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KFF HEALTH NEWS ORIGINAL STORIES

���ϳԹ��� News: New Federal Medicaid Rules Require One Month Of Work. Some States Demand More
Millions of people who apply for Medicaid in the coming years will have to prove they’ve been working, going to school, or volunteering for at least a month before they can gain or retain health insurance through the government program. But Republican lawmakers in some states think the new rules — part of the GOP’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed last July by President Donald Trump — don’t go far enough. (Liss, 4/16)

���ϳԹ��� News: As US Birth Rate Falls, Feds’ Response May Make Pregnancy More Dangerous
The number of babies born in the United States fell again last year. According to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 3.6 million births in 2025, a 1% decline from 2024. The fertility rate dropped to 53.1 births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44, down 23% since 2007. (Gounder, 4/16)

RFK JR. AND MAHA

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is set for a marathon of congressional hearings starting Thursday, where lawmakers will have the opportunity to grill him for the first time in over seven months. Since then, Kennedy overhauled the childhood vaccine schedule to recommend fewer shots, a move which alarmed medical experts and has been blocked by a federal judge. His health department has undergone a major leadership shake-up. And Kennedy has leaned into his messaging around food and nutrition as GOP pollsters warn of the political risks of vaccine skepticism ahead of the midterms. (Roubein and Weber, 4/16)

The progressive health care advocacy group Protect Our Care is releasing a highly critical review of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s first 14 months in office ahead of a marathon series of hearings he will have in the House and Senate this month to defend President Trump’s budget request. In the report titled “Robert F. Kennedy Jr. vs. Public Health,” shown first to The Hill, Protect Our Care highlights the secretary’s actions on vaccines, medical research, food as well as his apparent aims of mobilizing his “Make America Healthy Again” base as a key voting block ahead of the midterms. (Choi, 4/15)

The Food and Drug Administration will convene an outside panel of advisers to discuss whether to allow compounding pharmacies to manufacture certain peptides, the agency announced on Wednesday. The meetings will take place July 23 and 24. Another will be held before the end of February 2027. (Lawrence and Todd, 4/15)

A new poll from a progressive polling firm shows support for the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement is narrow and highly vulnerable, and that support drops significantly when voters learn about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s actions in office and his policies. The poll, conducted by Data for Progress and RFK Jr Watch, a project of 314 Action, comes from a national sample of 2,350 likely voters. While many say they support the movement’s goals, only one in six actually identify with the movement. Roughly 30% of those polled outright reject it. Half of Republicans (50%) and 40% of swing district voters said they support many tenets of MAHA but do not identify with the movement. (Soucheray, 4/15)

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz revealed on Monday that President Trump has an unusual defense for his diet soda habit, joking that the president often says the beverage “kills cancer cells.” “Your dad argues that diet soda is good for him because it kills grass. It’s poured on grass, so therefore must kill cancer cells inside the body,” Oz told Donald Trump Jr. on “Triggered,” the president’s son’s podcast. (Brams, 4/15)

MORE FROM CAPITOL HILL

​Key senators are already dismissing a renewed attempt by the White House to cap medical research overhead costs, well before they start drafting fiscal 2027 spending bills. (Cohen, 4/15)

MORE ON THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION

The Trump administration is bringing on a new official to focus on health care affordability, the Department of Health and Human Services tells Axios. The personnel move suggests the administration is attempting to respond to voters' concerns about health care costs ahead of the midterm elections. (Owens, 4/16)

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is proposing to repeal a pathway that currently allows breakthrough devices to qualify for supplementary payments without proving they provide a substantial clinical improvement over alternatives. (Palmer, 4/15)

When Senait Kifle visited her brother at California’s largest Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility on April 6, she screamed at the sight of him — he was barely recognizable. In the three weeks since her last visit, he’d deteriorated to the point where he needed a wheelchair, she said. His eyes were jaundiced, his legs were swollen, his face was so bloated that his chin looked “connected to his chest,” she said, and he told her he hadn’t been able to pee in some time. (Lyn Cheang, 4/15)

REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH

Applying chlorhexidine, a simple antiseptic, to the umbilical cord likely lowers the risk of cord infection in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), according to a recent review published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. The practice may also reduce neonatal deaths in these settings. The umbilical cord, which connects the fetus to the placenta during pregnancy, is composed of blood vessels and connective tissue. When the umbilical cord is clamped and cut after birth, it leaves behind a temporary stump that can be an entry point for harmful bacteria and other germs. (Bergeson, 4/15)

VACCINES AND OUTBREAKS

The Florida governor added two new agenda items to the session: legislation aimed at protecting minors from artificial intelligence and a “medical freedom” bill that would provide a new way for students to opt out of certain vaccines. DeSantis asked lawmakers to return for up to four days, from April 28 until May 1. (Mazzei and Salhotra, 4/15)

It took just 48 hours for Ben Lopman’s 18-month-old son to go from being an energetic toddler to totally listless. Lopman’s son Ruben was suffering from severe dehydration from rotavirus, one of the most common causes of diarrhea and vomiting in babies and children. He was so sick, he ended up in the hospital, desperately needing intravenous fluids to keep up his strength to battle the infection. (Dunn, 4/15)

San Francisco health officials on Wednesday reported the first case of measles in the city since 2019, in an unvaccinated infant who was infected during a recent international trip. The infant, who is less than 1 year old, was exposed while traveling and became infectious after returning, according to the San Francisco Public Health Department, which confirmed the case on Monday. The infant is recovering at home, and other members of the household have been vaccinated. (Ho, 4/15)

Yesterday Utah officials said the state has 602 measles cases in an outbreak that is ongoing and began last year, with 19 new infections. And though cases have been slightly declining in recent weeks, several preschools and elementary schools are now sites of recent exposures. (Soucheray, 4/15)

A highly sensitive molecular test for tuberculosis (TB) detected Mycobacterium tuberculosis DNA in a surprising proportion of hospitalized patients, raising questions about undetected forms of the disease, according to a study published yesterday in Nature Communications. (Bergeson, 4/15)

Despite the wide availability of tetanus vaccines, US cases of the life-threatening disease continue to occur among people of all ages, especially those who are unvaccinated or undervaccinated, but at low levels, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) researchers report. The study, published today in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, was based on case data from the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System from 2009 to 2023. (Van Beusekom, 4/15)

Weekly visits to emergency rooms for tick bites are at the highest level since at least 2017, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). During the most recent week, 71 per 100,000 ER visits were due to tick bites, compared to the average of about 30 per 100,000 ER visits for this time of year, more than double from what is typical this time of year. Currently, the Northeast is reporting the most ER visits for tick bites, followed by the Midwest, Southeast, West and South Central regions, respectively, CDC data shows. (Kekatos and Benadjaoud, 4/15)

HEALTH CARE COSTS AND COVERAGE

Baylor Scott & White Health Plan is quitting Medicaid and the health insurance exchange, the company announced Tuesday. The insurance division of the Dallas-based health system Baylor Scott & White Health notified members and Texas regulators it would leave the Medicaid managed care program on Aug. 31 and shut down its individual exchange operations at the end of the year. (Tong, 4/15)

Colorado Access President and CEO Annie Lee knows it’s a strange time to enter the health insurance exchanges. The expiration of enhanced subsidies combined with unexpectedly high medical costs and uncertainty over how President Donald Trump’s administration will reshape the Affordable Care Act of 2010 marketplaces hasn’t exactly attracted insurers, she said. CVS Health subsidiary Aetna notably exited the market last year, for example. “Things have become more volatile. There’s not a financial draw,” Lee said. (Tepper, 4/15)

Gov. Ned Lamont has got a sweet deal for Connecticut small businesses struggling to provide health insurance coverage to their employees. (Golvala, 4/15)

For Dr. Joseph Cacchione, the math on GLP-1 drugs stopped making sense. The CEO of the Philadelphia-based nonprofit hospital system Jefferson said his organization now spends more on prescription drug coverage — fueled by the soaring use of weight loss medications like Wegovy and Zepbound — than it does on inpatient care. (Lovelace Jr., Herzberg and Thompson, 4/16)

HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY

The union for thousands of University of California employees announced Wednesday that they will walk off the job indefinitely beginning May 14 to protest stalled contract negotiations for medical center and campus workers ranging from cafeteria cooks to X-ray technicians. The open-ended strike by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299 is intended to pressure UC to improve pay and benefits for 42,000 union members at five medical centers and 10 campuses across California. (Asimov, 4/15)

After abruptly shuttering last month, West Suburban Medical Center announced Wednesday morning that it is taking a step toward reopening by resuming some outpatient services. (Schencker, 4/15)

Hospital merger and acquisition activity has ramped up as health systems brace for financial pressure from shifting federal policies. Health systems proposed 22 hospital mergers and acquisitions in the first quarter, up from five in the first quarter of 2025 and nearing pre-pandemic levels of deal activity, according to data from consultancy Kaufman Hall. Executives have inked more merger and acquisition agreements this year following a historically slow 2025, and advisers expect the momentum to continue for the rest of the year. (Kacik, 4/15)

PHARMACEUTICALS

Since the approval of new Alzheimer’s drugs in recent years, there has been a lingering question: While data indicated that they could modestly slow cognitive decline for some patients, would that effect be meaningful or too slight to make difference? A new review of research spanning a decade, published on Wednesday, concluded that the clinical benefit of these and similar drugs is negligible. But the way the review was conducted spurred heated criticism from many Alzheimer’s experts, including some who had been skeptical of some of them. (Belluck, 4/15)

Doctors and patients across social media are reporting a kind of emotional flattening while on GLP-1 drugs. (Cha, 4/16)

MENTAL HEALTH

The American Medical Group Association announced a deal with Talkiatry under which its member organizations can connect patients to the company’s virtual mental health providers. Patients of AMGA members will have access to Talkiatry’s network of more than 800 psychiatrists whose services are covered by more than 100 insurers, the organizations said Wednesday. Long wait times for behavioral care, high demand for services and a shortage of psychiatrists in the healthcare workforce were driving forces behind the partnership, AMGA and Talkiatry said. (DeSilva, 4/15)

After spending six months examining the state’s involuntary commitment process, a special North Carolina House committee released a list of recommendations on Tuesday aimed at improving the state’s intertwined mental health and criminal justice systems. (Crumpler and Knopf, 4/16)

Roblox, a gaming platform popular with kids, will implement increased protections for young users and pay more than $12 million to the state of Nevada in what state Attorney General Aaron Ford on Wednesday called a first-of-its-kind agreement. “This settlement will create a safer environment for our children online, and I hope that it will serve as a bellwether for how online interactive platforms allow our state’s youth to use their products,” the Democratic attorney general said Wednesday. (Hill, 4/15)

A bill to bar state colleges and universities from curbing gun rights on their campuses drew a crowd to Concord Tuesday. Most came to fight the bill, including the president of University of New Hampshire, students from several state colleges, and multiple members of law enforcement. (Rogers, 4/14)

Months before his arrest for allegedly attempting to murder the chief executive of OpenAI, Daniel Moreno-Gama suggested “Luigi’ing some tech CEOs” in an internet chat. The Texas college student casually referenced Luigi Mangione, the accused UnitedHealthcare CEO killer, during an online conversation with producers of “The Last Invention” podcast, according to screenshots shared with The Wall Street Journal. They wanted to interview him for a series on artificial intelligence. (Elinson, 4/15)

STATE WATCH

The list of food items you can buy with SNAP in Florida is shrinking. Starting on April 20, "soda, energy drinks, candy, and ultra-processed shelf-stable prepared desserts will no longer be available for purchase with SNAP benefits in Florida," according to the state agency administering the program. (Paul, 4/16)

Arizona’s largest utility has agreed not to cut off electrical service to customers for nonpayment while forecasted high temperatures are 95 degrees Fahrenheit (35 degrees Celsius) or above as part of a $7 million settlement of a lawsuit prompted in part by the 2024 death of an 82-year-old woman whose power was disconnected, Attorney General Kris Mayes said Wednesday. (4/16)

Maria Olivo started serving as her mom's interpreter when she was about five or six years old, whether they were at a bank or a doctor's office. They lived in Rifle, Colo., a desert town of about 10,000 people, where roughly 36% of people speak Spanish at home. Olivo often felt the weight of that responsibility and worried she would get something wrong. "I'm pretty sure that a lot of it I messed up," Olivo said last month at Grand River Health, Rifle's 57-bed hospital. "I wasn't sure half of the time, right? I was just a kid." (Zander, 4/16)

This week, the City of Baltimore's public water system cut fluoride levels in its drinking water nearly in half. Baltimore City isn't alone. U.S. water systems are facing a shortage of hydrofluorosilicic acid, a chemical used to fluoridate drinking water to prevent cavities and tooth decay. The specialized chemical is mainly sourced from a small pool of international producers. And the conflict in the Middle East is disrupting the supply chain. Managers of U.S. water systems say the shortage in fluoridation chemicals is unprecedented. (Huang, 4/15)

LIFESTYLE AND HEALTH

E-bikes and e-scooters led to a growing number of trauma injuries at one New York City hospital, according to a new study published Wednesday. About 7% of all trauma visits between 2018 and 2023 at Bellevue Hospital Center were due to micromobility injuries. Micromobility is the use of small, lightweight and low-speed modes of transportation such as bicycles, e-bikes and e-scooters. The study showed a growing share of patients who sustained these injuries had accidents linked to e-bikes or e-scooters. (Cobern and Benadjaoud, 4/15)

Move more. Sit less. For many years, that’s been accepted guidance for people wanting to get healthier. Now that message is getting refined, with a growing body of research suggesting that certain types of movements may be more beneficial than others when it comes to health benefits. (Hetter, 4/15)