Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
First Edition: Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026
KFF HEALTH NEWS ORIGINAL STORIES
KFF Health News and AP: Rural MAHA Followers Say Trump Health Policies Haven’t Reached Their Communities
President Donald Trump has championed sprawling health policy changes under the Make America Healthy Again movement, but a KFF-Associated Press survey of rural voters found people aren’t seeing the initiatives reach their communities. (Swenson, Tribble, and Sanders, 9/30)
KFF Health News: Drugs Are Widely Used To Sedate Dementia Patients. Her Sons Wanted To Keep Her Off Them
In December 2024, Marjorie Tingley’s adult sons received an urgent email from the dementia care unit at Vista Grande Villa, a Michigan senior living community. They were told that their 85-year-old mother was a major safety threat. On at least 10 days the previous month, Tingley had hit, kicked, or elbowed aides when they were trying to help change her briefs, get dressed, bathe, or go to the bathroom, according to Vista Grande behavior logs. Vista Grande wanted permission to sedate her. (Rau, 9/30)
KFF Health News: US Poised To Boot Legal Immigrants From Medicaid, Including Refugees And Sex-Trafficking Victims
Hundreds of thousands of immigrants with legal status are at risk of losing government health coverage starting Oct. 1, state data shows, signaling that the impact of Medicaid changes in President Donald Trump’s signature legislation from 2025 may be greater than anticipated. Many lawfully present immigrants will be among the first people to lose Medicaid coverage under congressional Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which is expected to cut spending by more than $900 billion through 2034 for the state-federal health program for people with low incomes or disabilities. The law will strip many more immigrants of their Affordable Care Act plan subsidies and Medicare coverage next year. (Galewitz, Jones and Boyd-Barrett, 9/30)
KFF Health News: These 100 Nursing Homes Face Perilous Flood Risk. Minnesota Shows What Can Happen
Floodwater seeped through the nursing home’s front door just before sunrise. Inside the New Richland Care Center, staff members rushed to move 36 residents out of the building on Sept. 19 while they still could. They pushed elderly residents in wheelchairs through 4-inch-deep water to buses waiting in the parking lot, said nursing home administrator Robert Johannsen. (Kelman, Hacker, Chang, McLister and Rantala, 9/30)
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
The New York Times: A.I. Is ‘Better Informed’ Than Doctors, Kennedy Tells Industry-Backed MAHA Summit
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has frequently advised Americans not to trust medical experts, said on Tuesday that artificial intelligence can offer patients “a second opinion that is much better informed than any doctor in the country” and has the power to “free us from medical tyranny.” Mr. Kennedy made the comments during a “fireside chat” conversation with Vice President JD Vance at a Make America Healthy Again conference sponsored by companies that have business before his department, as well as artificial intelligence companies like Anthropic and OpenAI. (Stolberg, 9/29)
The New York Times: Trump Launches America.Gov, An AI Chatbot That Contradicts Some Of His Claims
The president would not like many answers that America.gov provides. ... Largely citing figures from the Congressional Budget Office, the nonpartisan scorekeeper, America.gov said that Mr. Trump’s signature domestic policy bill, signed into law last year, is estimated to add trillions of dollars to the national debt and cause more than 10 million people to lose their health insurance. The chatbot agreed with a statement that the law “on average made the poorest people in America even poorer and the richest people in America even richer.” (Cameron, 9/29)
Politico: Trump Says Tech Execs Signed ‘Morally Binding’ Accord To Help Police AI
President Donald Trump said he was assured that companies are placing the appropriate guardrails on their models, despite a growing number of incidents where some of the most advanced AI systems escaped their testing environments and hacked into private companies and government databases. “I’m seeing tremendous self-policing,” Trump said. (Miller, Long and Dahlkamp, 9/29)
The New York Times: OpenAI Ignored Employees Who Warned It Wasn’t Doing Enough About Security
Months before OpenAI’s artificial intelligence went rogue, two employees raised an alarm with top executives. They were ignored. In emails, the employees said they worried that OpenAI’s newest artificial intelligence models were not being appropriately monitored during testing to gauge the technology’s sophistication and to secure the models, according to messages viewed by The New York Times. In response, OpenAI executives told the employees that the tests needed to move forward as quickly as possible to release the A.I. models on time. ... OpenAI’s models later broke out of their testing environments and attacked the A.I. start-up Hugging Face and other organizations, setting off a global debate about A.I. safety. (Frenkel, Volz and Freedman, 9/29)
MORE ON THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION
MedPage Today: Trump Administration Suppressed USPSTF Recommendations
Leadership of the agency that oversees the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) suppressed the group's recommendations, a former task force chair said. The director of the Agency for Research Healthcare and Quality (AHRQ) blocked the group's final recommendation on cervical cancer screening in fall 2025, former chair Michael Silverstein, MD, MPH, of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, wrote in a commentary in the Annals of Internal Medicine. (Frieden, 9/29)
NPR: Experts Dispute HHS Report Linking 'Gender Ideology' To Violence
Since announcing Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as his pick for Health and Human Services secretary last year, President Trump and Kennedy have touted their dedication to "Gold Standard Scientific Research" and making federal health agencies "beacons of Transparency." But a recent report released by the agency has left some experts with substantial doubts about its researchers' methods, its claims about its findings and its authors' political intentions. (Hagen, 9/30)
Bloomberg: Trump’s Biosecurity Pick Kaufman Awaits Confirmation After Knox Resigns
The top biosecurity official at the Department of Health and Human Services announced he’s stepping down ahead of the arrival of Donald Trump’s permanent nominee to lead the division, according to an internal email viewed by Bloomberg News. John Knox, the principal deputy assistant secretary for preparedness and response, said his last day would be Oct. 2 in an email to staff. Sean Kaufman, Trump’s pick to lead the division, will start on Oct. 5 in the principal deputy role, the email said. Kaufman’s confirmation to the top role is still pending before the Senate. (Cohrs Zhang and Nix, 9/29)
Bloomberg: Trump-Backed Nuclear Plant Settles Cancer, Contamination Lawsuits
Solstice Advanced Materials, the corporate owner of a nuclear fuel facility at the heart of President Donald Trump’s push for a nuclear renaissance, has agreed to pay $80 million to settle claims that the plant for decades spewed radiation over an Illinois town, sickened residents and contaminated properties. ... As part of the conversion process, the plant emits radiotoxic material that litigants alleged have accumulated on homes, buildings, parks and playgrounds, causing property damage and an increase in brain, lung and other cancers. (Riley and Waldman, 9/29)
MEASLES
The Washington Post: CDC Updates Measles Toll, Now Counts 2 Deaths
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its national measles tally late Monday to include another death in 2026, bringing its total to two, after Pennsylvania reported four measles-associated deaths in a growing outbreak. The CDC’s website did not identify the person who died or say where the death occurred, leaving unclear whether it was one of the four Pennsylvania cases. No other states have reported any measles-associated deaths. The agency updated its tally last week to include one death in 2026. (Sun, 9/30)
IMMIGRATION CRISIS
The Washington Post: Supreme Court Allows ‘Third Country’ Deportations To Resume For Now
The Trump administration can resume deporting certain migrants to countries where they are not citizens for the time being, while the justices hear arguments and make a final ruling on the policy, a divided Supreme Court ruled Tuesday. The ruling is a temporary victory for a centerpiece of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda and sets up a major Supreme Court argument in December over the controversial policy. (Mark and Jouvenal, 9/29)
AP: Watchdog Says Trump Can't Cancel More Than $800M In Spending
President Donald Trump is not permitted to withhold beyond the end of the fiscal year ending Wednesday more than $800 million in spending approved by Congress. That’s according to a review from the Government Accountability Office that was sent to federal lawmakers and Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday. The president announced his intention on Friday night to impound more than $800 million from 11 appropriations accounts, using a rare and contested power to axe funding for immigrant services and diversity-focused initiatives. (Freking, 9/29)
AP: Newsom Signs Law Banning Officers From Using Shock Gloves
California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law Tuesday banning local, state and federal law enforcement officers from using gloves that can deliver painful electric shocks to people. The ban on shock gloves will take effect next year and remain in place until 2030. It comes weeks after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement moved to equip its officers with the gloves, which are designed to gain compliance from combative individuals. Last month, the agency awarded a nearly $17 million contract to buy 6,000 pairs. (Austin, 9/29)
The New York Times: Man Shot By ICE Agent In Austin Is Charged With Assault
Prosecutors say Wilber Garces Perez struck an agent with his car’s mirror before another agent shot him. ... A spokeswoman for Mr. Garces Perez’s lawyer, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, said in a statement that the charges were surprising. Noting that a bullet remains lodged in Mr. Garces Perez’s body, the statement condemned the Department of Homeland Security’s actions. “Rather than provide the life saving medical care he needs, D.H.S. and the government are playing games with his life,” the statement said. (Sandoval and Aleaziz, 9/29)
ON CAPITOL HILL
NBC News: Senators Unveil Bipartisan Bill To Deliver Essential Newborn Supply Kits To New Moms
Becoming a new mom can require an abundance of supplies for both mother and baby — diapers, blankets, carriers and more. That’s why a bipartisan Senate duo is teaming up on a bill to provide new moms with starter pack newborn kits in communities with high rates of infant or maternal mortality. (Leach, 9/29)
Stat: Lawmakers Say New Rule Could Restrict Imported Meds From Canada
A growing number of congressional lawmakers are urging the Trump administration to rethink a federal rule going into effect next month over concerns it will prevent Americans from obtaining prescription medicines from licensed international pharmacies. (Silverman, 9/29)
The Washington Post: Red-State Democrats Veer Right On Transgender Issues, Sparking Backlash
Several are adopting more conservative rhetoric or publicly opposing transgender girls playing in girls’ sports. (Binday, 9/30)
The Washington Post: This Senate Democratic Candidate Is Making A Play For RFK Jr.’s MAHA Supporters
The Make America Healthy Again movement has been closely associated with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the Trump administration, but at least one Democrat in a closely watched Senate race is making a play for MAHA supporters. Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic candidate for Michigan’s pivotal Senate seat, on Tuesday is releasing a “Building a Healthier America” policy agenda focusing on cracking down on pesticides, changing drinking water standards and boosting access to healthy food. However, El-Sayed, a former public health official, does not share some MAHA supporters’ skepticism of vaccines, saying in an interview that he “believe[s] in vaccines.” (Roubein, 9/29)
PHARMA AND TECH
Politico: Pharma's New Top Lobbyist Is Former Majority Leader Eric Cantor
The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, one of the most powerful lobbies in Washington, has selected former Majority Leader Eric Cantor as its next president. Cantor, a Virginian who led House Republicans from 2011 to 2014, will now helm the trade group for branded drugmakers as it navigates growing scrutiny from the Trump administration and Congress over its pricing practices, as well as increasing competition from China. Cantor, who starts on Nov. 9, has served as vice chairman and managing director at Moelis & Company, an investment bank, since his defeat in a 2014 primary to a tea party-backed challenger, Dave Brat. (Chu, 9/29)
Stat: UniQure's Gene Therapy Slows Huntington's Progression After 4 Years
An experimental gene therapy for Huntington’s disease, developed by the biotech company UniQure, continued to slow the progression of the neurodegenerative disease four years after it was surgically implanted into the brains of patients, the company reported Tuesday. (Feuerstein, 9/29)
The Guardian: ‘Godzilla’ Of Weight-Loss Drugs Could Provide Other Important Health Benefits
The ‘Godzilla’ of weight-loss drugs could help improve blood sugar levels, reduce inflammation and cut a person’s body weight by a quarter, according to the largest study of its kind. Retatrutide mimics three key gut hormones that help control appetite, blood sugar and metabolism: GLP-1, GIP and glucagon. Unlike other drugs such as Wegovy, which primarily targets the GLP-1 pathway to suppress appetite, or Mounjaro, which contains GLP-1 plus GIP to control blood sugar levels, retatrutide also engages the glucagon receptor, which helps increase energy expenditure. (Gregory, 9/29)
Stat: Beam Therapeutics Alleges Chinese Biotech, VC-Backed Startup Stole IP
The gene-editing company Beam Therapeutics is alleging that one of its scientists stole intellectual property and used it to co-found a Chinese company that made a deal with VC firms. The allegation comes at a time of escalating tensions between American biotech companies and their Chinese counterparts. (DeAngelis and Mast, 9/29)
HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY
Fierce Healthcare: Elevance Health Rolls Out New Site-Of-Care Billing Policies
Elevance Health is rolling out new billing policies that aim to ensure services are paid for at the appropriate level and drive greater transparency into where patients receive care. The insurer said there is a trend that's growing more common in which services provided at an off-campus facility are still billed at higher, in-hospital rates. Under Elevance's new policies, providers will be required to identify the physical location where a service was offered, and billing information will be cross-checked with hospital addresses to confirm the correct data. (Minemyer, 9/29)
Modern Healthcare: Medicare Advantage Insurers Cut Plans, Exit More Counties In 2027
Large Medicare Advantage insurers continue to shrink their footprints, new data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reveal. The number of individual Medicare Advantage with prescription drug coverage products for sale will decline 8% to 425 in 2027, according to a Modern Healthcare analysis of CMS data released Monday. There will be 181 counties with no Medicare Advantage plans next year, up from 67 this year. The annual enrollment period runs from Oct. 15 to Dec. 7. (Tepper and Broderick, 9/29)
Modern Healthcare: Dartmouth Health Home-Based Care Initiative Receives $20M Gift
Dartmouth Health and Dartmouth College’s Geisel School of Medicine aim to create a new home-based care model with a $20 million gift. The two organizations said Tuesday they will launch Dartmouth Health at Home in January. The initiative will provide home-based primary and palliative care, create a family caregiver institute and develop best practices for in-home care. The initiative will provide health services to patients in parts of New Hampshire and Vermont, and could serve as a blueprint for other states, Lebanon, New Hampshire-based Dartmouth Health said. (Eastabrook, 9/29)
The Baltimore Sun: MyChart Back Online For Luminis Patients After Cyberattack
Luminis Health has announced that its MyChart patient portal service is back online to manage appointments, prescriptions and providers. This comes four weeks after the company reported that it had experienced a cyberattack, which took down its systems, including MyChart. The company says that the system that stores patient records was not affected. (Rothstein, 9/29)
CalMatters: CA Central Valley Medical Schools Are Years Away
California’s San Joaquin Valley needs more doctors. The roughly 250-mile region, stretching from Stockton to Bakersfield, has about 200 physicians per 10,000 residents, according to the California Healthcare Foundation. In the Bay Area, that ratio is more than twice as high. Medical schools are almost non-existent too — with not a single standalone program offering a doctorate of medicine, or M.D., in the entire region of 4.3 million people. (Echelman, 9/29)
STATE WATCH
The New York Times: X2, The Troubled California Six Flags Roller Coaster, Reaches Its End
The ride at Magic Mountain near Los Angeles has fueled lawsuits claiming that it had caused brain injuries, including two that were fatal. (Vigdor, 9/29)
ProPublica: California Regulators Did Little To Punish A Raw Milk Farm After Two Girls Got Sick
Sitting in a pediatric intensive care unit last year, watching a ventilator keep her 17-month-old daughter alive, Emily Marris scoured the contents of her phone for evidence to give to California health and food safety investigators. She had bought raw goat milk from a farm recommended to her in a Facebook group run by her chiropractor. Marris had hoped the milk, unprocessed and natural, would help with her daughter Brooklyn’s constipation. But doctors now suspected the unpasteurized milk, which hadn’t been heated to kill off pathogens, was the source of the toddler’s severe E. coli infection. (Waldman, 9/30)
The Beacon: New Moms Are Dying From Mental Health Conditions In Missouri
Missouri is working to increase maternal mental health screenings, but provider shortages and travel can keep moms from getting needed help. (Cunningham, 9/28)
The Colorado Sun: Rural Colorado Communities Getting Healthcare Upgrades With $170M In Federal Grants
Rural communities across Colorado will train and retain healthcare workers, expand mobile healthcare clinics and adopt modern electronic health record systems — among other priorities — through nearly $170 million in federal grant funds aimed at improving access to care for rural residents. (Breunlin, 9/29)
The Hechinger Report: Texas Sends Students As Young As 6 To Harsh Disciplinary Campuses
The most notable thing about Melissa’s son’s 6th birthday should have been the vacation the family took. Instead, it was the letter waiting for them when they returned home. Her child was assigned to the disciplinary campus in their school district in McKinney, Texas, for 30 days, the April 2024 letter told them, over allegations that the kindergartner had assaulted a teacher about a week prior. (Butrymowicz, 9/29)
North Carolina Health News: State Health Officials Back Mental Health First Aid Training At Colleges, Universities
When she was growing up in rural southeastern North Carolina, Alicia Freeman saw people whose mental health and substance use concerns went untreated because her area had very few resources to help them. Freeman, who’s been at UNC Chapel Hill since 2019, said watching her community members struggle is part of why she now works to help people cope with mental illness. (Crawford, 9/30)
The New York Times: University Of Michigan Halts New Grading Plan After Backlash From Critics
The program was intended to address what the university called a “mental health crisis.” But the plan was met with criticism that it was coddling students. (Rubin, 9/29)
The Washington Post: Carnegie Mellon Nets $3 Billion Gift, Most Ever Given To A University
Carnegie Mellon University will build a new campus in Miami centered on solving society’s greatest challenges, funded by a historic $3 billion gift from entrepreneur Ken Griffin. The donation, believed to be the largest ever from an individual to a university, comes at a time when higher education has been under attack on many fronts. But private donors have made some prominent gifts recently, including $1 billion from Phil and Penny Knight to the University of Oregon last week. (Svrluga, 9/30)
The Guardian: ‘It’s Just Cruel’: US Households Hit By Surge In Electricity Shutoffs Amid Record Hot Summer
A record hot summer collided unhappily with rising energy costs for households across the US that struggled to the point where many were disconnected from their electricity supply, even as dangerous heat baked their communities. In July, the hottest month ever recorded in the US, 173,598 households were shut off from their electric supply by utilities across 10 states, figures provided to the Guardian show. This snapshot of American life points to a worsening problem, with the rate of electricity disconnections surging 28% compared to July 2024. (Milman, 9/29)
LIFESTYLE AND HEALTH
Newsweek: Type 2 Diabetes Linked To Higher Cancer Rates, Study Finds
Patients diagnosed with type 2 diabetes may have a higher risk of developing cancer, a new study has suggested. The study, which looked at data over a 27-year period, was presented at the Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) in Milan, Italy, and has not yet been submitted to a medical journal for publication. (O'Connor, 9/29)
The Washington Post: The Era Of Male Birth Control May Be Nearing
For nearly a half-century, Sujoy Guha has worked to perfect a male contraceptive. Now the 86-year-old Indian doctor’s idea is gaining momentum, raising the prospect of changing the way birth control is practiced across the globe. Injecting hydrogel into the vas deferens — the tubes that carry sperm from the testicles — temporarily blocks sperm from passing through. Guha’s injectable contraceptive, known as RISUG, remains under development in India after decades of research, regulatory review and bureaucratic obstacles. But now companies in the United States are pursuing their own versions, racing to bring “vas-occlusive” contraceptives to market. (Hetherman, 9/30)
The Baltimore Sun: Psilocybin May Ease Suicidal Thoughts, Small Study Finds
People living with persistent suicidal thoughts may find relief from psilocybin paired with structured psychological support, according to a small clinical trial led by Sheppard Pratt clinicians. (Hille, 9/29)
Bloomberg: Pop-Tarts Ends BuzzBallz Tie-Up On Underage Drinking Fears
Mars Inc. is pulling its Pop-Tarts and BuzzBallz collaboration just a month into its rollout over concerns that the product could appeal to underage drinkers. The company, which also owns M&M’s and Snickers candy brands, has canceled all planned marketing of the limited-time release, according to a press release from the US Alcohol Policy Alliance. (Brown, 9/29)
GLOBAL WATCH
AP: US Blockade And Sanctions Are Causing Medication Prices To Spike In Iran
Medication prices are soaring in Iran and some treatments have become hard to find, leaving patients and their families scrambling as a U.S. blockade and stepped-up sanctions squeeze the country’s pharmaceuticals industry. Some medicines have more than tripled in price, further squeezing Iranians’ finances seven months into the country’s war with the United States and Israel. Prices for food and other goods have skyrocketed even as unemployment has risen and the currency, which hit a record low this week, has lost half its value. The war has become an economic endurance test. (Karimi and Radjy, 9/30)
The New York Times: Ukrainian Science Academy, Struck By Drone, Played Key Role In Research
The Russian attack on Ukraine’s National Academy of Sciences on Monday dealt a serious blow to the country’s pre-eminent research institution, a recent center of wartime innovation that is also responsible for almost every major Ukrainian civilian discovery of the past century. Scientists affiliated with the academy have contributed to recent discoveries in the fields of astronomy and medicine and have been instrumental in developing new military technologies, including drones and enhanced armor for vehicles. (Andrews and Novosolova, 9/29)
CIDRAP: WHO: Global Cholera Deaths Rose By 30% In 2025
Deaths from cholera rose by 30% in 2025, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today. The 7,870 cholera deaths reported to the WHO represent the highest number since 1999, the organization said. But the 451,499 cholera cases reported last year mark a 20% reduction from 2024. (Dall, 9/29)
