July 8, 2026 – The Week in Health Care News
Your digest on the happenings in health care this week | July 8, 2026
Reproductive Rights/Attacks on Medication Abortion
The Hill: Planned Parenthood set to regain federal funding as GOP ban expires. Anti-abortion groups are outraged.
Iowa Capital Dispatch: Gov. Kim Reynolds signs laws restricting access to abortion pills, HPV vaccine. The law requires that abortion medications be prescribed in person and dispensed at a medical center with a physical exam to screen patients for signs of coercion or abuse. It also requires parental consent for kids to receive the HPV vaccine.
KOSU: Oklahoma law creates new penalties for abortion pill distribution:
House Bill 1168 will make it a felony for a person to deliver or possess with the intent to deliver an abortion-inducing drug to someone who plans to use it to terminate a pregnancy. It applies to medications such as mifepristone, misoprostol, and methotrexate.
The penalty for “trafficking” or “attempting to traffic” these drugs is up to $100,000 in fines, 10 years in prison or both. That doesn’t pertain to pregnant people seeking out the pills for themselves.
News From the States: NJ lawmakers approve new protections for transgender and reproductive healthcare. Opponents say the new law interferes with their right to harass and intimidate people seeking abortions or transgender care.
Health Care Affordability
The Committee hosted an ambulance tour with SEIU in Wisconsin to hold Republicans in the state accountable for their support of Trump’s Big Billionaire Tax Giveaway law on its 1-year anniversary. The tour has been covered by numerous outlets including Channel 3000, Madison 365, and the Wisconsin Examiner which included a statement from Committee Advocate Dr. Kristen Dall-Winther.
RELATED from The Washington Post: Democrats invoke ‘big, beautiful bill’ far more than Republicans as midterms near
In New York, nearly half a million people lost their health insurance on July 1 due to Trump’s law.
KFF Health News: Affordable Healthcare Emerges as a Voter Priority in Purple Nevada
Modern Healthcare: Congress looks to drag healthcare private equity into the light
NOTUS reports on a win for site-neutral payments:
Seniors could pay less starting in January for X-rays, ultrasounds, MRIs or other scans administered in a hospital under a proposal released Thursday by the Trump administration.
Medicare intends to reduce payments to hospitals for routine imaging services, putting them on par with what it pays doctor’s offices for the same services…
AP: Trump administration proposes a rule it says could save Medicare patients $1.1 billion on drugs:
The Trump administration is proposing a new rule on Thursday to keep hospitals from charging markups on discounted drugs for Medicare patients and says that could save consumers $1.1 billion next year, according to estimates obtained by The Associated Press.
Trump Administration News
In an in-depth piece titled, “Are MAGA and MAHA Heading for Divorce?”, Rolling Stone pulls back the curtain on Trump using RFK Jr. and his MAHA followers for political support while helping corporations like tobacco and pesticide manufacturers reap more profits. “Kennedy pledged that…he would put an end to the corporate corruption and undue influence that were secretly making Americans sick,” they write. “But despite the idealistic claims, HHS officials watched as the agency bent to politics as usual.”
The curtain was pulled back even further when former CDC chief medical officer Debra Houry was interviewed on CBS News, who described the situation under his “leadership” as “pure chaos.” “I think the secretary has caused a lot of irreparable harm, and when you look at many of the polls out there, the trust in public health, specifically CDC, has decreased dramatically…” Houry said in an explosive Face the Nation interview.
Last week, the Air Force confirmed to Congressman Joaquin Castro that trainee Keon McDaniel died from the flu during the outbreak at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio.
NPR: FDA scientists flag concerns with peptides, the trendy molecules RFK Jr. supports
Bloomberg (via MSN): RFK Jr. taps Haridopolos as temporary surgeon general
Researchers estimate that a new US-UK trade deal will enrich pharmaceutical companies and result in over 200,000 unnecessary deaths. The UK will spend nearly $45 billion more on medicines by 2036 as a result.
Other Health Care News
Following the recent Supreme Court decision on birthright citizenship, prominent conservatives lost their minds. The Mirror US (via AOL.com reports) reports that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin claimed Chinese women are racing into the U.S. with “one week” left in their pregnancies “and then they move back to China and raise a person under the communist regime.”
And from Rolling Stone:
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, himself the descendant of European refugees from 20th century pogroms and the Holocaust, told Fox News that the Trump administration would be taking “a hard look” at banning all pregnant women from entering the country. [...]
Rep. Lauren Boebert [wrote] that the “State Department should IMMEDIATELY cease to give out visas to pregnant applicants.”
Influencer Benny Johnson [believes] Republicans should “codify into law a permanent ban on immigration from third world countries,” ban skilled worker visas like the H1-B program, and mandate pregnancy tests for women visiting the U.S. to prevent “birth tourism.”
The New York Times: Supreme Court Allows States to Bar Transgender Athletes From Girls’ Sports
New polling from KFF shows that people without a trusted health care provider are more likely to believe vaccine myths and are more likely to use social media or AI for health information.