Publications

Search/Filter
  • HHS Cracks Down on Removing Organs from Patients Declared Brain Dead

    Published July 25, 2025
    Publication -
    HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy announced a move to tighten oversight of the practice of removing vital organs from neurologically impaired patients. In a July 21 news release, Kennedy announced a “major initiative” toward reforming the organ transplant system. “Our findings show that hospitals allowed the organ procurement process to begin when patients showed signs […]
  • AMA Rejects Doctor-Assisted Suicide Despite More State Approvals

    Published July 24, 2025
    Publication -
    With several states having approved physician-assisted suicide, the American Medical Association (AMA) staked out a firm position opposing the practice. Reaffirming its long-held position at the annual meeting of its House of Delegates, which took place from June 6 to 11 in Chicago, the AMA “overwhelmingly rejected” a proposed change in policy, according to the […]
  • Medicaid Cuts Would Cause Thousands of Deaths, Study Claims

    Published July 22, 2025
    Publication -
    While the U.S. Senate was debating the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine projected cuts to Medicaid could lead to 16,642 premature deaths. Researchers from Harvard Medical School and the City University of New York based their projections on an estimate from the Congressional Budget Office […]
  • Mental Health Counseling Student Exposes Sexualized Course Content

    Published July 18, 2025
    Publication -
    A graduate student in marriage and family therapy at Santa Clara University is facing difficulty graduating after she requested an alternative class assignment requiring a “comprehensive sexual autobiography” that would be uploaded online and graded. “What began as a simple accommodation request in a required course called Human Sexuality turned into a case study in […]
  • New Rule Curtails Improper ACA Enrollment to Keep Costs Down

    Published July 16, 2025
    Publication -
    In keeping with its pledge to rein in the soaring cost of health care in the United States, the Trump administration issued a new rule to clamp down on improper enrollment in Obamacare. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued “The 2025 Marketplace Integrity and Affordability Final Rule” on June 20. The rule will […]
  • Research and Commentary: New Hampshire Right to Try Legislation

    Published July 15, 2025
    Publication -
    Research and Commentaries -
    Suffering patients deserve access to investigational treatments. In New Hampshire, HB 701 would expand access to drugs, biologics, and devices that have not yet been fully approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) but could help patients who have no other options. HB 701 would release doctors and health care providers from potential lawsuits, prosecution, or regulatory action for giving such treatments with the informed consent of the patient or guardian.
  • Investigation Heats Up After Biden Revealed Late Stage Prostate Cancer

    Published July 14, 2025
    Publication -
    The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has expanded its investigation of the cover-up of former President Joe Biden’s health, prostate cancer, and mental decline. On June 4, Chairman James Comer subpoenaed five former senior White House aides to appear for transcribed interviews in addition to Biden’s physician, Kevin O’Connor, M.D. In May, Biden […]
  • Trump Administration Pressures Insurers to Streamline Prior Authorization

    Published July 11, 2025
    Publication -
    The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has secured a pledge from insurers to streamline the companies’ practice of requiring prior authorizations before covering a claim. “Americans shouldn’t have to negotiate with their insurer to get the care they need,” said HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in a June 23, 2025, news release. “Pitting patients […]
  • Supreme Court Decision Allows Task Force to Mandate HIV Prevention Drugs

    Published July 10, 2025
    Publication -
    The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the legality of a provision in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) requiring insurers to cover preventative care services without cost sharing, including services that employers may find objectionable. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force determines what services should be covered. The plaintiffs in Kennedy, Sec. of H&HS v. Braidwood Management […]
  • ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ Will Test Value of Medicaid, ACA

    Published July 10, 2025
    Publication -
    Congress and President Donald Trump moved to cut the exploding costs of government-sponsored health-care programs, as part of the $3.4 trillion One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) budget package Trump signed into law on Independence Day. Ballooning enrollment in Medicaid and subsidized Affordable Care Act (ACA) plans has put increasing pressure on the federal budget. […]
  • Health Savings Account Expansion Survives in ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’

    Published July 7, 2025
    Publication -
    After nearly a month of debate, the U.S. Senate sent its version of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) to the U.S. House for final passage, in time to land on President Donald Trump’s desk by July 4. The House version of the budget reconciliation bill passed on May 22 included provisions to expand […]
  • Health Coverage Is Not the Only Measure of Success – Commentary

    Published July 7, 2025
    Publication -
    In evaluating the success of Obamacare in general and Medicaid expansion in particular, reporters and commentators have tended to focus on a single measure: health coverage, the increase in the number of people with health insurance. At the same time, in evaluating the health consequences of the House Republican reconciliation measure, almost all the focus […]
  • Kennedy’s CDC Vaccine Committee Meets for First Time

    Published July 3, 2025
    Publication -
    The new vaccine committee appointed by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took minimal action in its first meeting. The seven members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) met on June 25 and 26 at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. The committee […]
  • FDA to Ban Sales of Prescription Fluoride

    Published July 2, 2025
    Publication -
    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will remove “ingestible fluoride prescription drug products” or supplements for children from the market effective October 2025 after completing a safety review, the agency announced in a press release on May 13. The FDA says these products were never approved by the agency. “Ingested fluoride has been shown […]
  • MAHA Commission Report: Sickest Generation in History

    Published July 1, 2025
    Publication -
    The first report by a presidential panel commissioned to “Make America Healthy Again (MAHA)” raises concerns about the rising rate of childhood disease, suggests possible causes, and recommends a 10-step strategy “to close critical research gaps” to guide efforts to solve the problem. The 71-page “Make Our Children Healthy Again Assessment,” released on May 22, […]
  • Supreme Court Affirms State Authority on Medicaid Providers

    Published June 27, 2025
    Publication -
    South Carolina has the constitutional authority to block a provider from its Medicaid program without being vulnerable to lawsuits from recipients, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in late June. Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic weighed in on whether Medicaid enrollees have a right to sue the state government if they believe their right to […]
  • Grace-Marie Turner, Leading Force for Free Market Health Care, R.I.P.

    Published June 25, 2025
    Publication -
    A nationally respected voice for “individuals, not bureaucracies” in health care, Grace-Marie Turner never lost her belief that health reform was within the nation’s grasp as long as advocates stayed unified and persistent. Turner, aged 77, died on May 29, 2025, from brain cancer, according to the organization,  CURE Policy. Turner was the founder and […]
  • How Operation Warp Speed Helped Create RFK, Jr. – Commentary

    Published June 20, 2025
    Publication -
    Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) since mid-February. Despite being new to the job, Kennedy has made more statements to provoke public outrage than any HHS secretary in history. One example is when Kennedy once stated the measles vaccine (usually part of the combination measles-mumps-rubella […]
  • Medicaid Is Not a Test Lab for Foreign Price Controls – Commentary

    Published June 17, 2025
    Publication -
    In a desperate bid to claim fiscal discipline without touching entitlements, President Donald Trump is pushing congressional Republicans to adopt a “most favored nation” (MFN) drug pricing model for Medicaid. This policy would tie Medicaid reimbursements to the lowest prices paid in other developed countries—countries where government officials dictate drug prices under threat of coercion, […]
  • Fauci’s Fortune Doubled While He Led COVID-19 Policy

    Published June 16, 2025
    Publication -
    Anthony Fauci, the retired director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), doubled his fortune from $7.6 million to more than $15 million from January 2019 and the end of 2023, the watchdog group Open the Books reports. Fauci earned $3.5 million in his first year of retirement in 2023 alone. In […]
  • Why Are Lower-Cost Biosimilars So Hard for Patients to Get?

    Published June 11, 2025
    Publication -
    The House Ways and Means Committee heard testimony on hindrances to the expansion of use of biosimilars, medications close in structure and function to a patented biologic medicine. Witnesses at the April 8 hearing told legislators biosimilars save patients and taxpayers money, that pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) middlemen often raise prices or limit availability for […]
  • Pfizer’s COVID-19 Shot Linked to More Deaths Than Moderna’s, Study Finds

    Published June 9, 2025
    Publication -
    Recipients of the Pfizer mRNA vaccine experienced more all-cause deaths within the first 100 days post-vaccination than those who received the Moderna shot, a new study of 1.47 million people found. Although all-cause mortality for either shot should have been the same, 230 more people per 100,000 who got the Pfizer jab died within the […]
  • Best Way to End Medicaid Waste: Give Enrollees Cash – Commentary

    Published June 5, 2025
    Publication -
    In their paper titled “Leveraging the Medicaid Expansion,” David Hyman and Charles Silver write, “We propose that rather than adhering to Medicaid’s traditional structure, where states pay providers at unreasonably low rates for treating beneficiaries, expansion projects should be modeled on Social Security and the Earned Income Tax Credit, both of which distribute money that […]
  • ‘Designer Babies’ through IVF Raise Critics’ Ethical Concerns

    Published June 4, 2025
    Publication -
    Genetic screening technology now allows parents employing in vitro fertilization (IVF) to select for certain traits, allowing them to avoid passing on diseases or undesirable traits to their children. Orchid, a genetic screening company that bills itself as “the world’s most advanced whole genome screening for embryos during IVF,” allows parents essentially to customize children, […]

Heartland Newsletters

The Heartland Institute offers free email subscriptions to all of its newsletters and monthly public policy newspapers.