June 17, 2026 – The Week in Health Care News
Your digest on the happenings in health care this week | June 17, 2026
Reproductive Rights/Attacks on Medication Abortion
In Michigan, the Alliance Defending Freedom wants to overturn a law that protects abortion patients from employment discrimination and allow companies to refuse to hire them.
A new study shows that abortion bans may be reducing the number of women applying for medical school and “restrictive reproductive policies may be subtly reshaping women’s professional pathways even at the earliest stages of the physician workforce pipeline.”
The Hill reports that a provision in Trump’s big billionaire tax giveaway law that stripped $700,000 in funding for Planned Parenthood is due to expire next month and the fight is on over whether or not it gets extended.
Wyoming Public Radio: Wyoming Judge Strikes Down Three Abortion Restrictions As Unconstitutional
Health Care Affordability
The Hill: States starting to see major ObamaCare coverage losses
The New York Times: Can’t Pay Medical Bills? Trump Officials Suggest Getting a Loan [from your insurance company!]
Fierce Healthcare reports that a key legislative panel voted Tuesday to bar CMS from spending funds to pilot a controversial plan to add prior authorization to traditional Medicare.
In related news, NBC News reports that “patients enrolled in some of the nation’s largest Medicare Advantage plans were denied requests for rehabilitation and other critical services at unusually high rates, according to a report released by HHS.
The American Medical Association (AMA) strengthened its opposition to corporate practice of medicine by passing a policy that takes a stronger stance against physician practices being anything other than owned and governed by licensed physicians.
Modern Healthcare: Judge strikes shortened ACA enrollment, stricter eligibility checks
Trump Administration News
POLITICO reports that, despite its promise to rescue the midterms for the GOP, the MAHA movement isn’t even in the game and that they “have largely stayed out of the races that will determine the makeup of Congress.”
According to reporting by CNN, RFK Jr. is seeking access to most Americans’ medical records, in a quest to research a link between vaccines and autism.
The Trump administration began suspending about 800 hospices in the Los Angeles area suspected of fraud this spring. Legit caregivers are becoming collateral damage, The Washington Post reports.
The AMA is done with RFK Jr. They just elected an anti-Kennedy president who is ready to go on the attack. Via a POLITICO article titled, “America’s doctors just voted for war with RFK Jr.”
STAT: RFK Jr. claims his calendar is publicly available. We’ve been trying to get it for a year
Kennedy claims his trip to MAHA PAC-endorsed Tom Barrett’s Congressional district (MI-07) isn’t a campaign stop.
Mother Jones: RFK’s Answer to the Maternal Health Crisis: Hide the Data
The Guardian has a shocking story about desperate parents of children with autism paying up to $20,000 for injections of stem cells from human umbilical cords, an unproven, unapproved, and possibly bogus treatment championed by RFK Jr.
Meanwhile, the San Francisco Chronicle reports that a federal judge has ruled to keep the state hospital records of transgender minors away from the Trump administration.
CIDRAP: Poll reveals plunging trust in CDC guidance but broad backing for childhood vaccines
The New York Times: How an Addictive Gas Station Drug Found Allies in Trump’s Cabinet – With support from Markwayne Mullin and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the kratom industry is pursuing a potentially lucrative policy. Mr. Mullin owns equity in a company that could benefit.
Via STAT, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has released a recommended vaccine schedule for pregnant people, one that diverges from the advice currently offered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In 2019, Trump pledged to end the HIV epidemic by 2030. POLITICO reports he has abandoned the effort.
Trump continues to prove he’s the most pro-nicotine president in memory. In addition to approving fruit-flavored vapes (and accepting campaign donations from the companies that make them), he bought stock in multiple tobacco companies this year.
Other Health Care News
Last March, STAT reported on the formation of the Great American Health Alliance which is trying to further cash in after reaping a windfall with Trump’s big billionaire tax giveaway law. The nonprofit’s membership includes “HealthEquity, one of the largest administrators of HSAs [Health Savings Accounts], and the American Bankers Association, which represents institutions holding about 90% of HSAs.” The group is aggressively promoting including HSAs in the so-called Reconciliation 3.0 (filibuster-proof) legislation Congress may be taking up and, this week, they released a splashy 30-second ad directed at lawmakers. HSAs mainly benefit people with high incomes and are used essentially as tax shelters.
VPM: Roughly 1 in 5 rural Virginia hospitals at risk of closure
About a dozen doctors and scientists were escorted out of the American Diabetes Association’s annual conference by police on June 5 after they handed out copies of an editorial critical of the Trump administration’s changes to U.S. biomedical research. The ADA is facing withering condemnation for calling the police and they have issued an apology. Some leaders have resigned.