The Week in Brief: Friday, Nov. 7, 2025
Sock Hops and Concerts: How Some Places Spent Opioid Settlement Cash
Aneri Pattani
States, counties, and cities are receiving millions in opioid settlement money to address the addiction crisis. The ways they spent the dollars in 2024 sometimes drew criticism from advocates and at least one state official, who alleged misuse.
Congressional Stalemate Creates Chaos for Obamacare Shoppers
Michelle Andrews
This year, Affordable Care Act marketplace consumers will need to be more informed than ever to navigate their health coverage choices.
The State of the Affordable Care Act
Nov. 1 marked the start of open enrollment for 2026 health plans bought from Affordable Care Act marketplaces in most states. But this sign-up season is like no other in the health law’s 15-year history. It remains unclear, even at this late date, whether expanded tax credits launched during the pandemic in 2021 will be continued or allowed to expire, exposing millions of Americans to much higher out-of-pocket costs. In this special episode of “What the Health?” from KFF Health News and WAMU, host Julie Rovner interviews KFF vice president Cynthia Cox about the past, present, and possible future of the health law and how those who purchase ACA coverage should proceed during this time of uncertainty.
Farmers, Barbers, and GOP Lawmakers Grapple With the Fate of ACA Tax Credits
Amanda Seitz
Small-business owners and their employees, who make up nearly half of the Obamacare marketplace, are worried about their health care and their livelihoods as insurance prices surge. Republicans, who have long opposed Obamacare, are at odds over how to respond to upset from one of their party’s most loyal constituencies.
Wielding Obscure Budget Tools, Trump’s ‘Reaper’ Vought Sows Turmoil in Public Health
Amy Maxmen and Oona Zenda
Through shrouded bureaucratic maneuvers, White House budget director Russell Vought and DOGE have quietly upended outbreak response, HIV treatment, and dementia care in communities across America.
Louisiana Took Months To Sound Alarm After Two Babies Died in Whooping Cough Outbreak
Rosemary Westwood, WWNO
Louisiana health officials appear to have deviated from the usual steps for public health communications amid a whooping cough outbreak after it killed two infants.
Is Covid During Pregnancy Linked to Autism? What a New Study Shows, and What It Doesn’t
Céline Gounder
Massachusetts researchers examine how growth and learning are subtly shaped among children whose mothers had covid while pregnant.
Trump’s HHS Orders State Medicaid Programs To Help Find Undocumented Immigrants
Phil Galewitz
Federal health authorities have taken the "unprecedented" step of instructing states to investigate certain individuals on Medicaid to determine whether they are ineligible because of their immigration status, with five states reporting they’ve received more than 170,000 names collectively.
Immigrants With Health Conditions May Be Denied Visas Under New Trump Administration Guidance
Amanda Seitz
The Trump administration has directed visa officers to consider common health ailments, including obesity and diabetes, when would-be immigrants seek visas to enter the U.S.
Concerns Over Fairness, Access Rise as States Compete for Slice of $50B Rural Health Fund
Sarah Jane Tribble and Arielle Zionts
Amid public forums and local cries for help, states are also talking with large health systems, technology companies, and others amid intensifying competition for shares of a $50 billion fund to improve rural health.
White House Calls This 9/11-Era Fund ‘Wasteful.’ Red and Blue States Rely on It.
Don Thompson
States from California to Texas say they rely on tens of millions in federal funding to help them prepare for the next pandemic, cyberattack, or mass-casualty catastrophe. The Trump administration wants to cut it.
While Politicos Dispense Blame, These Doctors Aim To Take Shame Out of Medicine
Charlotte Huff
Clinicians and researchers are starting to embrace an effort to develop what’s known as “shame competence” in physicians to combat burnout and prevent that uncomfortable emotion from being passed along to patients.
This Health Economist Wants Your Medical Bills
Dan Weissmann
A longtime health economist sets her sights on lowering Americans’ insurance premiums.
Listen to the Latest ‘KFF Health News Minute’
The "KFF Health News Minute” brings original health care and health policy reporting from our newsroom to the airwaves each week.
Journalists Help Make Sense of Government Shutdown and Obamacare Open Enrollment
KFF Health News journalists made the rounds on national and local media recently to discuss topical stories. Here’s a collection of their appearances.