July 15, 2026 – The Week in Health Care News
Your digest on the happenings in health care this week | July 15, 2026
Reproductive Rights/Attacks on Medication Abortion
Idaho Capital Sun: Initiative to end Idaho’s strict abortion ban qualifies for November’s general election ballot
POLITICO: Abortion opponents press Congress to defund Planned Parenthood — again
Health Care Affordability
House Speaker Mike Johnson announced Monday that he'd start the process for “Reconciliation 3.0” in the Budget Committee meeting this week. There are serious concerns they'll go after health care again. As POLITICO reports, it’s even freaking out vulnerable Republicans:
Seniors could pay less starting in January for X-rays, ultrasounds, MRIs or other Republicans in competitive re-election races are highly skeptical of Johnson’s push for hundreds of billions of dollars in so-called fraud cuts across Medicare, Medicaid and other social programs to pay for funding for the Iran war and other GOP priorities in the measure.
KFF has a new three-part video series about the unaffordability of health care to help people understand the rising cost of health care in the U.S.
A new report from the Private Equity Stakeholders Project shows that over 20% of private equity-owned hospitals – 500+ facilities – are owned through joint venture arrangements with nonprofit health systems. Existing oversight frameworks may not be adequate for these increasingly complex arrangements. MedPage Today has more HERE.
Newsweek has a good ‘splainer about the new site-neutral payments proposal being considered by CMS HERE. “CMS estimates the change would reduce beneficiary cost-sharing obligations by approximately $70 million in 2027 alone while lowering Medicare spending by roughly $260 million,” they write.
On the one-year anniversary of Trump’s Big Billionaire Tax Giveaway (aka HR 1 and the OBBBA), Navigator found that it is broadly unpopular except with MAGA Republicans:
RELATED from STAT: As states absorb Medicaid funding cuts, family caregivers face financial ruin
Another Navigator poll suggests that Republicans are in deep trouble with voters when it comes to health care.
Meanwhile, the hits on the Affordable Care Act keep coming:
Good News, Bad News from Charles Gaba:
👍 Good News! Virginia becomes 10th state to offer additional subsidies to ACA enrollees to mitigate damage from GOP cuts!
👎 Bad News: This comes as ~100,000 Virginians have lost healthcare coverage due to those cuts.
The Texas Tribune: Texas’ ACA enrollment shrinks by 4% after tax credit expiration, new federal data shows
MPR News: Soaring costs and end of tax credit leads 17,000 Minnesotans to drop MNSure health coverage
For the second year in a row, many Affordable Care Act insurers are proposing double-digit premium increases [...]
In preliminary filings with state regulators, insurers are seeking a median rate increase of 14% for 2027…If those rates are ultimately approved, it would be the second-highest increase since 2018.
HEALTH CARE un-covered: The ACA Death Spiral Is No Longer Just a Theory
Trump Administration News
RIP, DOGE. Good riddance.
MedPage Today: More Than Half of CDC Centers Lack Permanent Leadership
HuffPost: CDC Stopped Monitoring Parasite Now Causing Explosive Diarrhea Across The Country. NBC News reports that nearly 3,000 have been sickened. Lettuce or salad greens could be the source of the cyclosporiasis outbreak which is centered in Michigan with over 2,600 cases.
In a move that seems anything but MAHA, the Trump administration is moving to roll back emissions rules on heavy-duty trucks and buses. A MedPage Today piece, “EPA Promised a MAHA Agenda. It Has Yet to Materialize, Frustrating Activists,” has more.
This probably won’t please the MAHAns, either (via CNN): PFAS pesticides approved after EPA adopts new toxicity definition
AXIOS looked at some of the nearly 342,000 public comments submitted on the Trump administration’s plan to politicize the awarding of federal grants and found “overwhelming opposition.” The Hill reports that “57 leading patient advocacy organizations…called on congressional leaders to push OMB to withdraw the rule before it takes effect.” Maine Sen. Susan Collins wrote a sternly-worded letter in opposition.
Another day, another Nominee for key federal health role has a history of questioning vaccines.
RFK Jr. News
Reuters takes a look “Inside RFK Jr.’s push to dismantle decades of U.S. vaccine policy”
STAT: RFK Jr. plans to create list of injuries caused by Covid-19 vaccines. This would make it easier for people to claim that they were injured by a vaccine and receive compensation.
Scientific American: RFK, Jr. is turning his attention to the U.S. Preventive Services Taskforce:
After overhauling a key government vaccine advisory panel to include vaccination skeptics, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy, Jr. is reportedly preparing to name new members to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF)—an independent group that guides recommendations for preventive services such as cancer screenings and helps determine insurance coverage
The group has cancelled all meetings since March 2025.
Via The Hill, “Neither Kennedy or HHS has publicly offered an explanation of why they are changing the panel or what they think its role should be, raising concerns of political interference into an independent panel which historically has been apolitical.”
The Trump administration is planning to move the Department of Education’s special education offices under RFK Jr.’s purview at HHS. Disability groups are rightfully alarmed and a bipartisan group of US Senators is working to stop it.
Other Health Care News
A woman who told the anti-vaxx Children’s Health Defense (CHD) podcast that her twin toddlers had died from being vaccinated has been charged with murder. She is also a plaintiff in a federal lawsuit brought by CHD and others against the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP.) The lawsuit accused AAP of racketeering for its “central role in an enterprise that has defrauded American families about the safety of the childhood vaccine schedule for several decades.” CHD was founded by RFK Jr.
The New York Times: As Parents Reject Vitamin K Shots, Some Babies Develop Devastating Bleeding. Two Democrats are calling on the CDC to track Vitamin K shot refusals.
The New York Times: Court Revives Lawsuits Tying Tylenol Use in Pregnancy to Autism and A.D.H.D.
The number of deaths from the Ebola outbreak in the Congo now exceeds 700. Scarily, 80% of the new cases have no known link to existing patients. The WHO said yesterday that the outbreak could be four times bigger than official figures suggest.
RELATED from Reuters: US to block citizens in Congo from immediate travel home, citing Ebola