June 2, 2025 – The Week in Health Care News
Your digest on the happenings in health care this week | June 2, 2025
Attacks on Medicaid, Medicare, and the Affordable Care Act
Last Friday at a town hall in Iowa, Sen. Joni Ernst was defending the Republicans’ efforts to slash Medicaid to pay for massive tax breaks for the wealthy and for corporations when someone in the audience shouted, “People are going to die!” Ernst’s response was as cold-hearted as it was shocking: “Well, we all are going to die,” she said. “So, for heaven’s sakes. For heaven’s sakes, folks.”
After facing withering condemnation for her comment, Ernst doubled down by insulting her critics in a video post on X where, walking through a cemetery with a fake look of deep concern on her face. “I made an incorrect assumption that everyone in the auditorium understood that, yes, we are all going to perish from this earth,” she wrote. “So I apologize, and I’m really, really glad that I did not have to bring up the subject of the tooth fairy, as well. For those that would like to see eternal and everlasting life, I encourage you to embrace my Lord and savior Jesus Christ.”
STAT reports that a largely overlooked element of the Republicans’ “Big Beautiful Tax Giveaway” (BBTG) bill is how much it kneecaps the Affordable Care Act, with the potential to throw 8 million people off of their health insurance.
The Washington Post reports that the number of people losing coverage will be nearly 11 million. Ironically, the impact is falling heavily on people in states that Trump won last year.
AXIOS has a good rundown of how the ACA is being gutted. Among its many provisions, “the bill would end automatic reenrollment in ACA plans for people getting subsidies, instead requiring them to proactively re-enroll and resubmit information on their incomes for verification,” AXIOS reports.
Meanwhile, House Speaker Mike Johnson said this week that the 4.8 million people projected to lose their health care if the BBTG bill is passed “will not lose their Medicaid unless they choose to do so.” Johnson’s comments appear to be the opening salvo in the White House’s plans to deceive Americans into believing that cuts to Medicaid will only affect people who didn’t deserve it in the first place.
In our ongoing fight to save Medicaid, Medicare, and the ACA, the Committee co-hosted a town hall in Texas’ 2nd Congressional District on May 29 featuring former Rep. Beto O’Rourke. We also co-hosted a town hall in Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District with Opportunity Wisconsin featuring Rep. Mark Pocan on May 31.
The Committee in the News
This week, Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy announced the formation of a PAC to fight back against Trump and Republicans in Congress. One of the recipients of the PAC’s support is the Committee to Protect Health Care. From the POLITICO article: “The first recipients of contributions from Murphy’s PAC include Georgia Youth Justice and Project 26 Pennsylvania. His group is also backing the Committee to Protect Health Care’s work organizing doctors and nurses to support Medicaid in Michigan, Louisiana and Utah.”
On May 26, The Oregonian published a letter-to-the-editor by Committee Advocate Dr. Shandra Greig titled, “Limit hospital ‘facility fees’”, advocating for the passage of SB 539.
Trump Administration News
NOTUS revealed this week that RFK, Jr.’s so-called “MAHA report” is rife with inaccurate and, in some cases, fictitious citations. Failed use of AI is believed to be the source of the errors. Some of the citations were from actual scientists and researchers, but the papers attributed to them do not exist. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the errors “formatting issues” and said they were being fixed but NOTUS once again reports that the updated version is still rife with errors.
Kennedy promoted the report on X, saying, “Never in American history has the federal government taken a position on public health like this.” Given the reporting by NOTUS, this appears to be quite true, although not for the reasons he believes.
On MSNBC’s Chris Jansing, public health expert and Columbia University senior research scholar, Dr. Irwin Redlener called the report “unconscionable” and said if it had been published by a normal scientist, they would have been fired.
RFK, Jr.’s changes to who the CDC recommends receive COVID-19 vaccines means that insurance companies will likely not cover the shots for anyone not covered by their guidance.
Strangely, though, after RFK, Jr.’s announcement about the new guidance, the CDC has now contradicted their boss.
RFK, Jr., who has been casting doubts on mRNA vaccines for some time now, has ordered HHS to cancel a nearly $600-million contract with pharmaceutical manufacturer Moderna that was intended to develop a shot for humans against bird flu.
RFK, Jr. was a guest on "The Ultimate Human" podcast with Gary Brecka this week and made some shocking statements, even for him. During the podcast, he described the major medical journals like The Lancet, the New England Journal of Medicine, and JAMA as “sock puppets” that are “all corrupt” because he believes they are beholden to Big Pharma. Because of this, he is “probably” going to ban NIH scientists from publishing their research in them.
Kennedy wants to create his own journals, instead.
The effort to clamp down on publishing in these widely respected journals has already begun, at least at the VA Department.
Kennedy also said he doesn’t think the FDA should play a role in approving prescription medications.
STAT reports that the Trump administration is making a move to classify more federal workers as “political appointees” (as opposed to civil service employees) so that they can be more easily removed or advanced.
Trump’s plan to become known as the “fertilization president” is running into the buzzsaw of anti-abortion zealots.
An E. Coli outbreak went largely under the radar, thanks to cutbacks by the Trump administration. The result? A bigger threat than necessary.
Reproductive Rights
Last November, voters in Missouri overturned the state’s near-total abortion ban. However, the state legislature voted to put the matter before the voters again, this time with a referendum that makes no mention of an abortion ban. Now, the Missouri Supreme Court has eliminated access to abortion in the state once again, this time in the name of women’s “health and safety.”
In Louisiana, a state with a total abortion ban, the supreme court declared last year that frozen embryos from invitro fertilization (IVF) procedures are “children.” However, the state legislature has sent a bill to the governor that protects IVF providers from criminal charges and lawsuits, suggesting that their belief that “life begins at conception” has limits.
From Carb Day at the Indy 500 (the final practice session before the race) through race day, abortion education nonprofit Mayday Health hired a plane to fly over Speedway with a banner advertising "abortion pills by mail."
French scientist Etienne-Emile Baulieu, inventor of the abortion pill, died on Friday aged 98 at his home in Paris.
Other Health Care News
In 2023, a federal appeals court struck down parts of a 2019 Oklahoma law that regulated the operation of Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs.) The case is now before the U.S. Supreme Court and the Trump administration is urging the high court not to take the case. The brief filed by the U.S. solicitor general was requested by the Supreme Court.
In Arkansas, where Governor Sarah Sanders signed a bill into law in April that bars PBMs from owning pharmacies, CVS and Express Scripts are now suing the state to block enforcement of the law.
North Carolina appears to be the next state that will regulate PBMs.