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  • Minnesota Lawmakers Approve Medicaid Payment for Home Births

    Published October 20, 2025
    By Bonner R. Cohen
    Publication -
    Minnesota lawmakers approved legislation requiring Medicaid to pay for home births, including paying nurses and midwives the same rate as doctors. The bill, sponsored by a state senator who gave a political speech in 2022 while in labor, was passed as part of a special session agreement with Gov. Tim Walz in June. The legislation […]

  • Trump Takes Steps to Protect Security of U.S. Drug Market

    Published October 15, 2025
    Publication -
    To ensure a “resilient domestic supply chain for essential medicines,” President Trump issued an executive order (EO) directing the Department of Health and Human Services “to develop a list of approximately 26 drugs critical to national health and security.” The August 13 EO also calls for the development of a “repository to receive and maintain […]

  • Pediatric Group Calls for Elimination of Nonmedical Vaccine Exemptions

    Published October 14, 2025
    By Ashley Bateman
    Publication -
    The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) released a report recommending a nationwide ban on nonmedical exemptions from vaccines. The report, published in the August 2025 issue of Pediatrics, argues the geographical clustering of unvaccinated children results in larger communities with “insufficient” vaccination rates for disease prevention, causing “greater likelihood of disease outbreaks.” In states where […]

  • Judge Blocks Use of Medicaid Data for Immigration Enforcement

    Published October 13, 2025
    By AnneMarie Schieber
    Publication -
    A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to stop sharing Medicaid data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). HHS began sharing Medicaid data in June 2025. On July 4, President Donald Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which stops federal funds intended for law-abiding Americans from […]

  • Expanding Medicaid Hasn’t Improved Health Care – Commentary

    Published October 10, 2025
    By John C. Goodman
    Publication -
    The media are clamoring over the Congressional Budget Office’s estimate that 16 million people will lose health insurance by 2034 because of the Trump administration’s policies—10.9 million due to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act alone. Most of the news coverage misses three important details. While it’s true that many people will lose insurance, that […]

  • Mandatory Charity Care Is Unconstitutional Taking of Property, Hospitals

    Published October 3, 2025
    Publication -
    Several hospital systems are considering an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court after the New Jersey Supreme Court rejected their claim that inadequate compensation for charity care was an unconstitutional taking of private property without just compensation. New Jersey’s charity care program prohibits hospitals from billing patients who qualify for charity care, which the state […]

  • Democrats Fight to Extend Obamacare Costly Middle-Class Subsidies – Commentary

    Published October 2, 2025
    By Devon Herrick
    Publication -
    Democrats in Congress are desperately trying to keep Obamacare on life support. The latest scare tactic is from the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), which estimates that Obamacare premiums will rise 114 percent without extending the so-called enhanced subsidies. The following is from a CNBC article: “In 2021, the American Rescue Plan Act, a pandemic relief law, temporarily […]

  • Urban Hospitals Pose as Rural for Federal Money, Study Finds

    Published October 2, 2025
    By Bonner R. Cohen
    Publication -
    A growing number of urban hospitals are reclassifying themselves as both urban and rural to reap financial benefits Congress intended for rural hospitals only, a new study has found. “In 2016, in response to two federal court decisions, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services began allowing geographically urban hospitals to be dually classified as […]

  • HHS Reinstates Child Vaccine Task Force

    Published October 1, 2025
    By Ashley Bateman,
    Publication -
    The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reinstated a federal task force on pediatric vaccine safety after a hiatus of nearly 30 years. National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Jay Bhattacharya, M.D., will chair the reinstated task force alongside senior members of the NIH, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Centers […]

  • Trump Takes Steps to Protect Security of U.S. Drug Market

    Published September 29, 2025
    By Bonner R. Cohen
    Publication -
    To ensure a “resilient domestic supply chain for essential medicines,” President Trump issued an executive order (EO) directing the Department of Health and Human Services “to develop a list of approximately 26 drugs critical to national health and security.” The August 13 EO also calls for the development of a “repository to receive and maintain […]

  • Kennedy Shakes Up CDC Leadership Over Vaccine Safety, Efficacy Proof

    Published September 29, 2025
    By Kevin Stone
    Publication -
    Major changes are underway at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) following President Trump’s and Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr.’s dismissal of director Susan Monarez and the subsequent resignations of four senior officials in protest over the removal of Monarez. Resigning were the chief medical officer and deputy director […]

  • FDA Halts, Then Resumes Gene Therapy After Three Deaths

    Published September 26, 2025
    By Kevin Stone
    Publication -
    After the deaths of three patients, the maker of an investigational gene therapy stopped shipments of the drug after it refused a request from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to pull the drug from the market. Elevidys, made by Sarepta Therapeutics, is the first gene therapy treatment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). The […]

  • Kennedy Cancels $500 million in mRNA Contracts

    Published September 25, 2025
    Publication -
    The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) is canceling $500 million of contracts to develop mRNA vaccines for flu and COVID, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced. “We reviewed the science, listened to the experts,” said Kennedy in announcing the decision. “BARDA is terminating 22 mRNA vaccine development investments […]

  • Texas Attorney General Accuses Drug Company of Kickbacks

    Published September 23, 2025
    By Kevin Stone
    Publication -
    Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a civil lawsuit against pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly, alleging the company illegally induced medical providers to prescribe some of its most profitable drugs, including high-demand GLP-1 weight-loss drugs Mounjaro and Zepbound. The suit alleges violations of the Texas Health Care Program Fraud Prevention Act. The law sets forth thirteen […]

  • Public Grows Weary of ‘Harm Reduction’ – Commentary

    Published September 22, 2025
    By Devon Herrick
    Publication -
    Blue cities are moving away from so-called harm reduction strategies in combating overdose deaths from use of hard drugs. Harm reduction aims to decrease the negative consequences of risky behavior and is a hodgepodge of different initiatives such as needle exchanges, providing safer drug paraphernalia, Narcan stockpiling, and decriminalization of drug use in a few […]

  • Alcohol Use Down, Cannabis Use Up

    Published September 19, 2025
    By Harry Painter
    Publication -
    Self-reported alcohol consumption among American adults is at its lowest in 90 years, a Gallup poll finds. The poll found 54 percent of U.S. adults reported consuming alcohol, the lowest level in Gallup’s nearly 90 years of tracking the trend. The second-lowest rate, 55 percent, was recorded in 1958. The annual Consumption Habits survey, conducted […]

  • HHS Investigates Drug History of Child Killers

    Published September 19, 2025
    By Harry Painter
    Publication -
    The Health and Human Services is investigating the possible link between drugs and mass shootings, says Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said. After the Annunciation Catholic School shooting in Minneapolis, Minnesota on August 27, Kennedy told “Fox & Friends” his department is “launching studies” into the contribution of drugs to school shootings. Kennedy was asked […]

  • Report Calls for Gender Industry Accountability

    Published September 15, 2025
    By Ashley Bateman
    Publication -
    Describing the accounts of several people who underwent gender medical treatments and later regretted it,  a new report makes a case as to why the transgender industry must be stopped and held accountable for the harms and abuses it inflicts on vulnerable individuals. The American Principles Project (APP) published the report in July because “transgenderism […]

  • Congress Aims to ‘Bust Up the PBM Monopoly’

    Published September 11, 2025
    Publication -
    Congress is considering a bill to protect patients and pharmacies from pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), middlemen who administer drug plans and negotiate prices between pharmacies and insurance providers. Eleven members introduced the bipartisan “PMB Reform Act” on July 10. The bill is now in the hands of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. PBMs […]

  • Court Decision Favoring California Telehealth Restrictions Appealed

    Published September 9, 2025
    By Bonner R. Cohen
    Publication -
    A renowned radiation oncologist trying to help a woman in California suffering from a rare bleeding disease is appealing their failed court challenge to the Golden State’s restrictions on telehealth. The plaintiff is Sean McBride, M.D., of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. The patient, Shellye Horowitz, lives in a small California coastal […]

  • U.S. Rejects WHO Health Regulations

    Published September 5, 2025
    By Bonner R. Cohen
    Publication -
    The Trump administration has formally rejected the 2024 International Health Regulations (IHR) amendments put forward by the World Health Organization (WHO). A joint statement issued by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the State Department on July 18 said the WHO regulations would give the organization to much power over the United […]

  • Research & Commentary: Federal Waiver Can Save Montana’s Medicaid Program

    Published September 4, 2025
    By S.T. Karnick
    Publication -
    Research and Commentaries -
    Fortunately, policymakers can reform Montana’s Medicaid program through a federal waiver. President Donald Trump has strongly promoted state Medicaid waivers ...

  • Research & Commentary: Federal Waiver Can Save Missouri’s Medicaid Program

    Published September 4, 2025
    By S.T. Karnick
    Publication -
    Research and Commentaries -
    Fortunately, policymakers can reform Missouri’s Medicaid program through a federal waiver. President Donald Trump has strongly promoted state Medicaid waivers ...

  • Research & Commentary: Federal Waiver Can Save Nebraska’s Medicaid Program

    Published September 3, 2025
    By S.T. Karnick
    Publication -
    Research and Commentaries -
    Fortunately, policymakers can reform Nebraska’s Medicaid program through a federal waiver. President Donald Trump has strongly promoted state Medicaid waivers ...

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