The Week in Brief: Friday, May 16, 2025
After Promising Universal Health Care, California Governor Must Reconsider Immigrant Coverage
Angela Hart and Christine Mai-Duc
Gov. Gavin Newsom was elected to office in 2019 on a promise of universal health care. He dramatically expanded coverage, but after six years, the Democrat is forced to contemplate deep cuts — including to the nation’s largest health care expansion to immigrants living in the U.S. without legal permission.
Newsom’s Pitch as He Seeks To Pare Down Immigrant Health Care: ‘We Have To Adjust’
Christine Mai-Duc and Vanessa G. Sánchez
Gov. Gavin Newsom said that he’s proud his state expanded health care to all low-income residents regardless of immigration status but that tough budget times call for some adjustments. The Democrat’s new budget proposes scaling back benefits to adults living in the country illegally, as well as charging them a $100 monthly premium.
The GOP’s Trying Again To Cut Medicaid. It’s Only Gotten Harder Since 2017.
Phil Galewitz
Donald Trump is back in the White House, the GOP controls Congress, and Republicans have dusted off their 2017 plans to reshape Medicaid, the government health program for those with low incomes or disabilities.
Medicaid Payments Barely Keep Hospital Mental Health Units Afloat. Federal Cuts Could Sink Them.
Tony Leys
Patients seeking mental health care are more likely to be on Medicaid than patients in more profitable areas of care, such as cancer or cardiac treatment.
Pharmacists Stockpile Most Common Drugs on Chance of Targeted Trump Tariffs
Jackie Fortiér and Arthur Allen
While Big Pharma seems ready to weather the tariff storm, independent pharmacists and makers of generic drugs — which account for 90% of U.S. prescriptions — see trouble ahead for patients.
In Bustling NYC Federal Building, HHS Offices Are Eerily Quiet
Michelle Andrews and Eliza Fawcett, Healthbeat
Public health experts and advocates say that Health and Human Services regional offices, like the one in New York City, form the connective tissue between the federal government and locally based services.
A Health Policy Veteran Puts 2025 in Perspective
Dan Weissmann
Two stories from Washington, D.C., give listeners a sense of what changes the Trump administration has been making to health policy, with KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner and Arthur Allen.
Trump’s Fast-Tracked Deal for a Copper Mine Heightens Existential Fight for Apache
Melissa Bailey
Apache tribal members are already feeling psychological and spiritual harm as the Trump administration moves to fast-track a deal to turn their sacred land of Oak Flat, Arizona, into a copper mine.
Mental Health and Substance Misuse Treatment Is Increasingly a Video Chat or Phone Call Away
Phillip Reese and Oona Zenda
More Californians are getting mental health or substance use disorder treatment online or over the phone than in person, according to a KFF Health News analysis of UCLA’s latest California Health Interview Survey. But the telehealth experience isn’t always positive.
GOP Tries To Cut Billions in Health Benefits
GOP-controlled House committees approved parts of President Donald Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill” this week, including more than $700 billion in cuts to health programs over the next decade — mostly from Medicaid, which covers people with low incomes or disabilities. Meanwhile, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testified before Congress for the first time since taking office and told lawmakers that Americans shouldn’t take medical advice from him. Julie Appleby of KFF Health News, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, and Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico Magazine join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more.
Even Where Abortion Is Still Legal, Many Brick-and-Mortar Clinics Are Closing
Kate Wells, Michigan Public
Some clinics that provide abortions are closing, even in states where voters have passed some of the nation's broadest abortion protections. It’s happening in places like New York, Illinois, and Michigan, as reproductive health care faces new financial pressures.
Pain Clinic CEO Faced 20 Years for Making Patients ‘Human Pin Cushions.’ He Got 18 Months.
Brett Kelman
Michael Kestner, CEO of Pain MD, was convicted of 13 fraud felonies after his company gave patients hundreds of thousands of questionable injections at clinics in Tennessee, Virginia, and North Carolina.
Prisons Routinely Ignore Guidelines on Dying Inmates’ End-of-Life Choices
Renuka Rayasam
Correctional officers often dictate end-of-life care for incarcerated people who are terminally ill. Most states either don’t have a formal policy or are given leeway — a big concern for families and advocates, as the incarcerated population rapidly ages.
Listen: Black Swimmers Make Waves Overcoming Fear and Old Perceptions
Cara Anthony
Segregation and lack of access have kept many Black Americans from learning to swim, which raises their risk of drowning. Groups across the country are working to teach more Black kids and adults the skills to save their lives, or someone else’s.
Journalists Zero In on Medicaid Threats and Social Security Hiccups
KFF Health News journalists made the rounds on national or local media recently to discuss topical stories. Here’s a collection of their appearances.
Readers Scrutinize Federal Cuts and Medical Debt
KFF Health News gives readers a chance to comment on a recent batch of stories.
Californians Receiving In-Home Care Fear Medicaid Cuts Will Spell End to Independent Living
Ronnie Cohen
Bay Area senior Carol Crooks doesn’t know where congressional Republicans will land on Medicaid cuts as they look to fund a tax bill, but her health has already deteriorated as she worries about losing the help she needs to remain in her Oakland apartment — and out of a nursing home.