Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
First Edition: Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026
KFF HEALTH NEWS ORIGINAL STORIES
KFF Health News: States Bet Big On Rural Health Startups, With A Silicon Valley Twist
When Josh Fleig, Louisiana’s chief innovation officer, learned his state had set aside $20 million a year, for five years, to invest in startup rural health companies, his reaction was not surprising: “Wow!” In rural America, where people are often reported to be sicker with poor access to healthcare, the cash influx is a relief. In the economic development space where Fleig operates, it’s an opportunity. “Look, that’s a lot of money for what we do,” said Fleig, whose state-funded economic development office invests in corporate launches, ranging from software startups to shipbuilders. (Tribble, 9/16)
KFF Health News: Outcome Of Suit Against Department Of Labor Could Boost Skimpy Employer Health Plans
A long-running lawsuit challenging what it means to be an employee and therefore have access to work-based health plans is being closely watched by health policy analysts. Its outcome could spur the availability of lower-cost but potentially skimpier health coverage that skirts some consumer protections. Court papers indicate a settlement in the case against the Department of Labor may be in the works, although the parameters of any such deal are unknown. (Appleby, 9/16)
HEALTHCARE COSTS AND COVERAGE
Modern Healthcare: Uninsured Rate Stagnates As Hospitals Brace For Uncompensated Care
There was no significant change in the number of people without health insurance in 2025, according to new census data. More than 26.7 million people, or 7.9% of the population, did not have health insurance in 2025, a report released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau shows. In comparison, 26.9 million people, or 8%, lacked coverage in 2024. A separate report in May from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention put the uninsured rate at 8.3% of the population. (Kacik, 9/15)
Axios: Uninsured Rate Rises For Kids In Western States, Stays High In South
The odds of a child or teen being uninsured can vary a lot depending on where they live and their ethnicity, according to new census data. The rate of uninsured children has been generally ticking upward since the end of the pandemic, and advocates and policy experts expect the trend to continue due to Medicaid policy changes from last year's congressional budget law. (Bettelheim, 9/16)
Bloomberg: US Household Income Rose To Record In 2025 As Poverty Fell
US household incomes rose last year to an all-time high and the poverty rate fell to one of the lowest levels on record. The median household’s inflation-adjusted income increased 2.6% last year to $87,460, according to the Census Bureau’s annual report on income, poverty and health insurance coverage. That was the highest in data back to 1967. (Fanzeres and Niquette, 9/15)
CAPITOL WATCH
NPR: Trump’s Picks For Three Top Health Positions Face Senate Committee
The Senate committee on health meets this morning to consider three of the Trump administration's picks for top jobs at the Department of Health and Human Services, including deputy secretary and surgeon general. On Wednesday, senators will consider Trump's third pick, Dr. Nicole Saphier, a radiologist, for the surgeon general position. Also testifying before senators Wednesday is Chris Klomp, a former health tech executive who's been running much of the day-to-day operations of HHS since February. He's the nominee to serve as deputy secretary of HHS. (Carlson and Simmons-Duffin, 9/16)
Bloomberg: RFK Jr. Deputy Nominee Defends MMR Vaccine, Cites CDC Data On Effectiveness
President Donald Trump’s nominee to be second-in-command of the top US health agency gave full-throated support for the safety of the measles vaccine, despite doubts raised by Trump and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Chris Klomp, currently the chief counselor at the Department of Health and Human Services, defended the shots Tuesday under questioning from senators. He’s seeking confirmation to become deputy secretary, the highest official below Kennedy. (Cohrs Zhang, 9/15)
Stat: House Democrats May Use Oversight Powers To Plan For Health Care Overhaul
Democrats are vowing to aggressively pursue oversight if they win control of either the House or Senate in November’s midterm elections. Health care issues, including President Trump’s drug pricing deals, are potential targets. (Wilkerson, 9/16)
Axios: An Aging Congress' Dilemma: Can They Regulate AI Without Using It?
Members of Congress and governors are under increasing pressure to regulate AI, but more than two dozen of them who spoke with Axios said they don't use the technology or have rarely done so. (Otterbein, Solender and Kight, 9/16)
The Washington Post: Inside The Campaign To Convince Washington That AI Could End Human Life
Activists spent years cultivating allies on Capitol Hill. Now lawmakers in both major parties are discussing extinction. (Duncan and Tiku, 9/16)
THE LATEST FROM CMS
Stat: Medicare To Expand Pilot That Pays For Technology To Manage Chronic Diseases
A Medicare experiment in paying for technology to help people manage chronic conditions has just barely gotten underway, and officials are already moving to expand it. (Aguilar, 9/15)
Modern Healthcare: Medicare GLP-1 Bridge Program Rattles Insurers
A strong start to a Medicare initiative meant to ease access to cutting-edge weight-loss drugs may portend big expenses for Medicare Advantage insurers down the line. The Medicare GLP-1 Bridge program launched in July offering costly glucagon-like peptide-1 agonists, or GLP-1s, for weight loss at $50 a month. More than half a million enrollees — 15% of the potential Medicare market — have taken advantage of the pilot program, which is slated to run through 2027, the White House reported in August. Beneficiaries have already saved a collective $216 million, according to the White House. (Tepper, 9/15)
Spotlight on Maryland: 5 Firms Received $820M In Medicaid Funds After Facing Termination In Fraud Probe
Five home health care companies in Washington, D.C., received $820.5 million in taxpayer-funded Medicaid payments years after local regulators moved to terminate them from the program over “credible allegations of fraud.” (Hauf, 9/16)
VACCINES AND OUTBREAKS
NBC News: Pennsylvania Teen Dies From Measles Complications, The State’s Fourth Death
A fourth death has been linked to measles in Pennsylvania, the state Health Department said Tuesday. All four deaths have been reported in the last month as Pennsylvania’s measles outbreak continues to grow. They are the first deaths associated with measles in the state in 35 years. (Bendix and Edwards, 9/15)
ABC News: How Hospitals, Clinics In Pennsylvania Are Responding To The Measles Outbreak
Prior to this year, Dr. John Goldman said he'd only seen two cases of measles throughout his career: one in the late 1980s and one in the early 1990s. Now, Goldman said measles patients are being admitted to the hospital on a regular basis. "We've had patients that have shown up in our outpatient offices. We've had patients show up in the hospital. We've had patients that have come in for other problems and then develop measles while they're in the hospital," Goldman, an infectious disease specialist for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in central Pennsylvania, told ABC News. (Kekatos, 9/15)
The Hill: Democrats Demand Answers From CDC Over Pennsylvania Measles Deaths
House Democrats on the Energy and Commerce Committee are demanding answers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention regarding the agency’s refusal to accept Pennsylvania’s reporting of two measles deaths, the first in 35 years. The committee’s ranking member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-N.J.) sent a letter to new agency director Erica Schwartz, calling for a briefing on CDC’s measles response, including why it hasn’t counted Pennsylvania’s deaths in its official weekly tally. (Weixel, 9/15)
CIDRAP: New Polls Highlight Tumbling Trust In Measles Vaccine Safety, Advice From Doctors
Two new polls reveal cracks in both US and global trust in medicine, with one showing erosion in Americans’ belief that the measles vaccine is safe for children and another finding that just over half of people in 13 countries say that, given conflicting information, they always follow their physician’s recommendations. (Van Beusekom, 9/15)
The CT Mirror: CT Court Upholds Law: No Religious Exemptions To Vaccines
A Superior Court judge in Stamford on Monday dismissed a lawsuit challenging a Connecticut law that eliminated religious exemptions from school vaccine requirements. (Golvala, 9/15)
REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH
NPR: New Maps Reveal Birth Control Access Gaps In The U.S.
There are 21.4 million women in the U.S. who need subsidized birth control living in a county somewhere with limited access. That's the major takeaway from a new analysis of contraception access from two reproductive policy organizations, Power to Decide and the Guttmacher Institute, shared exclusively with NPR. Both organizations are nonprofit and nonpartisan, and both support access to reproductive and sexual health services, including abortion. The analysis produced two interactive, county-level maps. It's an updated version of a map of contraception deserts that Power to Decide first made in 2017. (Simmons-Duffin, 9/16)
Fortune: Walmart Heirs Committing $100M To Halve America's Maternal Death Rate
The U.S. has one of the highest maternal mortality rates among wealthy nations, research shows, so heirs of the multibillion Walmart fortune are working to drastically lower it. (Lake, 9/15)
AP: Massachusetts Governor Proposes Better Postpartum Care After Clancy Trial
New parents in Massachusetts should receive better support and postpartum care, Gov. Maura Healey said Tuesday, following the high-profile murder trial of Lindsay Clancy who, her attorneys argued, was suffering from unresolved postpartum psychosis when she killed her three children in 2023. Healey proposed providing free home visits by nurses to all parents with newborns as well as updated regulations governing mental health screening of new mothers. (Willingham, 9/15)
The New York Times: Scrutiny Of Jury May Complicate Future Of Lindsay Clancy Case
When several jurors from the murder trial of Lindsay Clancy spoke publicly last week about their deliberations, they probably did not imagine what would follow: Deep dives into their social media histories. Hateful memes depicting the women among them as crones. And excavation of two jurors’ past legal problems — none of which would have disqualified them from serving. With a retrial of Ms. Clancy still possible, the intense scrutiny of the jurors whose deadlock led to a mistrial could complicate attempts to seat a new jury, from a pool of candidates who now have reason to fear a similar backlash. (Russell and Bogel-Burroughs, 9/15)
HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY
Chicago Tribune: Nurses Go On One-Day Strike At Olympia Fields Hospital
Chicago-area nurses continued their fight against Prime Healthcare on Tuesday, holding a one-day strike at Olympia Fields Hospital. The action was the third nurses strike at Prime hospitals in the Chicago area in recent months. (Schencker, 9/15)
Modern Healthcare: Health Systems Recruit Military Medics Amid Staffing Shortages
Health systems, medical schools and other providers are recruiting former military medics for roles in everything from primary care to emergency services. Military medics have years of well-honed clinical skills, are highly disciplined and accustomed to working in remote areas where healthcare is scarce. They also are adept at treating a range of conditions from trauma to the common cold. As a result, they could fill a variety of roles across the healthcare industry, which is seeking innovative ways to address the growing talent shortage. (Eastabrook, 9/15)
AP: Phil And Penny Knight Donate $1.1B To Expand Women's Health Services In Oregon
Oregon billionaires Phil and Penny Knight committed $1.1 billion to the Providence St. Vincent Medical Center and the Providence Heart Institute to build Oregon’s first hospital dedicated to women’s health, the medical center announced Tuesday. Phil Knight, co-founder of Nike, and his wife, have supported the institute for more than a decade, previously giving it more than $200 million, including a $75 million gift earlier this year. Along with creating the new women’s hospital, their new donation will help the medical center expand cardiovascular care and clinical research and training programs for the heart institute’s medical personnel. It will also make it easier to integrate patient care across the medical center. (Di Mento, 9/15)
Modern Healthcare: AAMC CEO David Skorton To Retire
Dr. David Skorton, president and CEO of the Association of American Medical Colleges, plans to retire by next June, the trade group announced Tuesday. Skorton, a cardiologist, joined the AAMC in 2019. The association has tapped consulting firm Spencer Stuart to assist in recruiting a successor, it said in a news release. (DeSilva, 9/15)
PHARMACEUTICALS
Stat: FDA Launches Pilot Program To Shorten Drug Approval Times
The Food and Drug Administration is opening applications for a pilot program designed to shorten the amount of time it takes for drugmakers to begin testing their products in humans, the agency announced Tuesday. (Manto, 9/15)
Politico: Montana’s Giving The Biotech Industry Sweeping Authority To Sell Unapproved Drugs
Investors on the libertarian fringe of the biotech industry are making their dream of widespread access to experimental drugs a reality in Montana. Last year, they helped draft a state law to expand access to drugs that no regulator has deemed safe and effective. Now, Montana is relying on a privately run board to decide which treatments to offer — raising concerns about conflicts of interest and, in an industry rife with unfounded claims, whether patients will get value for their money. (Chu, Brueck and Macho, 9/15)
The Wall Street Journal: Trump Administration Shift Puts This Corner Of Biotech Back In Favor
Betting on biotech is always a gamble. But in the first year of the Trump administration, few corners were dicier than rare-disease drugmakers. These companies often test drugs in tiny patient groups, sometimes without the usual features of large trials, such as placebo controls. In the second Trump administration, they suddenly found themselves facing Food and Drug Administration officials skeptical of approving drugs on such limited evidence. Rare-disease shares plunged. (Wainer, 9/16)
Los Angeles Times: New Lung Cancer Drug Lifts Survival Versus Chemotherapy
BioNTech said its experimental drug gotistobart nearly doubled the median survival of patients with an aggressive form of lung cancer compared with chemotherapy. Patients treated with gotistobart lived for a median 18.5 months, compared with 10 months for those given the standard-of-care chemotherapy, BioNTech said in a release this week. The updated results are from a late-stage study evaluating patients with metastatic squamous non-small cell lung cancer whose disease progressed when they were undergoing prior immunotherapy and chemotherapy. (Wind, 9/15)
Fox News: Common Antibiotic Cefepime Tied To 94% Higher Death Risk, Study Finds
A commonly used drug has been linked to a higher risk of death in a new study. The antibiotic, cefepime, which is used to treat bacterial infections like pneumonia, UTIs and skin infections, is typically administered via injection by healthcare providers in a clinical setting. (Stabile, 9/15)
STATE WATCH
Los Angeles Times: Schools Cannot Alert Parents Of Child Gender Identity Unless Asked, Judge Orders
It remains illegal in California for a school district to force teachers and other staff to alert parents about their child’s gender identity, but parents must be told when they ask about it, a judge ruled Tuesday in a widely watched case dealing with parental rights. San Bernardino County Superior Court Judge Michael Sachs, weighing both state law and a Supreme Court order, rejected an attempt by the Chino Valley Unified School District to reinstate its mandatory parent-notification policy. (Blume, 9/15)
CalMatters: K-12 Schools With Military Weapons Don’t Always Disclose
Police forces at California’s K-12 schools have quietly been purchasing and using military equipment for decades — and some have yet to comply with a state law requiring them to disclose that to the public. (Huss, 9/15)
CIDRAP: US Pediatricians Report Seeing Fewer Patients Because Of Immigration Enforcement Worries
Immunization clinics in San Diego, California, are usually packed in August as parents prepare their kids for the new school year. Not this year. With agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) often waiting outside medical clinics in some states, many immigrant families are now afraid to seek healthcare, said Pia Pannaraj, MD, MPH, a professor of pediatrics at the University of California San Diego and a vice chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ (AAP) Committee on Infectious Diseases. (Szabo and Holohan, 9/15)
North Carolina Health News: NC Wants Out Of Mental Health Settlement As Disability Protections Weaken
North Carolina is asking a federal court to end 14 years of oversight over how the state cares for — and houses — people with severe mental illness. The request comes just months after the Trump administration rolled back federal guidance on a decades-old landmark legal decision that North Carolina’s settlement and oversight was based on. (Knopf, 9/16)
Cardinal News: Paramedics Are Helping Patients Manage Illnesses, Connect With Services And Avoid Calling 911. But These Programs Can Be Tough To Sustain In Rural Areas.
The heat rolled out of the house as soon as the door opened. A developing storm had cooled the air outside, but inside Elizabeth Fitzgerald’s small brick home, the temperature was stifling. “Why is it so hot in here?” Keith Carroll asked as he stepped through the front door. (Schabacker, 9/16)
AP: Judge Halts Georgia Execution To Allow Hearing Under New Survivor Justice Law
A Georgia judge has put on hold an execution scheduled for Wednesday, saying the condemned prisoner is entitled to a hearing on whether his sentence should be reduced under a new state law that allows victims of abuse to have their sentences reconsidered. Stacey Humphreys, 53, was convicted of malice murder in the 2003 killings of two real estate agents, 33-year-old Cyndi Williams and 21-year-old Lori Brown, in an Atlanta suburb. He was scheduled to receive a lethal injection at the state prison near Jackson at 7 p.m. Wednesday. (Brumback, 9/16)
AP: Kindergartners Are Learning To Ride Bikes In School PE Classes
For generations, kids have learned how to ride a bike — a quintessential childhood milestone — in driveways, on sidewalks and in neighborhood streets. Now, they’re learning in school gyms and playgrounds. ... All Kids Bike, a program within a nonprofit organization, has brought a learn-to-ride curriculum into nearly 2,000 U.S. elementary schools. They’ve made bike-riding part of physical education for children who might otherwise have to wait for an adult or older sibling to teach them — or whose neighborhood and socioeconomic status might stop them from getting the chance. (Mumphrey, 9/16)
PUBLIC HEALTH
Newsweek: Air Pollution Linked To Eye Condition Affecting Millions, Scientists Warn
Air pollution may be affecting more than just heart and lungs. A new analysis of existing research suggests that exposure to polluted air, particularly fine particulate matter known as PM₂.₅, is associated with a higher risk of serious eye diseases, including glaucoma and cataracts. Researchers carried out a systematic review and meta-analysis to examine whether air pollution could be linked to common eye conditions, an area that has received far less attention than the well-established effects of pollution on cardiovascular and respiratory health. (Azzurra Volpe, 9/16)
The Hill: Study Finds That Kids' Risk Of Anxiety, Behavioral Issues Rises When There's A Cat In The House
Got a cat and a toddler in the house? One study suggests that could lead to a purrrfect storm when it comes to your child’s emotional development. Researchers tracking nearly 1,900 families found kids who had a cat at home, specifically kids aged 4-5, were more likely to show signs of anxiety, withdrawal or emotional struggles by the time they turned 7 or 8. They were also somewhat more likely to act out, break rules or have other behavioral issues. The study also looked at dogs, birds, rodents, fish and reptiles, but none showed the same pattern. (Fischels, 9/15)
GLOBAL WATCH
NPR: Air Pollution Spiked After The Trump Administration Stopped Embassy Monitoring
Growing up in Shanghai in the early 1990s, Eric Zou remembers the air. "I lived a couple of miles next to a chemical plant and it was just really bad, really foggy," he says. "It's the middle of the day, but you can't see the sun." Intensive industrial activity blanketed many cities in China during the 1990s and 2000s with extremely hazardous air. But Zou, now an environmental economist at the University of Michigan, says that many people didn't really understand this smog as air pollution, or something that could harm them. (Lambert, 9/15)
Bloomberg: HIV Prevention Falters As Funding Cuts Hit PrEP Treatment Access
Global efforts to prevent HIV lost ground last year as funding disruptions forced countries to scale back services, even as health systems managed to put more people living with the virus on lifesaving treatment. About 1.1 million people received pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, last year in countries where the Global Fund invests, down 21% from 2024, according to the organization’s annual results report. HIV prevention services were scaled back or suspended in many countries as reductions in domestic and international funding squeezed health programs. (Kew, 9/16)
CIDRAP: UN Says It’s Too Early To Say Ebola In DR Congo Has Peaked
On social media posts in the past 24 hours, some government officials from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have said there are signs the nation’s fast-moving Ebola outbreak has peaked and transmission is slowing, but United Nations (UN) officials urge caution in expressing optimism just yet. Daily fatalities linked to the Ebola outbreak, caused by the Bundibugyo strain, has fallen from a peak of around 50 deaths per day to nearly 30 currently, said the Minister of Public Health, Roger Kamba, in a video posted X. (Soucheray, 9/15)
The New York Times: Age Limits For Social Media Outlined By European Union
The European Union outlined plans on Wednesday to restrict social media use for children under 15, an aggressive step to curtail access to apps like TikTok and Instagram across the 27-nation bloc. (Satariano and Smialek, 9/16)
AP: The Number Of Japanese Centenarians Tops 100,000 For The First Time
The number of people aged 100 or older in Japan surpassed a record 100,000 this year, the latest government figures show, underscoring the country’s rapidly aging and declining population. The Health and Welfare Ministry statistics released Tuesday show Japan now has 107,677 centenarians, up 7,914 from the previous year and exceeding the 100,000 mark for the first time. Nearly 88% of them are women. (Yamaguchi, 9/16)
