<![CDATA[Paging America]]>https://www.pagingamerica.orghttps://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!XS9s!,w_256,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F234c04d0-6f42-4621-b46c-e62d2de22ce4_1200x1200.pngPaging Americahttps://www.pagingamerica.orgSubstackTue, 05 May 2026 09:34:13 GMT<![CDATA[5th Circuit Bans Mifepristone by Telehealth]]>https://www.pagingamerica.org/p/5th-circuit-bans-mifepristone-byhttps://www.pagingamerica.org/p/5th-circuit-bans-mifepristone-bySat, 02 May 2026 00:54:23 GMT
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]]><![CDATA[Episode #53 Deep Dive – MAHA Got Played and Big Tobacco Got a Promotion]]>https://www.pagingamerica.org/p/episode-53-deep-dive-maha-got-playedhttps://www.pagingamerica.org/p/episode-53-deep-dive-maha-got-playedFri, 01 May 2026 16:02:56 GMT››› RFK Jr. vs. Sen. Bill Cassidy

Louisiana Senator and physician Bill Cassidy faced off with RFK Jr. at two different Senate committee hearings last week. And, while he has been hard on Kennedy about his actions on vaccines in the past, this time, he seemed to go easy on him. “I am a doctor who has seen people die from vaccine-preventable diseases,” he said to Kennedy. “And when I see outbreaks numbering in the thousands and people dying once more from vaccine-preventable diseases, particularly children, it seems more than tragic.” He also challenged Kennedy on two papers he cited in his testimony and, as is typical with him, had mischaracterized the results. But, rather than challenging him for the damage he has done, he asked about other things like preparations for the upcoming World Cup and America 250 events.

Cassidy did, however, go after Kennedy on abortion pills, a new tack for him. “Why has the department not acted with greater urgency on reinstating the in-person dispensing requirement?” Cassidy asked him. He followed up by asking why he has failed to “stop the illegal importation of counterfeit and unapproved abortion drugs.”

Cassidy may have pulled his punches on vaccines because he is in a difficult primary this year and may not want to seem at odds with Trump, who has endorsed his primary challenger, Rep. Julia Letlow. MAHA PAC has vowed to support Letlow with $1 million in donations. Going after abortion pills in the conservative south may be less politically risky for Cassidy than fighting for vaccines.

››› A former Big Tobacco exec is now a CDC deputy director

In another typically Trumpian move, a vacant deputy director position at the CDC is being filled with an industry insider:

Via STAT:

Stephen Sayle, named in March as the CDC’s deputy director for legislative affairs, previously worked at Fontem Ventures, a subsidiary of the British multinational tobacco corporation Imperial Brands. Between 2017 and 2018, he was U.S. vice president of corporate affairs at Fontem, which is focused on non-combustible tobacco products like the e-cigarette brand blu and the oral nicotine pouch brand Zone.

From a public health perspective, appointing a former tobacco executive to a high-level role at the CDC is “unprecedented,” Timothy McAfee, who headed the Office of Smoking and Health at the CDC from 2010 to 2017, wrote in an editorial published this week in the journal Tobacco Control. McAfee told STAT that Sayle’s appointment is also “completely inconsistent” with health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s previous pledges to “shut the revolving door” between industry and government.

McAfee went on to say that Sayle’s appointment at CDC is “opening a door that has been closed for decades, and letting the fox into the henhouse with open arms.”

››› Big corporations swoop in to profit from $50B Rural Health Fund

KFF Health News reports that small community health care providers may find they are sharing the $50 billion from the Rural Health Transformation Program, part of last summer’s Big Beautiful Bill and billionaire tax giveaway, with an army of corporate giants:

Science Applications International Corp., a Fortune 500 government contractor, pulled together the Alliance for Advancing Rural Healthcare. SAIC does a variety of technology work such as cybersecurity and engineering support. The alliance also includes Walgreens and Mission Mobile Medical, which turns RVs into primary care clinics. [...]

Gainwell Technologies, which operates the systems for dozens of state Medicaid programs, is spearheading another coalition…Maine’s Medicaid plan contracts with Gainwell, and the state’s initial application listed four contracts worth more than $16 million over five years for the company. [...]

James Lomastro, a senior-care advocate in rural Massachusetts with the nonprofit Dignity Alliance, said he worries that large vendors and health systems will get the state’s transformation dollars.

››› Trump is coming after your birth control

In an op-ed in The New York TImes titled, “The Trump Administration Is Coming After Birth Control Access in a Terrifying New Way” Jill Filipovic writes about Trump’s plans to completely change the focus of Title X, the first federal program entirely dedicated to family planning and reproductive health care. The program was originally designed to help poor families stay out of poverty by giving them choices when it comes to family planning. The Trump administration’s approach is perverting that mission:

[Title X] would go on to become one of the most successful federal programs of the last century, with one study finding it prevented some 20 million unintended pregnancies in just 20 of its 50 years by providing women with free and low-cost birth control. It has significantly reduced child poverty. In 1957, nearly one in 10 teenage girls gave birth. Today, the rate is closer to one in 100. For every dollar spent on family planning funds, the government saves $7 in Medicaid costs.

But President Trump seems intent on killing Title X. This month, the Department of Health and Human Services quietly issued new funding guidelines that have effectively subverted the program’s entire purpose. Instead of getting highly effective contraception methods to the country’s poorest women so that they may decide if and when to have children, Title X under Mr. Trump seems aimed at getting more women pregnant, whether they want to be or not. [...]

More than half of patients at Title X clinics use modern contraceptive methods to prevent pregnancy. But the word “contraception” comes up just once in the Title X funding document, and only in a section on “reducing overmedicalization in health care.” Instead, in a change pulled directly from Project 2025, H.H.S. tells Title X clinics to emphasize “fertility-awareness-based methods.

Filipovic goes on to say that the move appears to be part of Trump’s coalition management strategy by appealing to three very different groups: the anti-abortion movement; the MAHA movement, and pronatalists who want to see birthrates rise at nearly any cost.

One pronatalist appears to be Katie Miller, podcasting wife of White House goon Stephen Miller who lamented falling teen birthrates in a tweet. “Our biological destiny is to have babies — not slave behind desks chasing careers while our civilization dies,” she wrote.

››› MAHA is cooling on Trump and the GOP, also running out of money

The New York Times has yet another article saying the MAHA movement not particularly enamored with Trump and Republicans:

Six of the [MAHA] movement’s most prominent leaders, who together have millions of social media followers, said in separate interviews that the mostly white, mostly female voters who followed Mr. Kennedy into Mr. Trump’s camp are so disappointed with the president that Republicans risk losing them. [...]

“They have nowhere to go,” said [conservative young wellness podcaster Alex] Clark, who works for Turning Point U.S.A., the right-wing organization founded by Charlie Kirk. “They feel like their vote is useless. They have lost the energy. They have lost the enthusiasm. They feel like the Democrats don’t care about them. They feel like the Republicans lied to them, and they’re not planning on voting.”

This reporting comes as the US Supreme Court heard a case this week surrounding the pesticide glyphosate (aka “Roundup”) that could limit Americans’ ability to sue pesticide companies, something that would send MAHA adherents over the edge.

The news gets worse: The Trump and RFK Jr.-aligned PACs pushing the so-called “MAHA” agenda are in financial trouble. POLITICO reports that they aren’t raising much money and much of what they did raise is actually from Big Pharma, the industry they are most at odds with:

The MAHA PAC reported only three donations so far in 2026 — two $50,000 contributions from Venni Capital, a little-known New York investment firm whose address links to the headquarters of Chartwell Pharmaceuticals, a generic drug manufacturer and compounding pharmacy that has secured hundreds of millions in contracts with the federal government. [...]

Six of MAHA PAC’s largest donors last year came from entities with interests in biopharma, including OPS International, which sells weight-loss drugs and other wellness products that haven’t received government approval under the name Olympia Pharmaceuticals; biotech firms owned by Lou Reese, a Kennedy ally; and LucyRx, a small pharmacy benefit manager that negotiates drug prices for insurers.

Links for a deeper dive on Episode #53

WATCH EPISODE 53 HERE

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]]><![CDATA[MAHA Got Played and Big Tobacco Got a Promotion]]>https://www.pagingamerica.org/p/maha-got-played-and-big-tobacco-gothttps://www.pagingamerica.org/p/maha-got-played-and-big-tobacco-gotThu, 30 Apr 2026 16:30:40 GMTThis week, Miles and Dr. Rob cover a week of troubling health care news: Senator Bill Cassidy goes soft on RFK Jr. at Senate hearings as he faces a tough Senate primary, a former tobacco executive lands a CDC deputy director role, and the $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Fund is shaping up to be a corporate cash grab that leaves small rural clinics behind.

They also unpack the Trump administration’s quiet rewrite of Title X, steering the country’s flagship family planning program away from contraception toward pro-natalist goals lifted straight from Project 2025, and close on a silver lining as the MAHA movement sours on Trump, with major influencers saying their followers feel lied to, even as the MAHA PAC is revealed to be funded largely by Big Pharma.

Background reading:

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Have thoughts, questions, or your own health care story? Email us at feedback@pagingamerica.org.

]]><![CDATA[April 29, 2026 – The Week in Health Care News]]>https://www.pagingamerica.org/p/april-29-2026-the-week-in-healthhttps://www.pagingamerica.org/p/april-29-2026-the-week-in-healthWed, 29 Apr 2026 16:02:31 GMT

Reproductive Rights/Attacks on Medication Abortion

The case arrived at the appeals court in June 2024, after U.S. District Court Judge Catherine Eagles struck down parts of the North Carolina law restricting mifepristone, including a requirement that only physicians could prescribe the pill.

Both supporters and opponents of North Carolina’s abortion restrictions said in 2024 that Eagles had erred in blocking some, but not all, of the provisions of Senate Bill 20 concerning mifepristone.

President Trump seems intent on killing Title X. This month, the Department of Health and Human Services quietly issued new funding guidelines that have effectively subverted the program’s entire purpose. Instead of getting highly effective contraception methods to the country’s poorest women so that they may decide if and when to have children, Title X under Mr. Trump seems aimed at getting more women pregnant, whether they want to be or not.

  • In late March, EXPOSED by CMD published an excellent overview of efforts around the country to criminalize ALL abortions by so-called “abortion abolitionists" titled, “Abortion Abolitionists Play the Long Game”.

Trump Administration News

  • A couple of weeks ago, we reported that the CDC was delaying the release of a study showing benefits of COVID-19 vaccines beyond preventing the disease. Now we learn they are cancelling its release entirely:

The report showed that the vaccine reduced emergency department visits and hospitalizations among healthy adults by about half this past winter.

The move, which has not been previously reported, has raised concerns among current and former officials that information about the vaccine’s benefits is being downplayed because they conflict with the views of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has been an outspoken critic of the shots.

Six of the [MAHA] movement’s most prominent leaders, who together have millions of social media followers, said in separate interviews that the mostly white, mostly female voters who followed Mr. Kennedy into Mr. Trump’s camp are so disappointed with the president that Republicans risk losing them. [...]

“They have nowhere to go,” said Ms. Clark, who works for Turning Point U.S.A., the right-wing organization founded by Charlie Kirk. “They feel like their vote is useless. They have lost the energy. They have lost the enthusiasm. They feel like the Democrats don’t care about them. They feel like the Republicans lied to them, and they’re not planning on voting.”

RFK Jr. on Capitol Hill

RFK Jr. continued with his tour of Capitol Hill last week. Here are some “highlights”:

Kennedy responded that he had never said anything about the vitamin K shot.

“That’s exactly the point,” Schrier said. “You don’t say anything about it. But the doubt you’ve created about all of medicine and science is causing parents to make dangerous decisions.”

  • Sen. Elizabeth Warren pressed him on TrumpRx, pointing out that a number of drugs offered on the president’s website are actually more expensive than the generic versions. “If you’re buying a drug on TrumpRX, there is a more than one in four chance that Trump’s discount is actually a price hike,” she said, saying it steers patients to more expensive drugs “that are going to pad Big Pharma’s profits.”

  • Rep. Raul Ruiz asked Kennedy about Trump’s CDC director nominee, Dr. Erica Schwartz. “If Dr. Schwartz is confirmed, will you commit on the record today to implement whatever vaccine guidance she issues without interference?” “I’m not going to make that kind of commitment,” he answered, but flip-flopped a day later.

  • Throughout his appearances, Kennedy repeatedly denied he had anything at all to do with rising measles and flu infections. “The measles outbreak is not an American phenomenon. It is global. It’s happening all over the world. And we’ve done better under my leadership than any country in the world in limiting it,” he said. MedPage Today and AP point out that this is decidedly not true.

  • Kennedy also:

  • He oddly defended Trump’s dummy math:

“If you have a $600 drug, and you reduce it to $10, that’s a 600 percent reduction,” Mr. Kennedy said during a congressional hearing.

Mr. Kennedy is mathematically incorrect. A price reduction from $600 to $10 would be a discount of more than 98 percent. A price discount cannot be more than 100 percent, because that would lower the price to zero — or suggest that the company was giving you money for buying the product.

Other Health Care News

  • Some good news for Prescription Drug Affordability Boards in two states:

Legislators in two states have resisted efforts to restrict prescription drug affordability boards…

In Virginia, the General Assembly unanimously rejected a move by Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) to delay a key provision of two bills that would create a board and allow it to place price caps that mirror the negotiated prices paid by Medicare. Spanberger must now either accept or veto the legislation…

In Colorado, the House Health and Human Services Committee postponed consideration of a bill that would exempt orphan drugs, which are used to treat rare diseases, from pricing caps that might be pursued by the state board…[T]he bill is effectively dead.

  • New polling shows that nearly 70% of people agree that Congress should act to ensure affordable health care, even if that means regulating health care companies.

  • A commitment to streamline prior authorization requirements and reduce administrative burdens for providers has been signed by about 50 companies, including UnitedHealthcare, Aetna and Cigna.

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]]><![CDATA[Episode #52 Deep Dive – Misinterpreting Vaccine Data = More Clicks, Fewer Jabs]]>https://www.pagingamerica.org/p/episode-52-deep-dive-misinterpretinghttps://www.pagingamerica.org/p/episode-52-deep-dive-misinterpretingFri, 24 Apr 2026 16:03:32 GMT››› Medical groups call for release of physician detained by DHS

Dr. Rubeliz Bolivar, an emergency medicine resident at South Texas Health System in McAllen, Texas and a Venezuelan citizen, was detained by DHS on her way to an asylum interview. The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) and Emergency Medicine Residents’ Association (EMRA) are calling for her release.

Via MedPage Today:

In a statement, the organizations said they were deeply concerned about [her] detention [...]

Bolivar…holds a valid work permit and has lived in the U.S. for a decade, the organizations said. However, she was detained by DHS while traveling with her 5-year-old daughter, who is a U.S. citizen, to a previously scheduled asylum interview.

“Dr. Bolivar followed our laws, obtained valid work authorization, and dedicated herself to caring for patients in one of the most underserved regions in the country,” ACEP president L. Anthony Cirillo, MD, said in the statement. “Detaining physicians who are here legally and serving communities in need of vital emergency care is not targeted enforcement. It is a threat to the health of the American people, and it must stop.” [...]

In late February, AMA President John Whyte, MD, sent a letter to the Secretaries of State and Homeland Security, urging an exemption from the policy for physicians. More than 20 medical organizations…did the same earlier this month, noting that the policy is “forcing physicians to abandon residency programs and leaving already strained communities without access to care.”

››› Abortion is on the ballot again, this time in a Georgia supreme court race

Following the lopsided loss of the anti-abortion supreme court candidate in Wisconsin earlier this month, all eyes are on Georgia where abortion rights are playing a central role in the supreme court race there, as well. Two anti-abortion incumbents are being challenged by liberal candidates who support abortion rights.

From reporting by News From the States:

This week, three major organizations announced support for candidates in this year’s contested races. Incumbent Justice Charlie Bethel is being challenged by Miracle Rankin, a personal injury attorney and former president of the Georgia Association of Black Women Attorneys, and former Democratic state Sen. Jen Jordan is challenging incumbent Justice Sarah Warren. [...]

On Wednesday, Reproductive Freedom for All, a nonprofit organization that opposes abortion restrictions, announced its endorsement of Jordan and Rankin. On Thursday, Planned Parenthood Votes pledged to pour $750,000 into an ad campaign supporting the two candidates and casting the incumbent justices as “politicians in robes.”

Bethel and Warren were among the six justices who issued a ruling to reinstate Georgia’s six-week abortion ban in 2024.

All of the current members of the nine-member state supreme court are conservatives or conservative-leaning.

››› The GOP’s rural hospital bailout fund is failing

If you need proof that the Republicans’ rural hospital bailout fund isn’t helping save rural hospitals, just take a look at Nebraska. KFF reports that a rural dialysis unit there is closing despite the state receiving over $200 million from the $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program last summer following the passage of the GOP’s Big, Beautiful Bill and millionaire tax giveaway:

For the past 3½ years, three days a week, [Mark] Pieper has made an early-morning commute to get dialysis at the nearest hospital. [His appointment in…February…] was one of his last dialysis sessions there before the hospital shuttered the service at the end of March.

“I guess I’ll just bloat up and die in a month,” Pieper remembered thinking when he learned the center was closing, eliminating the only option near his home.

He needs dialysis to survive after cancer treatment damaged his kidneys. [...]

The closure is just one example of the long decline of health care services in rural America, where people have higher rates of many chronic conditions but less access to care than elsewhere. [...]

[T]he closure was announced as Nebraska officials celebrated the $219 million the state will receive in first-year funding from the Rural Health Transformation Program.

But the five-year program is aimed at exploring new, creative ways to improve rural health, not to help existing services stay afloat. States can use only up to 15% of their funding to pay providers for patient care.

››› CDC buries report showing added benefits of COVID-19 shots

The Washington Post is reporting that the CDC has decided not to publish a new report that shows COVID-19 shots helped keep people from being hospitalized:

A report showing the efficacy of the covid-19 vaccine that was previously delayed by the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been blocked from being published in the agency’s flagship scientific journal, according to three people familiar with the decision who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. The report showed that the vaccine reduced emergency department visits and hospitalizations among healthy adults by about half this past winter.

The move, which has not been previously reported, has raised concerns among current and former officials that information about the vaccine’s benefits is being downplayed because they conflict with the views of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has been an outspoken critic of the shots. [...]

The report had been scheduled for publication March 19 in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

An HHS spokesperson said that CDC head Jay Bhattacharya had problems with the “the observational method used in the study to calculate vaccine effectiveness.”

››› RFK Jr. undercut game-changing mRNA vaccines

Last August, RFK Jr. canceled a half billion dollars in funding for mRNA vaccines used to combat a wide array of diseases. In his press release, Kennedy said, “We reviewed the science, listened to the experts, and acted…terminating 22 mRNA vaccine development investments.”

In response, infectious disease physician Dr. Jake Scott wrote in an op-ed in STAT:

When Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. terminated $500 million in federal funding for mRNA vaccine research last week, claiming he had “reviewed the science,” his press release linked to a 181-page document as justification.

I reviewed Kennedy’s “evidence.” It doesn’t support ending mRNA vaccine development. It makes the case for expanding it.

The document isn’t a government analysis or systematic review. It’s a bibliography assembled by outside authors that, according to its own title page, “originated with contributions to TOXIC SHOT: Facing the Dangers of the COVID ‘Vaccines’” with a foreword by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.). The lead compiler is a dentist, not an immunologist, virologist, or vaccine expert.

Then, in February, Kennedy’s FDA rejected Moderna’s application for its mRNA-based flu vaccine.

The implications of this came into clear view this week when a new study generated headlines like:

In addition, Pfizer researchers announced that an experimental six-strain Lyme vaccine had demonstrated more than 70% efficacy in preventing Lyme disease in people aged five years and older.

››› RFK Jr. goes to Capitol Hill

RFK Jr. has seven Congressional hearings over seven days, concluding this week. At his first hearing before the House Appropriations Committee last week, Kennedy didn’t mention vaccines in his opening statement, apparently complying with a recently revealed internal White House memo directing staff to avoid the topic.

He definitely seems to have changed his messaging about vaccines.

Via The New York Times:

In a sharp break with his past rhetoric, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. offered a qualified embrace of the measles vaccine on Thursday, as President Trump named a new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention whose views on vaccination are more conventional than Mr. Kennedy’s.

In back-to-back hearings on Capitol Hill, Mr. Kennedy testified that the measles vaccine is safe and effective “for most people” and agreed it was safer than getting measles.

His turnabout didn’t stop him from getting questions about vaccines, however, as MedPage Today reports:

During the Ways and Means Committee hearing to address the Trump administration’s fiscal year 2027 budget, which calls for a 12% cut to HHS, Rep. Linda Sánchez (D-Calif.) pointed to the rapid rise in measles cases in the U.S. under Kennedy. [...]

Sánchez noted that fewer than 300 cases in 2024 under the Biden administration “ballooned” to more than 2,000 cases in 2025. [...]

“The anti-vaccine rhetoric you ran on and the anti-vaccine actions you have taken over the last year clearly correlate with the dramatic increases in preventable diseases,” Sánchez said. “As a mother, this horrifies me.”

Friday, he faced further grilling on a wide array of topics, including vaccines, before the House Education and Workforce Committee. Asked about Trump’s mental state, Kennedy responded, “There hasn’t been a president who is more sane.”

During his House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing, Kennedy was asked about Trump’s nominee to head up the CDC, Dr. Erica Schwartz. “If Dr. Schwartz is confirmed, will you commit on the record today to implement whatever vaccine guidance she issues without interference?” Representative Raul Ruiz, Democrat of California, asked. Kennedy answered, “I’m not going to make that kind of commitment.”

On Wednesday, testifying before the Senate HELP Committee, Senator Tim Kaine referenced the rural hospital closures that are happening across the country. “If these closures in rural Virginia are happening even before the Medicaid changes get implemented, we’re going to see a lot more of them.” When Kennedy defended the administration, saying they aren’t responsible for closures happening now, Sen. Kaine pointed out that three of the hospitals closing in rural Virginia cited the reconciliation bill for the closures.

Senator Elizabeth Warren challenged him on how TrumpRx is not actually lowering prescription drug costs.

Watch part of that exchange HERE.

Throughout his appearances, Kennedy repeatedly denied he had anything at all to do with rising measles and flu infections, claiming the US is doing better than any other country in the world.

Links for a deeper dive on Episode #52

WATCH EPISODE 52 HERE

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]]><![CDATA[Misinterpreting Vaccine Data = More Clicks, Fewer Jabs]]>https://www.pagingamerica.org/p/misinterpreting-vaccine-data-morehttps://www.pagingamerica.org/p/misinterpreting-vaccine-data-moreThu, 23 Apr 2026 17:34:37 GMTDr. Rob and Dr. Kristin Lyerly break down major developments shaping the current health care and political landscape, including new threats to environmental health in the Boundary Waters, the detention of a physician serving an underserved community, and high-stakes judicial races in Georgia where abortion rights are once again on the ballot. They also examine early fallout from the GOP’s health care agenda and raise concerns about political interference in public health—highlighting suppressed CDC data on COVID-19 vaccines and cuts to mRNA research.

In the second half, Dr. Rob sits down with pediatrician and public health expert Dr. David Higgins to unpack a viral POLITICO poll claiming Americans are increasingly skeptical of vaccines. Higgins breaks down why the data is being misinterpreted, what it actually reveals about public trust, and how misinformation spreads through media and social networks.

Background reading:

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Subscribe, share, and leave a rating to help more people find Paging America.

Have thoughts, questions, or your own health care story? Email us at feedback@pagingamerica.org.

]]><![CDATA[April 22, 2026 – The Week in Health Care News]]>https://www.pagingamerica.org/p/april-22-2026-the-week-in-healthhttps://www.pagingamerica.org/p/april-22-2026-the-week-in-healthWed, 22 Apr 2026 16:03:12 GMT

Reproductive Rights/Attacks on Medication Abortion

“This administration’s attempt to co-opt environmental policy to wage a shadow war on reproductive rights is an egregious abuse of power,” wrote Wyden in a letter shared first with POLITICO and E&E News. The move is a “coordinated, politically motivated attempt to restrict women’s freedom under the guise of ‘drinking water safety,’” he added.

A Pennsylvania court on Monday said that the state’s constitution guarantees a right to abortion while striking down a decades-long law banning the use of state Medicaid funds to cover abortion costs.

A controversial rule enacted last year that denies federal Medicaid funding to abortion providers is likely to expire this summer, despite anti-abortion pressure on Republicans to renew it.

Leaders in Congress in recent days have insisted that a new federal spending bill needs to be as stripped down as possible and focused on funding related to immigration enforcement amid a two-month partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security. They also have suggested the rule could still be revisited in future legislation, but likely not before the current budget measure expires on July 4.

South Carolina Republicans advanced legislation this week that would ban abortion for rape and incest victims, force women to carry nonviable pregnancies to term, and imprison abortion patients. Happy Friday!

The bill comes from Sen. Richard Cash, who tried and failed last year to advance a bill that would punish patients as murderers—which in South Carolina could mean the death penalty. Apparently, SB 1095 is his version of a “compromise”—legislation that would ‘only’ charge abortion patients with a misdemeanor: jail for a few years, rather than a lifetime.

  • In Indiana, a unique “religious freedom” argument – that pregnant women should be allowed to get abortions if their religion essentially compels it – is headed to the state Supreme Court:

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit included five anonymous Indiana women and the Hoosier Jews for Choice group. They claimed that their “sincere religious beliefs… (could) direct them to seek pregnancy termination procedures that would have been deemed illegal under the law,” according to the opinion. The class action included all individuals who would have been affected, as their religious beliefs would have been in direct conflict with the ban.

Trump Administration News

The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) and Emergency Medicine Residents’ Association (EMRA) are calling for the release of a South Texas doctor who was detained by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

In a statement, the organizations said they were deeply concerned about the detention of Rubeliz Bolivar, MD, an emergency medicine resident at South Texas Health System in McAllen, Texas, and an ACEP member.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly said his deals with drugmakers would bring down prescription drug prices in the U.S. But a report released by Senate Democrats finds prices have continued to climb — in some cases, sharply.

The report…found that companies that signed drug pricing deals with Trump have raised the cost of hundreds of medications and launched new ones at an average price of $353,000 a year.

RFK Jr. at Capitol Hill

In a sharp break with his past rhetoric, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. offered a qualified embrace of the measles vaccine on Thursday, as President Trump named a new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention whose views on vaccination are more conventional than Mr. Kennedy’s.

In back-to-back hearings on Capitol Hill, Mr. Kennedy testified that the measles vaccine is safe and effective “for most people” and agreed it was safer than getting measles.

During the Ways and Means Committee hearing to address the Trump administration’s fiscal year 2027 budget, which calls for a 12% cut to HHS, Rep. Linda Sánchez (D-Calif.) pointed to the rapid rise in measles cases in the U.S. under Kennedy. [...]

Sánchez noted that fewer than 300 cases in 2024 under the Biden administration “ballooned” to more than 2,000 cases in 2025. [...]

“The anti-vaccine rhetoric you ran on and the anti-vaccine actions you have taken over the last year clearly correlate with the dramatic increases in preventable diseases,” Sánchez said. “As a mother, this horrifies me.”

  • Kennedy blamed the drop in measles vaccination rates after COVID on mismanagement by the Biden administration.

  • More from The Hill: RFK Jr. grilled over vaccines, MAHA in back-to-back hearings: Key takeaways

  • Last Friday, he faced further grilling on a wide array of topics, including vaccines, before the House Education and Workforce Committee. Asked about Trump’s mental state, Kennedy responded, “There hasn’t been a president who is more sane.”

  • Tuesday this week, Kennedy appeared before the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the Senate Appropriations Committee and today, he’ll appear before the Senate Finance Committee and the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

Other Health Care News

[D]oes this poll support the idea that RFK Jr.’s views are now commonplace and vaccine skepticism is widespread?

Absolutely not.

A careful reading of the poll data tells a different story.

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]]><![CDATA[Episode #51 Deep Dive – Yet Another Health Care Election...]]>https://www.pagingamerica.org/p/episode-51-deep-dive-yet-anotherhttps://www.pagingamerica.org/p/episode-51-deep-dive-yet-anotherFri, 17 Apr 2026 16:03:05 GMT››› Trump wants us to see him as Lord and Savior Jesus Christ

Trump posted an AI-generated image of himself looking an awful lot like Jesus Christ healing a sick person while eagles, military angels and fighter jets, and fireworks fill the sky, and a vet, a soldier, a nurse, and others look on reverently.

He posted the image shortly after posting a vicious screed against Pope Leo XIV, calling the pontiff “terrible for Foreign Policy” and “WEAK on crime.” The attack on the pope appeared to be in response to his Palm Sunday homily at the end of March where he said, “Jesus is the King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war. He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them.”

The moves drew immediate criticism from around the globe and Trump later deleted it. When confronted about it by a reporter who asked him if he posted the depiction, Trump claimed he thought it showed him as a Red Cross doctor. You can watch that exchange HERE.

Afterwards, JD Vance jumped in to popesplain the pope, saying he thinks “it’s very, very important for the pope to be careful when he talks about matters of theology.” Republican Leader Mike Johnson jumped in to say that he was “taken a little bit aback” by the pope’s remarks.

Pope Leo responded by saying he has “no fear of the Trump administration.”

››› Callie Means says his sister “is one of the smartest and most eloquent doctors in the country”

Last week, RFK Jr. adviser Callie Means, brother of health influencer Casey Means, Trump’s choice for Surgeon General, denied that his sister’s nomination is under threat during an interview with The Hill’s News Nation show:

Senior White House adviser Calley Means said Thursday that “conversations are ongoing” amid doubts over whether his sister, surgeon general nominee Casey Means, has enough votes in the Senate for confirmation.

Calley Means was asked during an appearance on NewsNation’s “The Hill” whether the White House still expected Casey Means to be the next surgeon general after President Trump recently indicated he was open to withdrawing her nomination.

“We do expect it here at the White House,” he told host Blake Burman. “Casey is one of the smartest and most eloquent doctors in the country, and at this moment, we don’t need a doctor who is a defender of the status quo.”

As a reminder, Casey Means does not hold a licence to practice medicine and never completed her residency.

››› The Trump administration now wants federal workers’ medical records

Via KFF:

The Trump administration is quietly seeking unprecedented access to medical records for millions of federal workers and retirees, and their families.

A brief notice from the Office of Personnel Management could dramatically change which personally identifiable medical information the agency obtains, giving it the power to see prescriptions employees had filled or what treatment they sought from doctors. The regulation would require 65 insurance companies that cover more than 8 million Americans — including federal workers, retired members of Congress, mail carriers, and their immediate family members — to provide monthly reports to OPM with identifiable health data on their members.

The proposal is prompting unease from insurers as well as health policy and legal experts, who are concerned about the legality of OPM acquiring such a sweeping database of sensitive health information, and the agency’s ability to safeguard it.

OPM could use the data to analyze costs and improve the system, said Sharona Hoffman, a health law ethicist at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio.

“But,” she said, “they are going to get very, very detailed and granular data about everything that happens. The concern here is the more information they have, they could use it to discipline or target people who are not cooperating politically.”

››› Trump’s proposed 2027 budget would further eviscerate HHS

Trump’s recently-released 2027 budget cuts over 10% from NIH and over 12% from HHS as a whole. POLITICO reports that it’s likely dead on arrival in Congress and probably isn’t even supported by the agency head tasked to defend it:

White House budget director Russ Vought isn’t done trying to cut the National Institutes of Health’s funding, but Congress isn’t taking him seriously anymore.

Vought released a proposal last week to slash the 2027 budget for the world’s largest funder of health research by 10 percent, down from 40 percent last year. It’s unlikely Congress or the agency’s head will listen to him.

Lawmakers rejected Vought’s first big cut in the spending bill they passed in February and already promised to reject the smaller one this year. [...]

The health research agency’s director, Jay Bhattacharya, is expected to defend the budget to Congress, but it’s unclear whether he stands behind cuts to his agency any more than Congress does. While other agencies, like the State Department, defied Congress and implemented Vought’s cost-cutting vision by not spending their budgets last year, Bhattacharya spent every dollar Congress gave him.

››› A new poll shows using cuts to health care to pay for the war in Iran is wildly unpopular

An April 9th Navigator poll shows that 70% of voters, including 68% of Independents and Non-MAGA Republicans and 46% of MAGA voters, oppose Congress cutting health care to provide $200 billion in funding for the war:

Perhaps the most shocking thing about the poll is that there are still 46% of Trump supporters who would cut health care to pay for a war they supposedly never wanted when they voted for him in 2024.

Links for a deeper dive on Episode #51

WATCH EPISODE 51 HERE

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]]><![CDATA[Yet Another Health Care Election...]]>https://www.pagingamerica.org/p/yet-another-health-care-electionhttps://www.pagingamerica.org/p/yet-another-health-care-electionThu, 16 Apr 2026 18:01:13 GMTMiles and Dr. Rob break down major developments shaping the current health care and political landscapes, including a landslide Wisconsin Supreme Court race, new polling showing strong opposition toward cutting health care to fund foreign conflicts, and the Trump administration’s push to access federal workers’ medical data. They also discuss the stalled Surgeon General nomination of Casey Means and proposed cuts to NIH funding, highlighting growing tensions within the administration.

In the second half, Dr. Rob sits down with Conexión Co-Founder and Creative Director, Colin Rogero, to unpack what’s happening on the ground in key battleground districts. Rogero shares insights from frontline races, explaining why health care consistently ranks among the top issues for voters, and how campaigns can better message around cost, access, and trust. He also dives into Latino voter dynamics, the impact of misinformation, and why authentic, community-based communication may be the key to winning elections in 2026.

Background reading:

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]]><![CDATA[April 15, 2026 – The Week in Health Care News]]>https://www.pagingamerica.org/p/april-15-2026-the-week-in-healthhttps://www.pagingamerica.org/p/april-15-2026-the-week-in-healthWed, 15 Apr 2026 16:03:03 GMT

Top News Stories

  • On April 7, Wisconsin Judge Chris Taylor defeated her conservative opponent for state Supreme Court by more than a 20-point margin, widening the liberal majority to 5-2 and solidifying it until 2030. The race was called less than an hour after polls closed. This victory by Judge Taylor, who was formerly a law and policy director for Planned Parenthood, increases the likelihood that reproductive rights will be protected when challenged in the state’s highest court.

  • The CDC is delaying a report showing benefits of COVID-19 vaccines beyond preventing the disease:

The acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has delayed publication of a CDC report showing the covid-19 vaccine cut the likelihood of emergency department visits and hospitalizations for healthy adults last winter by about half, according to two scientists familiar with the decision. The scientists spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

The move has raised concerns among current and former officials that information about the vaccine’s benefits are being downplayed because they conflict with the views of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has been an outspoken critic of the shots.

Reproductive Rights/Attacks on Medication Abortion

Trump Administration News

The Trump administration is quietly seeking unprecedented access to medical records for millions of federal workers and retirees, and their families.

A brief notice from the Office of Personnel Management could dramatically change which personally identifiable medical information the agency obtains, giving it the power to see prescriptions employees had filled or what treatment they sought from doctors. The regulation would require 65 insurance companies that cover more than 8 million Americans — including federal workers, retired members of Congress, mail carriers, and their immediate family members — to provide monthly reports to OPM with identifiable health data on their members. [...]

The agency’s notice asks insurers that offer Federal Employees Health Benefits or Postal Service Health Benefits plans to furnish “service use and cost data,” including “medical claims, pharmacy claims, encounter data, and provider data.” It says the data will “ensure they provide competitive, quality, and affordable plans.”

  • The move affects over 8 million people.

  • Trump’s recently-released 2027 budget cuts over 10% from NIH and over 12% from HHS as a whole. POLITICO reports that it’s likely dead on arrival in Congress and probably isn’t even supported by the agency head tasked to defend it:

White House budget director Russ Vought isn’t done trying to cut the National Institutes of Health’s funding, but Congress isn’t taking him seriously anymore.

Vought released a proposal last week to slash the 2027 budget for the world’s largest funder of health research by 10 percent, down from 40 percent last year. It’s unlikely Congress or the agency’s head will listen to him.

Lawmakers rejected Vought’s first big cut in the spending bill they passed in February and already promised to reject the smaller one this year. [...]

The health research agency’s director, Jay Bhattacharya, is expected to defend the budget to Congress, but it’s unclear whether he stands behind cuts to his agency any more than Congress does. While other agencies, like the State Department, defied Congress and implemented Vought’s cost-cutting vision by not spending their budgets last year, Bhattacharya spent every dollar Congress gave him.

  • These cuts to HHS, along with last summer’s “Big, Beautiful Bill”, and current plans to jam another reconciliation bill (Big, Beautiful Bill Part 2) through by June 1 (potentially using cuts to health care to pay for the war and DHS funding) mean health care continues to be under severe threat. Hospitals, in particular, are extremely worried.

  • As you would expect, using cuts to health care to pay for war is wildly unpopular:

Infectious disease experts warned that the renewed charter for the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) could become a revolving door for the return of vaccine-skeptical members. [...]

The updated charter “is another alarming action by Secretary Kennedy that will further dismantle U.S. vaccine infrastructure, spread misinformation and confusion about vaccines, and lead to reduced vaccine uptake by an already confused and distrustful public,” said Ronald Nahass, MD, the president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, in a statement.

President Trump and his health leaders have repeatedly directed their ire toward health insurance companies, painting them as fat cats that need to be reined in.

But almost every major decision Trump officials have made since reclaiming the White House has benefitted insurers and their bottom lines. The most recent action — finalizing higher payments to Medicare Advantage plans in 2027 — will funnel an extra $13 billion toward the industry while abandoning a reform that would have led to more accurate, and lower, payments.

As bombs rain down on innocents in the Middle East, gas prices skyrocket, and data centers displace poor communities across the land, at least Americans can take solace in the fact that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is starting a podcast.

The Health and Human Services secretary…announced his new podcast Wednesday with a 90-second video on his government X account.

“Many of us have come to the conclusion that the government actually lies to us,” Kennedy says in the video, presumably forgetting the fact that he works for the government. “This podcast is about telling the truth, especially when it’s uncomfortable.”

  • A new survey by POLITICO shows that RFK Jr. has done what some thought impossible: He convinced Republicans to demand more federal oversight of corporations (so long as they are food and drug corporations.)

  • A FOX News regular, biotech executive and ophthalmologist Houman Hemmati, is being considered for a top vaccine position at the FDA to replace Vinay Prasad.

Other Health Care News

The effort reflects concerns that patients may lose access to these drugs if pharmaceutical companies halt sales of such treatments in the state. But opponents argue exemptions would unnecessarily extend to numerous big-selling medicines for common conditions that — thanks to regulatory endorsements — also happen to have an orphan designation.

  • The arguments made by Big Pharma ignore the fact that the legislature created a process to give patients even more input into how the PDAB determines which medications to review after their last attempt to scuttle the effort to reduce Rx prices. This bill would prevent the PDAB from reviewing the cost of hundreds of commonly-prescribed medications. These drugs don’t work if people can’t afford them, and all patients, including people living with rare diseases, deserve affordable medication.

  • Yet another study shows acetaminophen does not cause autism.

  • The Center for American Progress has created a “Patients’ Bill of Rights To Lower Health Care Costs”. It has four distinct proposals:

    • Limit excessive premium increases, decreasing average premiums by $415 for individuals in 14 states and by $1,156 for family employer coverage in 11 states.

    • Lower deductibles by reducing outlier hospital prices, cutting average employer deductibles in half in concentrated markets, and lowering average family premiums for employer coverage by $1,308 per year by 2032.

    • Prevent price gouging by health insurance companies, reducing average premiums by up to $132 per enrollee per year for a total of about $6 billion per year.

    • Ban and replace prior authorization.

  • 139 children have died from influenza in the 2025-2026 season, ~85% of whom were not fully vaccinated.

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]]><![CDATA[Episode #50 Deep Dive – Michigan’s Plan to Stop Corporate Money in Politics]]>https://www.pagingamerica.org/p/episode-50-deep-dive-michigans-planhttps://www.pagingamerica.org/p/episode-50-deep-dive-michigans-planFri, 10 Apr 2026 16:02:14 GMT››› Republicans are considering cutting health care to pay for the Iran War

AXIOS broke the news this week that some Republicans think there’s enough waste, fraud, and abuse left in the health care system to pay for Trump’s war in Iran:

Republicans are considering reductions in federal health spending to help pay for a budget bill containing as much as $200 billion to fund the Iran war and immigration enforcement.

“There’s other items we’re looking at right now, especially in the areas of fraud and waste and abuse that we’re working through with our members,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) told Axios.

House Budget Committee chairman Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) is reviving an idea that was considered last year to fund Affordable Care Act payments known as cost-sharing reductions.

The Congressional Budget Office previously found the move would lower overall benchmark ACA premiums by 11% but result in 300,000 more uninsured people.

It would cut the subsidy amount that some enrollees receive, thereby increasing out-of-pocket premium costs, while saving the government over $30 billion.

New polling from Navigator shows that this would be political suicide for Republicans. Over half of Americans (59%) believe the government is spending too much money on foreign conflicts and wars while a similar number (58%) believe we spend too little on health care.

Recall that Republicans said they were paying for last summer’s big beautiful millionaire tax giveaway by eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse so, apparently, they believe they missed a bunch the first time around.

Trump, on the other hand, thinks the federal government should not pay for daycare, Medicare, or Medicaid.

Watch HERE.

Transcript:

"We can't take care of day care. You got to let a state take care of day care. And they should pay for it, too. They should pay. They have to raise their taxes, but they should pay for it. And we could lower our taxes a little bit to them to make up. But we, It's not possible for us to take care of day care, Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things. They can do it on a state basis, you can’t do it on a federal. We have to take care of one thing. Military protection."

››› Health care is once again voters’ top issue

New polling by Gallup shows health care is the top issue for voters for the first time since 2020.

Via The Hill:

Americans are more concerned about the availability and cost of health care than any other domestic issue, with it reclaiming the top spot for the first time since 2020, according to a new Gallup poll.

The poll, released [last week] found that 61 percent of the 1,000 adults surveyed said they worry a “great deal” about accessing and affording health care, while 23 percent expressed a “fair amount” of concern.

That is compared to 51 percent of respondents who said they were concerned a “great deal” about the economy and 50 percent who said the same about inflation — two issues that dominated public anxiety over the past several years, according to the survey.

››› The use of abortion pills in states with abortion bans is UP, and so are the attacks on abortion pills

A new study by Guttmacher shows that, while the number of people in states with abortion bans who traveled to another state to get an abortion fell in 2025, the number who used telehealth (i.e., were prescribed abortion pills) is UP:

Meanwhile, Reuters reports that US Senate Republicans are launching probe of abortion pill makers and escalating pressure on the FDA:

U.S. Senate Republicans launched an investigation into abortion pill manufacturers on Wednesday and called on the U.S. ​Food and Drug Administration to crack down on online sales of the ‌drug mifepristone, the latest escalation in a years‑long political battle over access to medication abortion. [...]

Senators seek detailed compliance records from all three FDA‑approved manufacturers: Danco Laboratories, ​GenBioPro and Evita Solutions, including production sites, prescriber certifications, pharmacy audits, adverse event reports, sales data and reasons for any prescriber or pharmacy decertifications. [...]

Danco Laboratories declined to comment. GenBioPro ​said it looked forward to educating lawmakers about medication abortion.

The Senators are also going after companies that sell abortion pills online, as Jessica Valenti and Kylie Cheung from Abortion, Every Day report:

Senate Republicans are pressuring the FDA to censor online speech about abortion pills—directing the agency to target telemedicine abortion organizations, seize their domains, and “permanently shut down” their websites. The move marks a massive escalation in the attacks on pro-choice speech we’ve been documenting here for months.

››› Trump’s Medicaid chickens are coming home to roost

New analysis by Public Citizen shows that the fallout from Trump’s tax giveaway bill is starting to hit.

Via NBC News:

More than 400 hospitals across the United States are at high risk of closing or cutting services because of the Medicaid cuts in President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” according to an analysis from the progressive watchdog group Public Citizen.

The Medicaid cuts come in phases, with more significant changes, including work requirements, in 2027 and limits on how states raise funds in 2028. Overall, the law is expected to reduce federal Medicaid funding by roughly $1 trillion over the next decade.

“We’re seeing hospitals that are already under severe financial strain having to make decisions about how to stay financially solvent,” said Eileen O’Grady, a researcher in Public Citizen’s Congress Watch division and the report’s author. “That has pretty clear implications for people who live in that community. It also has ripple effects on other hospitals in those communities.”

It’s not just rural hospitals that are at risk. In fact, 60% of them are in urban areas.

Millions of Americans are poised to lose their health insurance thanks to the Medicaid work requirements provisions in the bill. A new study shows that between 4.9 and 10.1 million people will lose Medicaid coverage.

››› RFK Jr. is hitting the road and the airwaves for the midterms

MAHA voters are not especially happy with Kennedy and the Trump administration at the moment.

POLITICO reports that they aren’t all that sure which party represents their views best. This may be because, as the article points out, “[T]here are still widespread misconceptions about what MAHA is and what it does — even among people who self-identify with the movement.” What’s abundantly clear is that they aren’t happy with the Republican’s anti-regulatory approach to things:

“We’re not even sure that we even have a path forward in this administration when it comes to pesticides, because it’s very clear that they are entirely owned by Bayer and the chemical companies,” said Kelly Ryerson, a MAHA influencer who goes by the moniker Glyphosate Girl online and has publicly backed Kennedy.

In response, RFK Jr. is being sent out to win back the MAHA vote.

Via POLITICO:

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is ramping up midterm travel to revive his Make America Healthy Again agenda, armed with a carefully crafted list of popular food and fitness policies to sell — and divisive issues like vaccines to avoid. [...]

Kennedy will appear alongside Republican House and Senate lawmakers in states with some of the most competitive House and Senate races this fall — as well as many of the 2028 presidential swing states. Kennedy is expected to visit Arizona, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, California, Virginia, Ohio, Montana and Texas. [...]

Kennedy is not expected to focus on his agency’s attempts to decrease the number of vaccines recommended for children, the person said…On vaccines, “the public is not there yet” and Kennedy and his team are aware that it’s “not an effective political strategy,” [an] administration official said.

New polling suggests avoiding vaccines might be a good move, with MAHA adherents putting vaccines down the list of their “core principles” relative to food safety, food quality, pesticides, and other items.

In addition to his MAHA Midterm Tour, Kennedy is going to be hosting his own podcast, according to the AP:

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is launching a new podcast that he says will begin “a new era of radical transparency in government,” according to a teaser video first obtained by The Associated Press.

The show, titled “The Secretary Kennedy Podcast,” will launch next week and feature Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine crusader who has reshaped the country’s health policy, in conversation with doctors, scientists and agency staff, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services officials told the AP ahead of the launch. In the teaser video, in a slick HHS-branded studio with ominous music playing in the background, Kennedy bills it as a new way to expose corruption and lies that have made Americans sick.

“We’re going to name the names of the forces that obstruct the paths to public health,” Kennedy says in the nearly 90-second clip. [...]

“This is part of our larger strategy to bring the Make America Healthy Again message to as wide an audience as we can,” said Liam Nahill, HHS digital director.

It will be the first to be hosted by a sitting cabinet secretary.

››› RFK Jr.’s vaccine committee is being reformed and not in a good way

The charter for CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) expired last week and the one being proposed will allow RFK Jr. wide latitude on who will be on it going forward.

The OG charter said ACIP members “shall be selected from authorities who are knowledgeable in the fields of immunization practices and public health, have expertise in the use of vaccines and other immunobiologic agents in clinical practice or preventive medicine, have expertise with clinical or laboratory vaccine research, or have expertise in assessment of vaccine efficacy and safety.”

The proposed new charter, published in the Federal Register on Monday, says only that “aspects that are considered at the time of candidate screening and review” will now involve “geographical balance” and a “balance of specialty areas (e.g., biostatistics, toxicology, immunology, epidemiology, pediatrics, internal medicine, family medicine, nursing, consumer issues, state and local health department perspective, academic perspective, public health perspective, etc.)”

Publishing a charter is not the same as filing it. The charter will likely be filed next week given the requirement of a seven-day notice prior to filing.

Links for a deeper dive on Episode #50

WATCH EPISODE 50 HERE

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]]><![CDATA[Michigan’s Plan to Stop Corporate Money in Politics]]>https://www.pagingamerica.org/p/michigans-plan-to-stop-corporatehttps://www.pagingamerica.org/p/michigans-plan-to-stop-corporateThu, 09 Apr 2026 18:15:41 GMTMiles Baker and Dr. Rob Davidson unpack the proposed healthcare cuts to fund the war in Iran, new polling showing healthcare as the top voter issue, and ongoing attacks on reproductive rights, abortion pills, and Medicaid. The episode highlights how political decisions in Washington are directly affecting patients and providers nationwide.

Later, Sean McBrearty, Vice Chair of the Michiganders for Money Out of Politics campaign, joins the show to discuss a major anti-corruption ballot initiative in Michigan – Michiganders for Money Out of Politics. He explains how the effort would curb corporate political spending, especially from powerful health care insurers, and close major campaign finance loopholes. The reform could reshape health care policy by weakening lobbyist influence and expanding what’s politically possible in the state.

Background reading:

Join the fight at committeetoprotect.org.

Subscribe, share, and leave a rating to help more people find Paging America.

Have thoughts, questions, or your own health care story? Email us at feedback@pagingamerica.org.

]]><![CDATA[April 8, 2026 – The Week in Health Care News]]>https://www.pagingamerica.org/p/april-8-2026-the-week-in-health-carehttps://www.pagingamerica.org/p/april-8-2026-the-week-in-health-careWed, 08 Apr 2026 16:03:31 GMT

Reproductive Rights/Attacks on Medication Abortion

[Over] 150 Ohio doctors, organized by a national group called the Committee to Protect Health Care, have signed a letter strongly opposing a flurry of what they call “extremist” abortion bills moving through the Statehouse.

Of particular concern to those doctors is House Bill 754, proposed just last month by Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Loveland) that would require every pregnancy and fetal death in Ohio to be registered with the state. Columbus medical student [Committee Advocate] Ellena Privitera said she worries that, if passed, the bill would cause fear among her patients. [...]

[Committee Advocate] Dr. Maria Phillis, a Cleveland OB-GYN, criticized House Bill 347, also called the “SHE WINS” Act, which passed the House of Representatives last week. That bill would require a 24-hour waiting period before an abortion procedure… “I’ve seen patients previously when we had this 24-hour waiting period in effect that were affected by this requirement and were either unable to access care or had their care significantly delayed,” Phillis said.

  • On March 25, Committee Advocates Dr. Rachel Crebessa, Dr. Sarah Swiezy, and Dr. Brittani Steinberg testified at a Missouri legislative committee hearing, speaking out against two anti-abortion bills, HB 1667 & HB 2294. These bills could, among other things, criminalize routine care, enable lawsuits against individuals providing support, and introduce personhood language.

  • On March 31, the Committee co-hosted a press call with Americans for Contraception, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin, and A Better Wisconsin Together. The call, held just seven days before the 2026 Wisconsin Supreme Court election, focused on the 177th anniversary of the 1800s law that Wisconsin Republicans have tried to enforce as an abortion ban. Committee Board Chair Dr. Kristen Lyerly and Committee Member Dr. Abigail La Nou spoke alongside state Rep. Lisa Subeck, state Sen. Dora Drake, and patients. The event was covered by WEAU.

  • Judge Chris Taylor won her election Tuesday, securing a liberal majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court for years to come. This was a decisive victory for reproductive rights in the state.

  • Mississippi legislators have passed legislation to criminalize abortion pills and those who provide them and Republican Gov. Tate Reeves is expected to sign it into law.

  • As the final (and legally-mandated) Title X funding for Planned Parenthood winds down, HHS says it will redirect its funding dollars to organizations that “prioritize life and promote the pro-family agenda”, reports Kylie Cheung and Jessica Valenti at ABORTION, EVERY DAY.

Trump Administration News

All told, the HHS’ workforce has fallen from 92,000 people to just shy of 75,000 over President Donald Trump’s second term, the data shows.

The layoffs and subsequent attrition have winnowed staffing levels to such an extent that sources in divisions particularly affected described feeling like they were working on a skeleton crew. And the work of the HHS is suffering as a result, they said.

“It took them just a few weeks to break things that are going to take decades to fix,” a former worker in the HHS’ Office of the Assistant Secretary who was affected by the layoffs predicted. “I don’t think people realize how detrimental this will end up being.”

The Food and Drug Administration is moving toward allowing compounding pharmacies to produce more than a dozen injectable peptides that were banned because of potentially significant safety risks, according to a senior administration official.

In 2023, 14 peptides were removed from a list of products that the F.D.A. allows compounding pharmacies to produce. The pharmacies tailor products for individual patients’ needs. The peptides had not been approved by the F.D.A. as safe or effective and, in recent years, the agency had noted that they were increasingly being marketed with unproved claims that they had cosmetic, anti-aging and disease-fighting benefits.

“It’s 100 percent ‘bro’ science,” said Dr. Noah Raizman, an orthopedic surgeon in the Washington area who said he had also observed a rise in peptide use for a variety of health-related purposes. He added: “Are these specific drugs likely to be dangerous? We don’t know.”

Other Health Care News

A bipartisan group of senators is aiming to relieve that cost burden with the INSULIN Act, a bill to cap the cost of the lifesaving drug at $35 per month for Americans with private insurance plans. The bill, introduced last week by Sens. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., Susan Collins, R-Maine, and John Kennedy, R-La., would also start a pilot program to provide more affordable insulin to uninsured Americans in 10 states.

[A]n effort to change rules by the [Department of Health] appears to have stalled. And a watered-down version of an anti-mandate bill appeared in this year’s legislative session but failed to advance in both chambers.

“Maybe they saw this wasn’t going to be as politically popular for them to do,” said Simone Chriss, a civil rights attorney with Southern Legal Counsel.

The lawsuit could become a key test of an updated Oregon law that bans the corporate practice of medicine — and how, or whether, the state will enforce the law. Lawmakers strengthened the statute last year to limit ownership workarounds by corporations.

Eugene Emergency Physicians wants the court to declare the arrangement illegal under the law and to prevent PeaceHealth from ending its current contract with the doctors group until the case is resolved.

Rogers was responding to a question from an attendee who asked him what could be done to lower health care costs. Rogers said he’d be releasing a full health care plan in the coming weeks that would “embrace the freedom of the free market” to start lowering prices. [...]

In the event with supporters, Rogers likened free preventive care — as guaranteed by the Affordable Care Act — to “an auto insurance plan that would pay for your blinker’s light going out.” That would be a great insurance plan, but one that would cost drivers more, he explained.

“We need to start changing the way we look at health care,” Rogers said.

  • In addition to charging for now-free preventative care (the human version of car blinkers, according to him), he wants to create catastrophic insurance pools for the sickest Americans. Both moves would undo two major components of the ACA.

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]]><![CDATA[April 1, 2026 – The Week in Health Care News]]>https://www.pagingamerica.org/p/april-1-2026-the-week-in-health-carehttps://www.pagingamerica.org/p/april-1-2026-the-week-in-health-careWed, 01 Apr 2026 16:05:11 GMT

Reproductive Rights/Attacks on Medication Abortion

U.S. Senate Republicans launched an investigation into abortion pill manufacturers on Wednesday and called on the U.S. ​Food and Drug Administration to crack down on online sales of the ‌drug mifepristone, the latest escalation in a years‑long political battle over access to medication abortion. [...]

Senators seek detailed compliance records from all three FDA‑approved manufacturers: Danco Laboratories, ​GenBioPro and Evita Solutions, including production sites, prescriber certifications, pharmacy audits, adverse event reports, sales data and reasons for any prescriber or pharmacy decertifications. [...]

Danco Laboratories declined to comment. GenBioPro ​said it looked forward to educating lawmakers about medication abortion.

  • The Senators are also going after companies that sell abortion pills online, as Jessica Valenti and Kylie Cheung from Abortion, Every Day report:

Senate Republicans are pressuring the FDA to censor online speech about abortion pills—directing the agency to target telemedicine abortion organizations, seize their domains, and “permanently shut down” their websites. The move marks a massive escalation in the attacks on pro-choice speech we’ve been documenting here for months.

Trump Administration News

Federal law imposes a 210-day limit on those filling Senate-confirmed positions in an acting capacity. If Mr. Trump does not nominate a permanent director by midnight on Wednesday, the agency will be officially leaderless.

The administration faces a formidable challenge in finding a nominee who aligns with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again agenda while avoiding his unpopular stance on vaccines.

  • Trump missed the 210-day deadline. Apparently, acting director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya “will continue to oversee the CDC by performing the delegable duties of the CDC director.”

  • Dr. Robert Malone, the Vice Chair of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and one of the first people chosen by RFK Jr. to replace the 17 members he purged early last year, has resigned. And it wasn’t pretty:

“If offered the opportunity to participate in a relaunched A.C.I.P., I will respectfully decline,” Dr. Malone said in a text message.

“This was not an impulsive decision,” he said.

“Hundreds of hours of uncompensated labor, incredible hate from many quarters, hostile press, internal bickering, weaponized leaking, sabotage,” he added. “I have better things to do.” [...]

In ruling against Mr. Kennedy and the committee earlier this month, Judge Brian Murphy, of the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts, said the panelists “appear distinctly unqualified” to make vaccine recommendations.

Dr. Malone took offense at those remarks, saying the judge had overlooked his contributions to mRNA technology… The judge “slandered me” and “completely overlooked my actual C.V. and experience,” he told The New York Times last week.

  • Malone is also angry that the administration is running away from revising vaccine policy as the midterms near. During a podcast posted last week, Malone told the host, “How can you have Bobby on Joe Rogan and the word ‘vaccine’ never escapes his lips? “That’s a tell.”

  • The administration’s distancing itself from revising vaccine policies is getting tested by anti-vaxx zealot Aaron Siri who plans to file a lawsuit to compel them to add hundreds of conditions to HHS’s table used for vaccine injury compensation claims. (In related news, CDC officials are considering a plan to make injuries from COVID-19 vaccines a formal diagnosis that can be coded in medical records.)

  • Meanwhile, there’s this from The New York Times: Kennedy’s Vaccine Agenda Hits Roadblocks, Diminishing His Clout. “Speculation has lately been swirling in Washington that he will leave his job running the Department of Health and Human Services,” they report.

  • POLITICO reports that so-called “MAHA voters” aren’t all that sure which party represents their views best. This may be because, as the article points out, “[T]here are still widespread misconceptions about what MAHA is and what it does — even among people who self-identify with the movement.” What’s abundantly clear is that they aren’t happy with the Republican’s anti-regulatory approach to things:

“We’re not even sure that we even have a path forward in this administration when it comes to pesticides, because it’s very clear that they are entirely owned by Bayer and the chemical companies,” said Kelly Ryerson, a MAHA influencer who goes by the moniker Glyphosate Girl online and has publicly backed Kennedy.

Other Health Care News

A coalition of former congressional staffers and federal health leaders is putting forward a health care policy proposal around which it hopes Democrats will coalesce ahead of the 2028 campaign, a position it is calling “Medicare by Choice.” [...]

This proposal allows everyone the option of enrolling in traditional Medicare regardless of age, even allowing employers to select Medicare by Choice as their employees’ workplace benefit.

National legislation introduced last week would take hospitals and nursing homes out of the hands of private equity firms.

U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-5) of Swarthmore and U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) introduced the Take Back Our Hospitals Act, which prevents private equity ownership of hospitals and nursing homes.

  • Charles Gaba reports that Medicare Part C/Advantage enrollments decreased in December 2025 for the first time in at least 13 years. He also reports that ACA enrollments are down over 1 million people compared with last year.

  • Be nice to those 59 million people providing home health care to our elderly neighbors. They’re providing over $1 trillion in health care annually.

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]]><![CDATA[Episode #49 Deep Dive – No Kings and the Fight for Democracy with Ezra Levin]]>https://www.pagingamerica.org/p/episode-49-deep-dive-no-kings-andhttps://www.pagingamerica.org/p/episode-49-deep-dive-no-kings-andFri, 27 Mar 2026 16:01:26 GMT››› New health care polling

First, KFF released a poll titled, “Cost Concerns and Coverage Changes: A Follow-Up Survey of ACA Marketplace Enrollees”. As you’d expect, the fallout from the expired ACA enhanced premium tax credits is grim. Here are some toplines:

  • 80% of ACA marketplace enrollees say their costs are higher this year compared to last year and half say their health care costs are “a lot higher” this year.

  • ACA Marketplace enrollees are worried about affording their monthly premiums, as well as out-of-pocket expenses such as emergency care or routine medical visits.

  • Among 2025 Marketplace enrollees who have re-enrolled in Marketplace coverage, 55% say they are (or will be) cutting back spending on food or basic household items in order to afford the costs of coverage and care. The number jumps to 62% for those with chronic health conditions

  • One in ten 2025 Marketplace enrollees say they are now currently uninsured.

Navigator also has a new poll titled, “Perceptions of Food and Ag Policy in the House and Senate Battlegrounds” that polled constituents in 62 battleground congressional districts and seven battleground Senate states. The top concern of those polled was “Lowering the cost of health care” (68%.) That was followed closely by food safety (61%.)

This poll also showed that RFK Jr.’s popularity and job approval is under water in both battlegrounds:

Democrats are trusted more on “Supporting policies that make Americans less likely to get sick”, “Improving the health of Americans”, “Making food affordable”, and “Ensuring our food is safe.” However, respondents trusted Republicans more when it comes to “Getting ultra-processed food out of schools” and “Supporting America’s small, local, and family farms.”

Overall, messaging on SNAP, the impact of America’s food policies on kids, and cuts to food safety were shown to have the biggest impact in persuading voters to vote for Democrats.

››› LOTS of news from the Trump administration

First, STAT is reporting that the Trump administration is considering automatic enrollment in Medicare Advantage plans, describing it as “a controversial idea that was touted in the conservative Project 2025 policy blueprint”:

Chris Klomp said the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is mulling the feasibility of models that would either automatically enroll beneficiaries into the private form of Medicare or accountable care organizations, such as those that participate in the Medicare Shared Savings Program. Individuals could still opt into a different insurance arrangement. Right now, people who don’t make a choice are covered by traditional Medicare.

Next, a federal judge dealth RFK Jr. another blow, ruling that he didn’t go through the proper administrative procedures when issuing a declaration which warned doctors that they could be excluded from federal health programs like Medicare and Medicaid if they provide treatments to young transgender patients. The ruling grants preliminary relief to health professionals who provide the treatments.

The judge in the case said, “The notion that ‘I will go forward and issue a declaration and see if we can get away with it’ is not a principle of governance that adheres to the overarching commitment to a democratic republic that requires the rule of law to be regarded and respected and honored as a sacred.”

The New York Times reports that the Trump administration is delaying the appointment of a new CDC director:

The administration faces a formidable challenge in finding a nominee who aligns with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again agenda while avoiding his unpopular stance on vaccines.

The White House has yet to find someone who fits with the Trump administration’s mission and can also win Senate confirmation, according to a person familiar with the situation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal decision-making.

The ongoing (ten month) effort to name a MAHA wellness influencer and health care grifter as Surgeon General (also known as “the Nation’s Doctor”) is stuck. Senators Bill Cassidy and Lisa Murkowski are still undecided on Casey Mean’s nomination and she can’t lose a single Republican vote.

RFK Jr.’s supporters have taken to issuing threats. MAHA influencer “Food Babe” says that Cassidy is “going to be in a world of hurt if he decides to oppose Casey Means because he will basically be opposing every single MAHA mom in the country.”

In more RFK Jr. news, following a ruling rolling back all decisions by Kennedy’s hand-picked Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), there is confusion on whether the Trump administration will appeal the ruling, disband ACIP, or recreate it with new members.

ACIP Vice Chair Robert Malone posted on Twitter/X that “ACIP has been disbanded.” He later posted that the information he’d received was a “miscommunication” and that “the decision about how to proceed has not been made, and dissolving and reforming remains one of the options being considered.” HHS denies they are disbanding the committee.

QUICK TRUMP NEWS HITS

  • For those keeping track at home, TrumpRx has added three new drugs bringing the total number of drugs on the site to a whopping 53 🥳

  • FDA Commissioner Marty Makary made news last week when he told attendees at a national meeting that he wouldn’t give his young child antibiotics “unless he is on his deathbed or suffering.” Experts, of course, say that’s way too late.

››› Democrats are planning for life after Trump

Rather than letting Republicans control the narrative on health care, last week Senate Democrats laid out their plans to rebuild the health care system if they regain control of Congress and the White House:

[A] dozen Senate Democrats proposed a framework for private health insurance with the goal of making it affordable, and more standardized and simple. [...]

Democrats have been using health care spending cuts and the rising cost of Affordable Care Act insurance plans as a cudgel against Republicans in this election cycle. But they also want to tell voters what they support, not just what they’re against, lawmakers say. And they see the major setbacks to Medicaid and ACA insurance coverage as a chance to start from scratch and to get different factions of the Democratic party to agree on how to rebuild the health care system.

“We’re in a blue sky moment,” a Senate Committee on Finance aide said. “Our members feel incredibly emboldened.”

››› A couple of items related to the abortion medications

In Mississippi, lawmakers are considering a bill that would make it illegal for doctors to prescribe medication that could be used to induce abortion. Under the legislation, doctors will be prosecuted if they prescribe drugs with the intention of inducing an abortion.

At the national level, Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley introduced a bill earlier this month titled the “Safeguarding Women from Chemical Abortion Act” that would revoke the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone. His bill would, he says, “empower women to sue [mifepristone] manufacturers.”

Hawley has also sent letters to mifepristone manufacturers Danco Laboratories and GenBioPro “to inform them that he is opening an investigation into their business practices related to mifepristone as mounting evidence shows women are suffering alarming rates of adverse-effects after taking the drug.”

››› Clawing back the right to an abortion in Indiana

While we’re on the topic, we want to highlight an interesting development relating to reproductive rights. Some women and religious groups in Indiana are using a novel argument to “claw back” the right to abortion in Indiana, which has a near-total abortion ban. They’re basing their argument on religious freedom:

The state of Indiana is appealing a … ruling in favor of an additional religious right exemption to Indiana’s near-total abortion ban, but legal experts believe the ruling could present a way to claw back the right to an abortion following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade [...]

In the case, [a] Jewish woman argued that her religion teaches that “life begins when a person takes their first breath after being born.” Her Jewish faith also teaches that the health of a pregnant woman is more important than the life of an embryo or fetus, according to court documents.

“Therefore, according to her Jewish beliefs, if her health or wellbeing …were endangered … she must terminate the pregnancy,” according to court records. [...]

The second plaintiff is a woman without a specific religion “but has personal religious and spiritual beliefs that guide her life, including her moral and ethical practices.” She does not believe that life begins at conception, but that a fetus is a part of the body of a mother, according to court records.

Links for a deeper dive on Episode #49

WATCH EPISODE 49 HERE

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]]><![CDATA[No Kings and the Fight for Democracy with Ezra Levin]]>https://www.pagingamerica.org/p/no-kings-and-the-fight-for-democracyhttps://www.pagingamerica.org/p/no-kings-and-the-fight-for-democracyThu, 26 Mar 2026 17:02:29 GMTMiles and Dr. Rob are joined by Ezra Levin, Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director of Indivisible, to talk about the explosive growth of the “No Kings” movement, and why it’s about more than just protests. Levin breaks down how grassroots organizing, especially in small towns and overlooked communities, is driving real political momentum and could shape upcoming elections.

Later in the episode, Miles and Dr. Rob dive into new polling showing health care costs remain voters’ top concern, the Trump administration pushing controversial health care changes, and battles over abortion access intensifying. They also highlight Democrats’ early plans for health care reform, and whether they’re bold enough to meet the moment.

Background reading:

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Have thoughts, questions, or your own health care story? Email us at feedback@pagingamerica.org.

]]><![CDATA[March 26, 2026 – The Week in Health Care News]]>https://www.pagingamerica.org/p/march-26-2026-the-week-in-healthhttps://www.pagingamerica.org/p/march-26-2026-the-week-in-healthThu, 26 Mar 2026 15:59:03 GMT

Reproductive Rights/Attacks on Medication Abortion

Trump Administration News

President Trump’s Medicare director said Thursday his team is considering a policy that would automatically enroll Medicare beneficiaries into Medicare Advantage plans, a controversial idea that was touted in the conservative Project 2025 policy blueprint.

A nationwide STAT survey of federally funded researchers reveals that, a year after Donald Trump’s return to the White House, many academic scientists are reeling. Rather than waning, the impacts of the administration’s seismic changes to science funding are intensifying, causing researchers to drastically scale back the ambition of their work and driving some to shut down their labs entirely. [...]

“This is like the Titanic hitting the iceberg,” said Steve Shoptaw, who runs the Center for Behavioral and Addiction Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, which has shrunk by 40% due to funding cuts. “People are still eating at the table, music’s still playing, and yet the ship is sinking.”

A federal judge said the government overreached by issuing a declaration that called treatments like puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgeries unsafe and ineffective for young people experiencing gender dysphoria, according to a ruling Thursday in Oregon.

Judge Mustafa Kasubhai ruled that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. didn’t go through the proper administrative procedures in December when issuing the declaration, which warned doctors that they could be excluded from federal health programs like Medicare and Medicaid if they provide these treatments.

ICE in the News

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has detained and deported hundreds of pregnant, postpartum and nursing immigrants since the start of the Trump administration, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed for the first time Wednesday. Federal policy says that such individuals should only be detained in limited circumstances.

Between January 1, 2025, and February 16, 2026, 363 pregnant, postpartum and nursing immigrants were deported, DHS reported in response to questions submitted last fall by Sen. Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat. Sixteen miscarriages were recorded during that time period. In total, 498 pregnant, postpartum and nursing people were reported as “booked out” of ICE detention in that timespan, meaning that they were detained and then left ICE facilities.

Today, Americans are facing dramatically increased health care costs, with millions losing coverage and one in three cutting back on daily living expenses to cover medical bills.

For the health savings account (HSA) industry, however, these are boom times. In a triumphant March 17 earnings call, HealthEquity, the nation’s largest administrator of HSAs, reported “accelerating earnings power… significant margin expansion, and record HSA sales.”

Other Health Care News

Health cannot be a luxury for the few. On the contrary, it is an essential condition for social peace. Universal health coverage is not merely a technical goal to be achieved; it is primarily a moral imperative for societies that wish to call themselves just. Healthcare must be accessible to the most vulnerable, then, not only because their dignity requires it but also to prevent injustice from becoming a cause of conflict.

Democrats are laying out their plans to rebuild the health care system in the hopes of eventually regaining control of Congress and the White House. [...]

Democrats have been using health care spending cuts and the rising cost of Affordable Care Act insurance plans as a cudgel against Republicans in this election cycle. But they also want to tell voters what they support, not just what they’re against, lawmakers say. And they see the major setbacks to Medicaid and ACA insurance coverage as a chance to start from scratch and to get different factions of the Democratic party to agree on how to rebuild the health care system.

“We’re in a blue sky moment,” a Senate Committee on Finance aide said. “Our members feel incredibly emboldened.”

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]]><![CDATA[The 16 Year Anniversary of the ACA: An Interview with Hon. Mark Schauer]]>https://www.pagingamerica.org/p/the-16-year-anniversary-of-the-acahttps://www.pagingamerica.org/p/the-16-year-anniversary-of-the-acaMon, 23 Mar 2026 16:02:38 GMTMiles Baker is joined by Mark Schauer, former Congressman, Vice President of Winning Connections, and board member of both Planned Parenthood in Michigan and the Committee to Protect Health Care. Mark shares his firsthand experience helping pass the landmark legislation, working alongside Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi, and facing intense political and public backlash. Schauer also looks ahead, discussing the ongoing challenges to the ACA, the need to strengthen and expand coverage, and why future progress depends on both public support and electoral victories, all while keeping the goal of accessible, equitable health care for all at the center.

Background reading:

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Have thoughts, questions, or your own healthcare story? Email us at feedback@pagingamerica.org.

]]><![CDATA[Episode #48 Deep Dive – Sen. Peter Welch Takes on Big Pharma]]>https://www.pagingamerica.org/p/episode-48-deep-dive-sen-peter-welchhttps://www.pagingamerica.org/p/episode-48-deep-dive-sen-peter-welchFri, 20 Mar 2026 16:03:02 GMT››› Pope Leo calls universal healthcare a 'moral imperative'

Reuters reports that Pope Leo made a plea this week for countries to offer their ​citizens universal healthcare. "Universal health coverage ​is … a moral imperative for societies that wish to ​call themselves just," Pope Leo said. “Healthcare must be accessible to the ​most vulnerable … not only because their dignity requires it but also ‌to ⁠prevent injustice from becoming a cause of conflict. Health cannot be a luxury for the few."

››› A federal judge struck down several of RFK Jr.’s vaccine policies

This week, U.S. District Court judge Brian Murphy blocked the federal government from implementing RFK Jr.’s new childhood vaccine schedule and reversed all decisions made by the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) since Kennedy took over at HHS a year ago. The immediate impact was the cancellation of an ACIP meeting scheduled for this week.

With this decision, the previous vaccine schedule will be resumed, including the birth dose of hepatitis B vaccine, and the decisions to ban thiomersal from flu vaccines and to separate the measles, mumps, rubella vaccine into individual components will also be reversed.

From reporting by The New York Times:

In his decision, Judge Brian Murphy, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, noted that the vaccine committee has historically made decisions through careful review of scientific evidence, “a method scientific in nature and codified into law through procedural requirements.” But, he added “unfortunately, the government has disregarded those methods and thereby undermined the integrity of its actions.” [...]

Judge Murphy [also] wrote that only six of the 15 panelists “appear to have any meaningful experience in vaccines — the very focus of ACIP” [...]

In a hearing this month…a lawyer for the Trump administration, argued that Mr. Kennedy and the committee had “unreviewable” — or absolute — authority to make vaccine policies, even if that included recommending that people become infected with measles instead of getting vaccinated.

Judge Murphy was clear in his dismissal of that argument. “Suffice it to say that the Court disagrees,” he said.

The decision is all but certain to be appealed.

In related news, some of Kennedy’s most ardent supporters are calling for an end to ALL childhood vaccine recommendations. This is from NOTUS:

Leaders of the MAHA Institute, the Robert F. Kennedy Jr.-allied think tank pushing Make America Health Again movement policies, stated their position on vaccines unequivocally on Monday: “The childhood vaccination schedule needs to be eliminated,” the policy group’s president, Mark Gorton, said.

“All vaccines need to be removed from the market until they can be proven to be safe and effective,” Gorton told an audience of supporters gathered in the Willard Hotel’s Crystal Room for a panel discussion on the “Massive Epidemic of Vaccine Injury.”

››› RFK Jr. and Republicans are increasingly in a bind

MedPage Today’s headlines says it all: “Republicans Fret Over RFK Jr.’s Anti-Vaccine Policies While MAHA Moms Stew”. On one hand, his avid supporters are urging him to push harder on stopping vaccines. On the other, the Trump administration and Republicans in general want him to shut up about the issue.

Here’s more from STAT:

White House officials are steering the Trump administration away from vaccine reform, fearing the political consequences of emphasizing a relatively unpopular issue in a key election year.

But the [MAHA] movement … isn’t going along without a fight.

The administration’s shift began late last year, when Republican pollster Tony Fabrizio published a memo finding that “vaccine skepticism is bad politics,” especially as the midterm elections near.

This month, the White House fully pivoted the administration on the issue, according to two White House officials who were granted anonymity to discuss internal strategy.

“We’re just kind of done with the vaccine issue,” said one of the officials. “We’ve done what we want to do on the vaccine front.”

However, Brian Hooker, chief scientific officer of the Children’s Health Defense, the anti-vaxx group founded by Kennedy, said, “We’re nowhere near done on the vaccine issue.”

In addition to this, Democrats are seeing other cracks in the MAHA facade, as well, and intend to exploit them for the upcoming midterm elections, according to POLITICO:

The MAHA base is furious with the Trump administration over its promotion of a controversial pesticide. Democrats up for election this fall see a prime political opportunity in the infighting… [and] are mobilizing to win over these disaffected MAHA voters as internal polling highlights the opportunity.

Since many people in the MAHA base once identified as Democrats, they may have a real opportunity to win them back.

››› One-third of Americans skip meals or other needs to afford health care

This is from reporting by The Washington Post:

Roughly one-third of Americans are cutting back on daily spending to cover medical costs, and about half of middle-income households said they have delayed a major life event because of the same expenses, [two Gallup polls released Thursday] found, as premiums rise and the federal government cuts Medicaid spending.

Eleven percent of respondents said they had skipped a meal in the past year to meet health care costs, according to the first poll on Americans’ daily spending. Fifteen percent said they had borrowed money or prolonged a current drug prescription. The trend was most pronounced among Americans who don’t have health insurance, 62 percent of whom said they made at least one financial trade-off to pay for health care.

People are also driving less, skipping meals and putting off big life moves, like buying homes or having children, according to the Post. In addition, researchers said they expected the affordability of health care to be a potent issue for voters in the midterm elections.

››› Dr. Oz thinks Obamacare sign-ups are too high

Via NBC News:

Oz, the Trump administration’s top official overseeing the Affordable Care Act, told NBC News that millions of people may be fraudulently enrolled or eligible for other types of coverage.

About 23 million people signed up for ACA coverage during this year’s open enrollment period, which ended in January, according to the latest data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. That’s roughly 1.2 million to 1.3 million fewer sign-ups than last year. [...]

In a phone interview, Oz said some people enrolled in ACA plans should not be there and expects enrollment to fall further — to around 19 million.

“In fact, the fact that we have 23 million makes me think we have too many participants in the ACA,” Oz said. “It’s too high of a number.”

The truth is, as The Wall Street Journal reports, almost 10% of the people who got their health insurance through the ACA exchanges are no longer covered and many others have much higher costs which could lead them to drop coverage later:

Nearly one in 10 people who had Affordable Care Act plans last year dropped health insurance altogether, after premium costs rose sharply because of the expiration of federal subsidies, according to a new survey.

Most of those who remained in ACA plans reported larger out-of-pocket healthcare expenses in the form of higher copays, coinsurance or deductibles, according to the survey from health-research nonprofit KFF. About one-sixth of those who still have ACA coverage, or 17%, weren’t sure they would be able to afford their new premium payments for the entire year, indicating more people might drop insurance as the year goes on.

Links for a deeper dive on Episode #48

WATCH EPISODE 48 HERE

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]]><![CDATA[How RFK Jr Dismantled America's Health Care Infrastructure in 1 Year]]>https://www.pagingamerica.org/p/how-rfk-jr-dismantled-americas-healthhttps://www.pagingamerica.org/p/how-rfk-jr-dismantled-americas-healthFri, 20 Mar 2026 14:44:52 GMTThank you , , , , , and many others for tuning into my live video with ! Join me for my next live video in the app.

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