May 6, 2026 – The Week in Health Care News
Your digest on the happenings in health care this week | May 6, 2026
Reproductive Rights/Attacks on Medication Abortion
In October 2025, Louisiana’s Attorney General filed a lawsuit to prohibit telehealth and pharmacy access to the abortion pill mifepristone. A federal judge put the case on hold pending the completion of a so-called “safety review” of the drug by the FDA. Louisiana appealed to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Last Friday, the 5th Circuit Court ruled in favor of Louisiana and issued a national stay on the dispensing of mifepristone via telehealth. The ruling even impacts states where abortion is legal and cuts off telemedicine prescribing of the drug for non-abortion purposes, such as easing miscarriages.
Mifepristone manufacturer Danco appealed the ruling but, after no response from the 5th Circuit Court, both Danco and GenBioPro, another manufacturer, appealed to the Supreme Court over the weekend and, on Monday morning, Justice Samuel Alito issued a stay until May 11, temporarily restoring access.
Polling from Tavern Research in partnership with the Committee is featured in an article in The Independent titled, “Abortion rights groups brace for another Supreme Court battle after justices restore telehealth access to widely used drug”:
Nearly three-quarters of voters say decisions about medication abortion should be between a woman and her healthcare provider, according to the Committee to Protect Health Care, a political advocacy group of 36,000 medical workers.
The group’s latest survey also found that 60 percent of voters don’t want courts to overrule doctors and the FDA on abortion drugs, and 57 percent said a state’s abortion ban should not be used to restrict access to telehealth prescriptions for abortion drugs
Roughly one-quarter of respondents said states that ban abortion should also be able to stop doctors in other states from prescribing medication abortion across state lines.
In Oklahoma, legislators sent the governor a bill that would criminalize the use of abortion pills, making it a felony to provide the drugs.
Some good news out of Wyoming: A judge has granted a temporary restraining order on the state’s six-week abortion ban. This means that abortion is legal once again in the state.
And more good news out of Idaho, courtesy of Boise State Public Radio: Idaho abortion ballot initiative exceeds signature requirements for November election
At SLATE, Mary Zeigler explains a new approach being used by anti-abortion zealots to block efforts to secure abortion rights in her piece, “State Courts Are Blocking Abortion Bans Left and Right. Republicans Have a Plan to Stop Them.”
Trump Administration News
Trump pulled his nominee for Surgeon General, Casey Means, last week and replaced her with FOX News contributor Dr. Nicole Saphier, his third choice for the position. In his post about the switch, he blamed Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy – who he called a “very disloyal person” playing “political games” – for Means’ lack of support (as did Means’ brother Calley, RFK Jr., and Trump’s pick over Cassidy in the upcoming Senate primary, Julia Letlow.) Means herself blamed Sen. Lisa Murkowski.
Saphier is a radiologist who has served as a Fox News contributor since 2018. She is also the director of breast imaging at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center-Monmouth.
Additionally, Saphier runs the “Wellness Unmasked” podcast, where she engages in “unfiltered conversations” about wellness and provides “evidence-based insight” about healthy living practices.
The MAHA crowd is decidedly not happy with the choice:
“Dr. Saphier would be a catastrophic mistake on messaging and communicating with MAHA at a time where the coalition is very fragile,” Alex Clark, a prominent MAHA activist who hosts a podcast for the conservative political group Turning Point USA, wrote in a Friday post to X for her 166,000 followers.
NBC News: Trump administration appeals ruling that blocked RFK Jr.’s vaccine overhaul
MedPage Today: New CDC Messaging May Be Eroding Trust in Vaccines, Survey Finds
MedPage Today has released the report censored by the CDC that showed the success of COVID-19 vaccines at keeping people out of hospitals.
Other Health Care News
The New York Times: Since Congress Let Obamacare Subsidies Expire, Millions Are Dropping Coverage:
Millions of Americans appear to be dropping Obamacare coverage in the months since Congress failed to extend the generous subsidies that had become a defining feature of the Affordable Care Act… Many insurers and analysts are estimating overall declines of about 20 percent, dropping to around 19 million from the 24 million who were covered under the A.C.A. last year.
Hospital CEOs were called before the House Ways and Means Committee to answer questions about high health care costs. Much of the four hour hearing and resulting press coverage focused on site-neutral payments as a policy solution addressing high hospital pricing:
Hospitals accounted for nearly one-third of U.S. healthcare spending in 2024 or about $1.6 trillion, according to a report in the journal Health Affairs. Another study, published in JAMA Health Forum, found that patients tend to pay more for the same doctor’s visits when their doctor is part of a hospital or private equity firm.
“The American people are fed up with outrageous prices that seem artificially high,” said Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., the committee’s chair.
RELATED from Fierce Healthcare: On Capitol Hill, health system CEOs agree to ‘rational reworking’ of site-neutral payments
On Friday, Nebraska’s new Medicaid work requirements went into effect, the first state in the nation to impose them as required by the Big Beautiful Bill Act and billionaire tax giveaway. Nebraska is the only state to push forward before the federal government releases guidance in June on what the program should look like.
New polling from KFF shows health care costs are still the top concern of voters:
