Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Wildfire Fighters Who Develop Cancer Eligible For One-Time $450,000 Payout
The New York Times: U.S. Will Pay $450,000 To Wildfire Fighters With Cancer
The federal government has known for years that wildfire fighters, who spend weeks at a time in poisonous smoke, can develop deadly cancers from the exposure. Now, they will be eligible for a payment of nearly $450,000 and college tuition for their family if they die or become debilitated from a smoke-related cancer, under a law signed by President Trump on Thursday. (Dreier, 12/19)
More news from the Trump administration —
The New York Times: Trump’s ‘Warrior Dividend’ for Troops Will Be Paid for by Pentagon Housing Funds
A “warrior dividend” bonus check that President Trump announced on Wednesday would go to more than 1.4 million active-duty service members by the end of the year is being funded by money Congress allocated earlier this year for military housing stipends, officials said on Thursday. (Ismay and Watkins, 12/18)
Los Angeles Times: ‘I Am Afraid That I Might Die Here’: ICE Detainee Fears ‘Imminent Death’ Without Lifesaving Care, Lawyers Say
A man held at California’s newest and largest immigration detention center could face “imminent death,” attorneys argued in an emergency motion filed late Tuesday, asking a federal judge to order ICE to immediately provide lifesaving medical care to him and another detainee. (Mejia, 12/17)
NBC News: How A Top-Tier Surrogacy Agency Became An FBI Target
The FBI is investigating a prominent surrogacy agency that shuttered abruptly earlier this month, leaving desperate parents-to-be out of tens of thousands of dollars and surrogates missing payments as their pregnancies progressed. The agency’s owner, Megan Hall-Greenberg, 49, effectively disappeared — she deleted her social media accounts, and clients and employees say she hasn’t replied to their messages since Dec. 3. (Abou-Sabe, Chaidez, Kreutz and Blankstein, 12/18)
KFF Health News: States Advance Medical Debt Protections As Federal Support Turns To Opposition
Lawmakers in several states are working to expand medical debt protections for patients, even after the Trump administration reversed course and told states they don’t have authority to take action on credit reporting. In Alaska and Michigan, legislators are nonetheless advancing bills to keep medical debt off consumer credit reports. (Bichell, 12/19)
On funding and research cuts —
The New York Times: Trump Administration To Appeal Harvard Funding Case
The Trump administration said late Thursday that it would appeal a ruling that sided with Harvard University in its fight with the government over free speech and billions of dollars in research funding. The government began blocking grant payments to Harvard on research projects in the spring, but restarted them soon after the Sept. 3 decision by Judge Allison D. Burroughs of the Federal District Court in Boston. On Thursday, the Justice Department, carrying out a pledge from the White House, said in a terse filing that it would pursue an appeal of that ruling before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. (Blinder, 12/19)
Stat: NIH Grant Policy Hurt Funding Chances For Early-Career Scientists
A Trump administration change to how the National Institutes of Health awards grants has reduced early-stage investigators’ odds of securing funding, new data from the agency show. During the 2025 fiscal year, 18.5% of early-stage researchers who applied for grants equivalent to an R01, the agency’s most common type of award, were successful. That’s an 11 percentage point drop compared to the 2023 fiscal year, when the success rate for such applications was 29.8%. (Oza and Wosen, 12/18)
