July 30, 2025 – The Week in Health Care News
Your digest on the happenings in health care this week | July 30, 2025
The Committee in the News
On July 27, Michigan Committee Lead Dr. Farhan Bhatti appeared on CNN This Morning Weekend With Victor Blackwell to discuss RFK, Jr.’s plans to fire the entire U.S. Preventive Services Task Force for being too “woke.” You can watch the segment HERE. During the segment, Dr. Bhatti had this to say:
What this committee does is it reviews mounds of evidence and then makes recommendations about all kinds of different health conditions, cancer screenings, cardiovascular disease screenings. And then doctors around the country and around the world look at these recommendations that are graded based on the strength of the evidence.
And then they use that to guide their clinical practice every day. Things like at what age to start breast cancer screening and colon cancer screening and cervical cancer screening and giving, you know, pregnant women at high risk of preeclampsia, giving them aspirin or giving statins to people that have high risk of cardiovascular disease. Things that aren't political and things that aren't controversial. [...]
[I]t's actually confusing to all of us in the medical profession why anybody would want to dismantle a highly credible committee that reviews data and that guides clinicians around the country and world on things that we can do that are going to maximize benefits and minimize the risks to our patients every day.
So, replacing the USPSTF with people who don't have the credentials to review the data and make decisions on topics like that, it's going to end up causing a lot of confusion amongst the public as well as amongst physicians around the world.
On July 28, Talking Points Memo published an article by Layla A. Jones titled, “These Are the Communities Most Likely to be Hurt By Hospital Closures and Medicaid Cuts” featuring an interview with Committee Executive Director Dr. Rob Davidson:
“In a lot of these rural communities, in mine, it’s true, 70% of these people voted for Republicans, voted for Trump,” said Rob Davidson, an emergency physician in rural West Michigan who serves as executive director of the Committee to Protect Health Care. His organization equips physicians with tools to explain to communities that their GOP legislators are responsible for Medicaid and Medicare cuts.
“I think it’s important that they at least understand this is why this hospital is going away. Because of these cuts,” he said. Davidson said his organization is “flooding the zone with the realities of this kind of legislation… and making sure [community members] understand who did this.” [...]
“Overall, the $50 billion fund would cover a little over one-third of the estimated reductions in fed medicaid spending based on KFF estimates,” said Levinson.
Robinson put it more bluntly.
“I think we — probably all of us — need to stop saying that it’s a rural health fund,” he said.
“It’s $1 trillion in cuts over a decade and $50 billion to help try to shore it up,” Davidson said later. “That’s 5% of the problem in a 5 year span. That math doesn’t work out.”
Also on July 28, The Texas Signal published a piece titled, “The New Federal Lawsuit Against Abortion Shield Laws,” featuring an interview with Reproductive Freedom Taskforce member Dr. Chelsea Daniels. Dr. Daniels discussed a federal wrongful death lawsuit filed by a Texas man against a doctor in California who prescribed mifepristone abortion bills for his girlfriend – noting “the lengths that these bad actors will go to stop women from accessing basic healthcare.” The man is represented by “the architect of the state’s near-total abortion ban Senate Bill 8.”
Reproductive Rights
New polling shows continued support for abortion access with two-thirds of U.S. adults saying abortion should be legal in all or most cases.
Roll Call reports that Planned Parenthood facilities in at least three states have announced closures following actions by Congress to defund them:
In all, Planned Parenthood has said 200 clinics in 24 states are at risk of shuttering. They include two Ohio family planning clinics — which don’t provide abortions — in Springfield and Hamilton that will close Aug. 1.
“It’s going to exacerbate health care deserts and it’s going to increase abortions,” said Nan Whaley, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio Region. The organization made the decision to close the two clinics so it could protect abortion access at two other clinics in the state.
However, a federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked a provision of Trump’s budget bill that cut Medicaid funding to certain abortion providers and was particularly aimed at Planned Parenthood. An earlier decision by U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani had impacted only Planned Parenthood clinics that do not perform abortions or get less than $800,000 in annual reimbursements. Her latest decision protects all Planned Parenthood clinics.
The Washington Post: Planned Parenthood can keep billing Medicaid, judge rules in setback for Trump
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey is suing Planned Parenthood for telling patients that the abortion pill mifepristone is “safer than many other medicines like penicillin, Tylenol, and Viagra," while not disclosing that up to 4.6% of women visit emergency rooms after taking it. During oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar pointed out that, while some studies have shown more visits, “that didn’t equate to additional serious adverse events and, in fact, [in] one of the studies, half of the women who went to the emergency room didn’t get any treatment at all.”
There’s a 40-year-old law in Nevada requiring minors seeking an abortion to get consent from their parents or guardian. However, it has never been enforced. That’s about to change:
A 40-year-old Nevada law requiring minors having an abortion to first notify their parents or guardians is now in effect for the first time, after a federal district court judge lifted an administrative block Tuesday afternoon.
The one-page order from District Court Judge Anne Traum came after a federal appellate judge earlier this week opted not to temporarily pause implementation of the never-enforced 1985 law while the federal appeal proceeds.
In anticipation of the law going into effect, Planned Parenthood Mar Monte filed a new lawsuit in state court Monday seeking to halt its implementation.
Tennessee Lookout: Federal judge blocks Tennessee law making it crime to aid minors seeking out-of-state abortions
The 19th: The new strategy to restrict abortion nationwide — without saying ‘ban’:
During Trump’s second term, those same groups, citing the president’s disinterest, have backed away from pushing for a new law that would ban abortion. But by adopting more piecemeal efforts — cuts to Planned Parenthood and restrictions on when and how abortion medications can be administered — they have developed an approach that could still make abortion far more difficult to obtain without the same political costs as an unpopular ban.
“Anti-abortion groups and particularly anti-abortion politicians in Congress know that a direct national abortion ban is deeply deeply unpopular,” said Ashlea Phenicie, the chief external affairs officer for Planned Parenthood of Michigan. “Instead what they’re trying to do is restrict access by a thousand cuts.”
The Washington Post: Trump administration to destroy birth control intended as aid:
The Trump administration is set to destroy a large stockpile of U.S.-funded contraceptives stored at a warehouse in Belgium, which says it has “explored all possible options to prevent the destruction.”
The family-planning supplies, which include more than 50,000 intrauterine devices, nearly 2 million doses of injectable contraceptives, nearly 900,000 implantable contraceptive devices and more than 2 million packets of oral birth control, are worth about $9.7 million, according to an internal accounting in April, The Washington Post reported.
“The Belgian government engaged in diplomatic discussions with the U.S. authorities and explored all possible options to prevent the destruction, including temporary relocation,” spokesperson Laurens Soenen told The Washington Post. “Despite these efforts, and with full respect for our partners, no viable alternative could be secured.”
AXIOS reports that the decision to incinerate the contraceptives came despite offers from the United Nations and reproductive organizations to buy or ship the supplies instead.
The Tennessean: A Tennessee woman said she was denied prenatal care for being unmarried under this newly signed act.
Medicaid, Medicare, and the Affordable Care Act News
The Washington Post: The tough task of selling Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ falls to JD Vance
Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley says he doesn't want to "experiment" with the "vitally important" funding hospitals receive after voting for the Trump budget bill that does just that.
Trump Administration News
This past week, Trump issued an Executive Order that essentially criminalizes mental illness and homelessness:
The president's order asks Attorney General Pam Bondi to "reverse judicial precedents and end consent decrees that limit state and local governments' ability to commit individuals on the streets who are a risk to themselves or others," according to a White House fact sheet. It also commits federal funding to move people on the streets who are "causing public disorder and that are suffering from serious mental illness or addiction" to "treatment centers, assisted outpatient treatment, or other facilities."
"Shifting homeless individuals into long-term institutional settings for humane treatment through the appropriate use of civil commitment will restore public order," the text of the order said.
Thanks to Trump’s ongoing tariff wars, the European Union's trade deal with the United States could cost the pharmaceutical industry between $13 billion and $19 billion as branded medicines become subject to a tariff of 15%, Reuters reports.
The FDA recently approved three mRNA-based vaccines: expanded approvals of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine, a shot for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and a next-generation COVID alternative shot. Many of his so-called “MAHA” supporters are livid. Back in January, self-described medical freedom advocate Shannon Joy asked her tens of thousands of online followers, “Can he tame the pharma giant and stop mRNA expansion?” Now, she is saying that “it’s shocking that three mRNA products have been approved by Robert Kennedy’s FDA.” Another MAHA follower called his actions “outrageous.”
In related news, RFK, Jr. is being sued by the Children’s Health Defense, the anti-vaccine group he founded, for failing to establish a task force to promote the development of safer childhood vaccines. “Our first priority will ALWAYS be children’s health. Sec. Kennedy has FAILED ‘to establish a task force dedicated to making childhood vaccines safer, as mandated by federal law,’ so we WILL be holding him accountable” the group wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter.) Some observers believe that it’s a performative move, designed to give Kennedy the cover he needs to create the group.
Meanwhile, MAHA Action, a nonprofit that backs the Trump administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” agenda, has launched a six-figure ad campaign backing President Trump and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s efforts.
Kennedy’s HHS has adopted a recommendation to remove thimerosal from all influenza vaccines distributed in the United States, following the recommendation made last month by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). REMINDER: There is no evidence that thimerosal is harmful at the levels used in multi-dose vaccines.
In the vacuum created by ACIP’s and Kennedy’s war on vaccines, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists have announced that they will promote their own evidence-based vaccine guidelines.
32 groups have sent a letter to the members of the U.S. Senate urging them to reject Casey Means, Trump’s pick for Surgeon General, saying she is “not a serious nominee and is wholly unqualified to serve as a lead U.S. public health official.”
FOX News reports that the Democratic National Committee has launched billboards outside three rural hospitals that are closing or cutting back services due to the Trump budget bill. The billboards are in Silex, Missouri; Stillwell, Oklahoma; and Missoula, Montana.
A new analysis reported in the JAMA Health Forum suggests that the massive cuts to NIH will cost Americans more money than they saved. Nonetheless, the Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to allow it to cut $783 million from the research agency’s budget.
Other Health Care News
Having taken a machete to health care in America with their budget bill/billionaire tax giveaway, Republicans now want to fix health care in America:
Senate Republicans say they are working on a bipartisan health package to lower drug and health insurance costs, a development that’s news to some Democrats who remain skeptical that their GOP colleagues will work with them.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., is leading the talks, with a particular focus on more transparency from pharmacy benefit managers, so-called upcoding practices in Medicare Advantage and other health items.
A group of Republican senators, including Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, are pushing to extend expiring health insurance subsidies for people who buy their own insurance on the marketplaces.
Maryland’s Prescription Drug Affordability Board (PDAB) has ruled that two Type 2 diabetes drugs may be unaffordable:
After months of deliberation, information gathering and public testimony, a state board unanimously agreed Monday that two common medications for type-2 diabetes and other conditions appear to pose an affordability challenge to the state and Marylanders.
The state Prescription Drug Affordability Board approved two resolutions saying that prescription drugs Jardiance and Farxiga likely pose an “an affordability challenge for the state health care system” and the state should look for ways to bring down those costs.
Health care advocates call the long-awaited resolution an “important first step” in the process in bringing down prescription costs for those on the state’s health plan. [...]
The board will now look at options to address the potential affordability challenge, which could include setting an upper payment limit on those drugs.
Reuters: Humana to reduce about one-third of prior authorization requirements:
Humana said on Tuesday it would eliminate about one-third of prior authorizations for outpatient services by next year, the latest insurer to address the tedious paperwork process that has been a pain point for patients and providers.
The company will remove the authorization requirement for diagnostic services across colonoscopies and transthoracic echocardiograms and select CT scans and MRIs by January 1, 2026.
A federal judge has blocked a first-in-the-nation Arkansas law that prohibits pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) from owning pharmacies in the state. One of the PBMs impacted, pharmacy giant CVS, ran TV ads urging Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders to veto the legislation and is thrilled by the decision.
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, MD wants someone to challenge former President Joe Biden's pardon of Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Some Republicans are working on a plan to privatize health care for military veterans.