What the Health? From KFF Health News

Despite public opposition to the cuts they made to federal health programs in 2025, Republicans reportedly are considering still more cuts to help pay for the war in Iran. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court ruled that Colorado cannot ban mental health professionals from using “conversion therapy” on LGBTQ+ minors.  Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Sandhya Raman of Bloomberg Law, and Jessie Hellmann o...

The Trump administration faces the challenge of naming a new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who can both satisfy the Make America Healthy Again movement and get confirmed by the Senate. Meanwhile, a new Senate bill to rescind the approval of the abortion pill mifepristone is again elevating the abortion debate, which some Republicans would prefer to stay on the back bur...

A federal judge in Massachusetts this week sided with public health groups to block changes to the federally recommended schedule of childhood vaccines, dealing at least a temporary setback to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s efforts to remake the schedule. Meanwhile, Congress has put its debate over the future of the Affordable Care Act on the back burner, but the issue...

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had another tough week. In addition to Kennedy having surgery on a torn rotator cuff, the nomination of his ally to become surgeon general is teetering in the Senate, the controversial head of the Food and Drug Administration's vaccine center is resigning next month, and a new survey shows Americans trust government health officials less th...

This month is 40 years since host Julie Rovner, chief Washington correspondent for KFF Health News, began reporting on health policy in Washington. To mark the anniversary, Rovner is joined by two longtime sources to discuss what has — and has not — changed since 1986. This week’s special guests are Chip Kahn, a former GOP House and Senate staffer and former head of the Federation of American Hosp...

Health care got barely a mention in President Donald Trump’s record-long State of the Union address this week. Ahead of the midterms, the Trump administration has presented few concrete plans to address what Americans say is the biggest problem with health care: its skyrocketing costs.  Meanwhile, Trump’s pick to become U.S. surgeon general, Casey Means, got her long-delayed nomination hearing in...

The twists and turns continue at the nation’s health agency, where this week’s announcements included notice that the Food and Drug Administration will review Moderna’s new flu vaccine after all and that a handful of top agency officials are getting new jobs. Those developments and others can be traced to a White House looking to shake things up before the midterms — and win over voters on health...

It’s been a busy week at the Food and Drug Administration, with a political appointee overruling agency scientists to reject an application for a new flu vaccine, a decision that’s reverberating through the drug industry.  Meanwhile, anti-abortion Republicans on Capitol Hill complain the agency is dragging its feet on reviewing the abortion pill mifepristone. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Li...

Congress has passed — and President Donald Trump has signed — the annual spending bill for the Department of Health and Human Services. But it’s unclear whether the administration will spend the money as Congress directed. In 2025, billions of dollars were stalled, disrupting patient care and scientific research, until federal judges ordered funding resumed.  Anna Edney of Bloomberg News, Joanne K...

The Trump administration’s immigration crackdown is not just roiling politics but also directly affecting the provision of health care, medical groups say. Meanwhile, in Washington, federal spending bills on their way to passage have been stalled by the fight over immigration enforcement funding after the shooting death of a second person in Minneapolis this month.  Maya Goldman of Axios, Alice Mi...

Lawmakers appear on the brink of passing a spending bill for the Department of Health and Human Services and a bipartisan health policy bill delayed for over a year. But the outlook is considerably bleaker for the health care outline released by President Donald Trump last week.  Sheryl Gay Stolberg of The New York Times, Paige Winfield Cunningham of The Washington Post, and Sandhya Raman of CQ Ro...

With lawmakers still mired over renewing enhanced tax credits for Affordable Care Act plans, much of Washington has turned its attention to culture war issues, including abortion and gender-affirming care.  Meanwhile, “confusion” remains the watchword at the Department of Health and Human Services as personnel and funding decisions continue to be made and unmade with little notice.  Alice Miranda...

Congress returned from its holiday break facing a familiar question: whether to extend the expanded subsidies for Affordable Care Act health plans that expired at the end of 2025.   Meanwhile, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. broke a promise to Bill Cassidy (R-La.), the chairman of Senate health committee, by overhauling the federal government’s childhood vaccine schedule...

This past year marked the 60th anniversary of Medicare and Medicaid, the twin government programs that have shaped the health care system into what it is today. In this special episode, re-aired for the holidays, KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner interviews two experts on the history, significance, and future of these perennially popular programs. First up, Medicare historian and University of North C...

A last-minute push from Democrats and four moderate Republicans will force a House vote on renewing enhanced premium tax credits for Affordable Care Act plans, but not until January. That means millions will have to choose between paying dramatically more or dropping coverage next year.  Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officially drops the federal recommendation for newbo...

December 15 is the deadline to sign up for Affordable Care Act plans that begin January 1. Congress remains at odds over letting expanded tax credits for the plans’ premiums expire, dramatically increasing the cost of insurance for millions of Americans.  Meanwhile, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. continues to remake vaccine policy to reflect ideology rather than science....

Senate Democrats were promised a vote by mid-December on extending the enhanced subsidies for the Affordable Care Act, but Republicans still can’t decide whether they want to put forward their own alternative or what that might include.  Meanwhile, both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration are roiled by debates over vaccines.  Alice Miranda Ollstein o...

Just weeks before some tax credits for Affordable Care Act premiums expire, the Trump administration floated a plan to extend the enhanced aid — but it was met with immediate GOP pushback. Meanwhile, health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says he ordered the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to revise its website to suggest childhood vaccines might be linked to autism.  Alice Miranda Olls...

Led by President Donald Trump, Republicans in Congress are solidifying their opposition to extending pandemic-era subsidies for Affordable Care Act plans and seem to be coalescing around giving money directly to consumers to spend on health care.  Meanwhile, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. continues to leave his mark on the agency, with the Centers for Disease Control and...

The record-long federal shutdown is over after a small group of Democrats agreed to a deal with most Republicans that funds the government through January — but, notably, does not extend more generous Affordable Care Act tax credits.  Plus, new details are emerging about how the Trump administration is using the Medicaid program to advance its policy goals.   Anna Edney of Bloomberg News, Shefali...

November 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 hig...

A standoff in Congress is keeping much of the federal government shut down as open enrollment begins in most states for Affordable Care Act plans. Democrats have refused to vote on spending until Republicans agree to extend more generous ACA premium tax credits, but so far there has been little negotiating — even as customers are learning what they’ll pay for coverage next year. Meanwhile, the Tru...

Two major nutrition programs — supporting low-income families, as well as young children and pregnant or breastfeeding women — are likely to exhaust their funding in November, and the furloughs and firings at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have left the agency unable to perform some of its major functions. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump’s new policy on in vitro fertilization is...

Democrats and Republicans remain stalled over funding the federal government as Republicans launch a new attack on the Affordable Care Act. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is taking advantage of the shutdown to lay off workers from programs supported mostly by Democrats.  Anna Edney of Bloomberg News, Lauren Weber of The Washington Post, and Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School o...

The government shutdown continues with no obvious end in sight, and while it theoretically should not affect entitlement programs like Medicare and Medicaid, 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, prompting a not-so-quiet reaction from anti...