The Week in Brief: Friday, April 4, 2025
‘They Won’t Help Me’: Sickest Patients Face Insurance Denials Despite Policy Fixes
Lauren Sausser
The fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson prompted both grief and public outrage about the ways insurers deny treatment. Republicans and Democrats agree prior authorization needs fixing, but patients are growing impatient.
How Much Will That Surgery Cost? 🤷 Hospital Prices Remain Largely Unhelpful.
Daniel Chang
Health care price transparency is one of the few bipartisan issues in Washington, D.C. But much of the information that hospitals and health plans have made available to the public is not helpful to patients, and there’s no conclusive evidence yet that it’s lowering costs or increasing competition.
Montana’s Small Pharmacies Behind Bill To Corral Pharmacy Benefit Managers
Mike Dennison
A bill designed to force PBMs to pay higher fees to independent drugstores sailed through the state House, but lobbyists are marshaling their forces to kill the measure in the Senate.
Hit Hard by Opioid Crisis, Black Patients Further Hurt by Barriers to Care
Melba Newsome
The rate of overdose deaths from opioids has grown significantly among Black people. Yet, even after a nonfatal overdose, this group is half as likely to be referred to or get treatment compared with white people. Advocates and researchers cite implicit bias, insurance denials, and other systemic issues.
Montana May Start Collecting Immunization Data Again Amid US Measles Outbreak
Mara Silvers, Montana Free Press
Montana is the only state that doesn’t collect immunization reports from schools, creating a data gap for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and community health officials. With more than 480 measles cases reported in the U.S., state lawmakers are considering a bill to restart the data collection.
DOGE Job Cuts Hit Federal Workers’ Finances and Mental Health
Rachana Pradhan
President Donald Trump’s rapid downsizing of the federal government and attacks on the character of public workers have taken a toll on the mental health of some employees. That’s been felt especially in Washington, D.C., where nearly 50,000 people work for the federal government.
Immigration Crackdowns Disrupt the Caregiving Industry. Families Pay the Price.
Vanessa G. Sánchez and Daniel Chang
Families, nursing facilities, and home health agencies rely on foreign-born workers to fill health care jobs that are demanding and do not attract enough American citizens. The Trump administration’s anti-immigration policies threaten to cut a key source of labor for the industry, which was already predicting a surge in demand.
What’s Lost: Trump Whacks Tiny Agency That Works To Make the Nation’s Health Care Safer
Arthur Allen
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has helped improve health care safety in a country where thousands die of medical errors each year. It was effectively dissolved Tuesday.
Trump’s DEI Undoing Undermines Hard-Won Accommodations for Disabled People
Stephanie Armour
From halting diversity programs that benefit disabled workers to making federal staffing cuts, the Trump administration has taken a slew of actions that harm people with disabilities.
American Health Gets a Pink Slip
The Department of Health and Human Services underwent an unprecedented purge this week, as thousands of employees from the National Institutes of Health, the FDA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and other agencies were fired, placed on administrative leave, or offered transfers to far-flung Indian Health Service facilities. Altogether, the layoffs mean the federal government, in a single day, shed hundreds if not thousands of combined years of health and science expertise. Lauren Weber of The Washington Post, Rachel Cohrs Zhang of Bloomberg News, and Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss this enormous breaking story and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews KFF Health News’ Julie Appleby, who reported and wrote the latest “Bill of the Month” feature about a short-term health plan and a very expensive colonoscopy.
‘If They Cut Too Much, People Will Die’: Health Coalition Pushes GOP on Medicaid Funding
Christine Mai-Duc
As House Republicans mull a massive $880 billion cut from federal programs likely including Medicaid, constituents, disability advocates, and health care providers are joining forces to lobby GOP members in California — including those who represent rural, deeply conservative pockets that stand to lose the most.
Journalists Talk Public Health Data Under Trump, Therapists’ Discontent With Insurers
KFF Health News journalists made the rounds on national and local media this week to discuss topical stories. Here’s a collection of their appearances.
Readers Shop for Nutritional Information and Weigh Radiation and Cancer Risks
KFF Health News gives readers a chance to comment on a recent batch of stories.