogens have been identified in the cigarette smoke produced by the combustion of tobacco, which can damage people’s DNA and lay the groundwork for cancer. (Todd, 9/10)

CNN: Marijuana May Cause Chromosomal Defects In Human Egg Cells, Study Finds 
Marijuana may damage oocytes — unfertilized eggs in female ovaries — in ways researchers worry may lead to infertility, miscarriage and possible genetic defects in babies, new research has found. (LaMotte, 9/9)

MedPage Today: Brain Iron Predicts Risk Of Future Cognitive Impairment
Brain iron measured with quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) MRI predicted cognitive decline in healthy adults, a prospective study showed. In 158 cognitively unimpaired older adults, higher baseline magnetic susceptibility in the entorhinal cortex was tied to an increased risk of subsequent mild cognitive impairment (HR 2.00, P=0.005), reported Xu Li, PhD, of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and co-authors. (George, 9/9)

Phys.org: Beer Drinkers Are Mosquito Magnets, According To A Festival Study
Participants who drank beer were 1.35 times more attractive to mosquitoes than those who didn't. The tiny vampires were also more likely to target people who had slept with someone the previous night. The study also revealed that recent showering and sunscreen make people less attractive to the buzzing menace. (Arnold, 9/9)