April 1, 2026 – The Week in Health Care News
Your digest on the happenings in health care this week | April 1, 2026
Reproductive Rights/Attacks on Medication Abortion
Committee Advocate Dr. Chelsea Daniels went on The Dean Obeidallah Show on SiriusXM on March 26 for a 20-minute conversation where she clapped back on Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley’s bill seeking to remove mifepristone’s FDA approval and sounded the alarm on the dangers of criminalizing women for using medication abortion, along with discussing a wide range of reproductive rights issues. You can listen to it HERE.
Hawley’s bill has picked up the support of Sens. John Cornyn (Texas), Ted Budd (N.C.) and Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.)
MedPage Today: Abortion Pills Gaining Ground as Method for Ending Pregnancies, Survey Suggests. The survey shows more women in states with bans obtained abortions last year using pills prescribed via telehealth than by traveling to where it’s legal.
Reuters: US Senate Republicans launch probe of abortion pill makers, escalate pressure on 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 Administration News
AXIOS: GOP weighs health care cuts to pay for Iran war. One of the ideas being considered would result in 300,000 more uninsured people and save the government over $30 billion.
This is likely to be VERY unpopular as new Navigator polling shows that 59% of Americans believe we spend too much money on foreign conflicts and wars while 58% believe we spend too little on health care, including Medicaid and Obamacare.
On Sunday, Trump signaled he may be willing to replace Casey Means as his choice of Surgeon General. The next day, his staff walked it back saying, “The President stands by her and the Senate should move to quickly [confirm] Dr. Means as our next surgeon general without further delay.” Please join the rising chorus of voices demanding that the Senate reject Means’ nomination at ProtectMed.org/caseymeans.
As many as 10 million Americans are poised to lose their health insurance thanks to the work requirements provisions in last summer’s Republican budget bill/millionaire tax giveaway.
The New York Times: Trump to Delay Nominating New C.D.C. Director:
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.
Meanwhile, food producers aren’t entirely happy with RFK Jr.’s actions either, highlighting the tension between the grassroots and industry concerns.
Roll Call: Sources: White House to propose 20 percent cut to NIH funding.
The New York Times reports that the Justice Department has launched investigations into the admissions policies of medical schools at Stanford University, Ohio State, and the University of California San Diego in search of possible race discrimination in medical school admissions (presumably discrimination against white students since “the administration’s civil rights investigations into admissions processes have tended to focus on potential discrimination against white applicants.”) Notably, the inquiries did not arise from a complaint or allegation, which typically prompts federal action.
San Francisco Chronicle: Trump administration still giving private health data to ICE, California and other states argue
New nutritional guidance from the American Heart Association contradicts RFK Jr.’s new upside-down food pyramid guidance.
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.
Wendell Potter writes about an under-reported lawsuit filed against Express Scripts, accusing them of racketeering at HEALTH CARE un-covered.
Kansas Reflector: Kansas House, Senate pass bill providing stricter regulation of prescription drug middlemen
For being the nation’s largest non-profit health system, Kaiser Permanente sure made a lot of profit last year: $9.3 billion.
KFF Health News: She Owed Her Insurer a Nickel, So It Canceled Her Coverage
Delco Today: Legislation would Keep Private Equity Firms Away From Hospitals:
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.