March 26, 2026 – The Week in Health Care News
Your digest on the happenings in health care this week | March 26, 2026
Reproductive Rights/Attacks on Medication Abortion
NPR reports that the number of abortions in the US hasn’t budged since the demise of Roe v. Wade, largely due to the rise in telemedicine abortions. This largely explains the aggressive push by anti-abortion groups to ban the use of abortion pills.
AP: Georgia woman charged with murder after police say she took pills to induce an abortion
However, during a hearing this week, Judge Steven G. Blackerby of State Superior Court said, “I think that charge is extremely problematic. That is going to be a hard charge to convict upon.” Blackerby set the woman’s bail at just $1.
Mississippi Today: Lawmakers In Mississippi Consider Bill To Restrict Abortion Medication
Sen. Josh Hawley introduced a bill earlier this month titled the “Safeguarding Women from Chemical Abortion Act” that would revoke the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone. His bill would, he says, “empower women to sue [mifepristone] manufacturers.”
In related news, Hawley has also sent letters to mifepristone manufacturers Danco Laboratories and GenBioPro “to inform them that he is opening an investigation into their business practices related to mifepristone as mounting evidence shows women are suffering alarming rates of adverse-effects after taking the drug.” Once again, the so-called “mounting evidence” remains a self-published and thoroughly-debunked “junk science” paper from the anti-abortion Ethics and Public Policy Center.
Trump Administration News
STAT: Automatic enrollment in Medicare Advantage plans under consideration, top Trump health official says:
President Trump’s Medicare director said Thursday his team is considering a policy that would automatically enroll Medicare beneficiaries into Medicare Advantage plans, a controversial idea that was touted in the conservative Project 2025 policy blueprint.
A nationwide STAT survey of federally funded researchers reveals that, a year after Donald Trump’s return to the White House, many academic scientists are reeling. Rather than waning, the impacts of the administration’s seismic changes to science funding are intensifying, causing researchers to drastically scale back the ambition of their work and driving some to shut down their labs entirely. [...]
“This is like the Titanic hitting the iceberg,” said Steve Shoptaw, who runs the Center for Behavioral and Addiction Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, which has shrunk by 40% due to funding cuts. “People are still eating at the table, music’s still playing, and yet the ship is sinking.”
The New York Times pulls back the curtain on what it’s like to work at the CDC amid the turmoil created by RFK Jr. and his supporters.
Following a ruling rolling back all decisions by Kennedy’s hand-picked ACIP, there is confusion on whether they will appeal the ruling, disband ACIP, or recreate it with new members. Some headlines:
The Guardian: Confusion abounds over future of US vaccine advisory committee
CNN: Federal vaccine panel in disarray after judge blocks changes
Fierce Pharma: ACIP member’s miscommunication on vaccine panel’s future adds to confusion after court ruling
Scientific American: Influential vaccine advisory panel may be ‘disbanded’ after lawsuit, says former vice chair
BioSpace: HHS Denies Disbandment of CDC Vaccine Advisory Group in Wake of Court Ruling
Wellness grifter Casey Means’ nomination to be Trump’s Surgeon General is stuck with Senators Bill Cassidy and Lisa Murkowski saying they are still undecided. MAHA influencer “Food Babe” says that Cassidy is “going to be in a world of hurt if he decides to oppose Casey Means because he will basically be opposing every single MAHA mom in the country.”
The Trump administration is now saying the quiet part out loud: Trump’s most-favored nation status drug pricing scheme isn’t intended to lower Rx costs in the US. It’s intended to raise costs in other countries. “We told the manufacturers, price wherever you want,” one official said. “That’s fine, just don’t undercut us in another wealthy country.”
The Washington Post reports that RFK Jr. and Dr. Oz are counting on AI to save rural health care after Republicans cut $137 billion in Medicaid dollars from rural areas over ten years and replaced it with a one-time infusion of $50 billion.
AP: Judge rules US government overreached with transgender health care declaration:
A federal judge said the government overreached by issuing a declaration that called treatments like puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgeries unsafe and ineffective for young people experiencing gender dysphoria, according to a ruling Thursday in Oregon.
Judge Mustafa Kasubhai ruled that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. didn’t go through the proper administrative procedures in December when issuing the declaration, which warned doctors that they could be excluded from federal health programs like Medicare and Medicaid if they provide these treatments.
Dr. Oz is tasked with hunting down fraud and waste in health care at the same time Trump is pardoning some of the worst offenders.
OMB Director Russ Vought reportedly said in 2023 and 2024 he wants to put federal workers “in trauma.” It appears to be working, especially at HHS, where only 20% of workers are satisfied in their jobs.
ICE in the News
The New York Times: Pregnant in ICE Detention: Handcuffs and Pleas for Medical Care
The 19th: Detained pregnant people are entitled to full medical care. They say it’s not happening.
The 19th: ICE has been deporting pregnant and postpartum immigrants. Now we know how many.:
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has detained and deported hundreds of pregnant, postpartum and nursing immigrants since the start of the Trump administration, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed for the first time Wednesday. Federal policy says that such individuals should only be detained in limited circumstances.
Between January 1, 2025, and February 16, 2026, 363 pregnant, postpartum and nursing immigrants were deported, DHS reported in response to questions submitted last fall by Sen. Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat. Sixteen miscarriages were recorded during that time period. In total, 498 pregnant, postpartum and nursing people were reported as “booked out” of ICE detention in that timespan, meaning that they were detained and then left ICE facilities.
Thanks to Trump’s and Republicans’ love of health savings accounts, one company is giddy:
Today, Americans are facing dramatically increased health care costs, with millions losing coverage and one in three cutting back on daily living expenses to cover medical bills.
For the health savings account (HSA) industry, however, these are boom times. In a triumphant March 17 earnings call, HealthEquity, the nation’s largest administrator of HSAs, reported “accelerating earnings power… significant margin expansion, and record HSA sales.”
Other Health Care News
Pope Leo XIV on universal health care last week:
Health cannot be a luxury for the few. On the contrary, it is an essential condition for social peace. Universal health coverage is not merely a technical goal to be achieved; it is primarily a moral imperative for societies that wish to call themselves just. Healthcare must be accessible to the most vulnerable, then, not only because their dignity requires it but also to prevent injustice from becoming a cause of conflict.
Robert Weissman, co-president of Public Citizen, says the US could save 20% in health care costs by moving to a single-payer system
STAT: Senate Democrats lay out plans to overhaul health insurance after setbacks under Trump:
Democrats are laying out their plans to rebuild the health care system in the hopes of eventually regaining control of Congress and the White House. [...]
Democrats have been using health care spending cuts and the rising cost of Affordable Care Act insurance plans as a cudgel against Republicans in this election cycle. But they also want to tell voters what they support, not just what they’re against, lawmakers say. And they see the major setbacks to Medicaid and ACA insurance coverage as a chance to start from scratch and to get different factions of the Democratic party to agree on how to rebuild the health care system.
“We’re in a blue sky moment,” a Senate Committee on Finance aide said. “Our members feel incredibly emboldened.”
KFF Health News: Rising Health Costs Push Some Middle-Aged Adults To Skip the Doc Until Medicare
The CT Mirror reports that state Senate Dems have introduced legislation to create a $200M ‘CT option’ public option for health insurance in Connecticut that differs from the one already proposed by Gov. Ned Lamont.
CIDRAP: Up To 60% Of Health Care Workers May Have Long COVID 4 Years After Infection
With nearly 1,500 measles cases in 2026 so far, the US is on track to blow past last year’s numbers which were the highest in over three decades.