The Week in Brief: Friday, Oct. 10, 2025
Senators Press Deloitte, Other Contractors on Errors in Medicaid Eligibility Systems
Rachana Pradhan and Samantha Liss
As contractors position themselves to cash in on a gush of new business managing Medicaid work requirements, a cadre of senators has launched an inquiry into the companies paid billions to build eligibility systems.
Why Democrats Are Casting the Government Shutdown as a Health Care Showdown
Amanda Seitz
Democrats are pressuring Republicans to extend billions of dollars in federal tax credits that have dramatically lowered premiums and contributed to record-low rates of uninsured Americans. It’s a chance to talk about a winning issue — and maybe regain support from working-class voters.
GOP Falsely Ties Shutdown to Democrats’ Alleged Drive To Give All Immigrants Health Care
Maria Ramirez Uribe, PolitiFact
Immigrants living in the U.S. without legal status are generally ineligible for federally funded health care programs. Democrats’ funding proposal would restore access to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act marketplace for legal immigrants who will lose access once certain provisions of the Republicans’ tax and spending law take effect.
Starting To Feel the Shutdown’s Bite
The government shutdown continues with no end in sight, and while it theoretically should not affect entitlement programs, the lapse of some related authorizations — like for Medicare telehealth programs — is leaving some doctors and patients high and dry. Meanwhile, the FDA quietly approved a new generic abortion pill. Sarah Karlin-Smith of Pink Sheet, Tami Luhby of CNN, and Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss those stories and more. Also, Rovner interviews Sarah Grusin of the National Health Law Program.
California’s Nursing Shortage Is Getting Worse. Front-Line Workers Blame Management.
Angela Hart
California’s nursing shortage is projected to worsen, and hospitals say funding cuts will only add strain. But front-line nurses blame heavy workloads, not a shortage, for driving workers away.
Trump Called Digital Equity Act ‘Racist.’ Now Internet Money for Rural Americans Is Gone.
Sarah Jane Tribble
President Donald Trump called the Digital Equity Act unconstitutional, racist, and illegal. Then the $2.75 billion program for rural and underserved communities to gain internet access disappeared.
University of California Researchers, Patients Wary of Trump Cuts Even as Some Dollars Flow Again
Christine Mai-Duc
Biomedical researchers and patients are caught in the middle as the Trump administration continues its campaign to strip grants from universities accused of bias. Courts have restored some frozen funds to California universities, but academics studying brain tumors, lung cancer, and strokes worry their grant dollars remain a bargaining chip.
Inside the High-Stakes Battle Over Vaccine Injury Compensation, Autism, and Public Trust
Céline Gounder
The evidence is unequivocal: Vaccines do not cause autism. Yet adding autism to the list of conditions covered by a federal payout program, as health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. seems inclined to do, could threaten its financial viability. Such a move also would suggest that the science is unsettled, that vaccines may be riskier than diseases, which is a fallacy.
Wary of RFK Jr., Colorado Started Revamping Its Vaccine Policies in the Spring
John Daley, Colorado Public Radio
Amid concerns that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is undermining trust in vaccines and public health science, some states are seeking new sources of scientific consensus and changing how they regulate insurance companies, prescribers, and pharmacists. Colorado has been at the front of this wave.
Cops on Ketamine? Largely Unregulated Mental Health Treatment Faces Hurdles
Katja Ridderbusch
Ketamine, long used as an anesthetic or illegal party drug, is being combined with psychotherapy to treat severe depression and post-traumatic stress — a potential tool for those with high trauma rates, like firefighters and police officers. Yet the drug’s stigma and unregulated marketplace leave first responders in uncharted territory.
Listen: Why ‘TrumpRx’ Might Not Save You Money
Julie Rovner
On the "Today, Explained" podcast, KFF Health News' Julie Rovner recaps the TrumpRx announcement and why the direct-to-consumer initiative may not save you money on prescription drugs if you have insurance through your employer or the government.
This Geriatrics Training Program Escaped the Ax. For Now.
Paula Span
The Trump administration has restored promised funds to a program that teaches people in health care how to work with aging Americans.
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