November 12, 2025 – The Week in Health Care News
Your digest on the happenings in health care this week | November 12, 2025
Committee News
On November 5, the Committee joined partners – including the American Public Health Association – for a “Rally for the Public’s Health” on the National Mall in Washington, DC, which drew thousands of public health professionals and advocates. Committee Executive Director Dr. Rob Davidson spoke at the rally about the impacts of this administration on rural health care.
Immediately following the rally, the Committee co-hosted a “March for Health & Science” to the Department of Health and Human Services building, and held a rally/press conference calling for RFK Jr.’s impeachment. The presser drew several hundred participants and six members of Congress joined to speak alongside representatives of the Committee and our partners, Stand Up for Science, Science Accountability Institute, Physicians for Healthy Democracy, and several others.
Dr. Rob is featured in MedPage Today coverage of the event:
Another speaker, Robert Davidson, MD, an emergency physician and executive director of the Committee to Protect Health Care, returned the focus to patients themselves.
He recalled a man who came to him after 5 days of abdominal pain with a perforated appendix who waited until he was septic to come to the hospital because he didn’t think he could afford yet another hospital bill.
“So many people end up in my ER because they don’t have access to regular care,” Davidson said. “We can only save so many lives as physicians and nurses in our communities; but together as public health advocates, we can speak out against attacks on healthcare. Together, we can speak up for rural communities, for urban and suburban communities, for all Americans and their health and their well-being.”
Hear more about the march from Dr. Rob himself on last week’s Paging America podcast, “Republicans Overplayed Their Hand: The Backlash Building in Health and Politics.”
On November 5, the Committee held a press call featuring four Ohio physicians to discuss the impact of ACA premium tax credits on Ohioans. The event received extensive media coverage like this from the Newark Advocate.
Florida Committee Advocate Dr. Leo Alonso did a Spanish language interview with Jorge Ramos about the effects of not funding the ACA subsidies. You can watch the interview HERE starting at around the 19:40 mark.
On November 4, Committee Advocate Dr. Raj Singhal spoke alongside Sen. Mark Kelly (AZ) and local advocates about how losing ACA tax credits will make coverage more expensive than last year. The press call was covered by hoodline.
Government Shutdown News
The government shutdown is now the longest in history and Americans continue to blame Trump and Republicans for it by double digits while awareness of the shutdown has surged nine points, according to the latest (Nov. 5) poll from Navigator. They blame Trump and Republicans for the loss of SNAP benefits by nearly 20-point margin.
However, KFF’s recent poll shows that, while most people want the ACA subsidies extended, they’re nearly evenly split on whether Democrats should keep the government shut down in order to achieve this goal, suggesting that the Trump administration’s efforts to make the shutdown harm as many people as possible has worked.
This may be fueling the concession of enough Senate Democrats plus one Independent to make a deal with Republicans to reopen the government without assurances the subsidies will be maintained.
In the middle of everything, Trump posted that he wants to redirect ACA subsidies directly to individuals so they can “purchase their own, much better healthcare, and have money left over”.
In response, Sen. Chris Murphy tweeted, “This is, unsurprisingly, nonsensical. Is he suggesting eliminating health insurance and giving people a few thousand dollars instead? And then when they get a cancer diagnosis they just go bankrupt? He is so unserious. That’s why we are shut down and Americans know it.”
On Monday evening, the Senate voted 60-40 to reopen the government, with seven Democrats and Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) joining the Republicans to pass it.
Via The Washington Post (emphasis added):
The bipartisan compromise in the Senate combines three full-year funding measures for specific parts of the government into one package, along with a stopgap funding bill for the rest of it through Jan. 30.
The bill would also reverse more than 4,000 federal layoffs the Trump administration attempted to implement earlier in the shutdown and prevent future layoffs through Jan. 30, easing pressure on a federal workforce reeling from tens of thousands of layoffs this year. The deal would appropriate funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as SNAP or food stamps, through September.
But it would not extend Affordable Care Act subsidies set to expire at the end of the year, increasing health care costs for millions of Americans.
The bill now goes to the House which has been in recess for over 50 days. They are expected to vote on it later this week. Republicans can only afford to lose two votes if all Democrats vote against it. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is pushing House Democrats not to vote for it.
Trump Administration News
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and other medical groups have updated their lawsuit against RFK Jr., calling for his Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) to be disbanded and its decisions overturned.
BenefitsPRO reports that a group of 25 Senate Democrats, including Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, sent a letter to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. last week criticizing the Trump administration over rising health care costs.
The Trump administration’s latest budget request to Congress would eliminate the Hospital Preparedness Program. The program has provided nearly $2.2 billion to states, territories, major cities, and other entities over the past 17 years to ready health care systems for the next pandemic, cyberattack, or mass-casualty event, reports KFF:
Trump’s budget director, Russell Vought, proposes eliminating the program, saying the effort “has been wasteful and unfocused” and that cutting it would allow states and cities to “properly” fund their own preparedness plans.
Speaking of Russell Vought, via KFF: Wielding Obscure Budget Tools, Trump’s ‘Reaper’ Vought Sows Turmoil in Public Health
The FDA has approved a drug costing $800,000/year to treat the ultra-rare Barth syndrome, despite objections by reviewers who say it was largely ineffective compared to a placebo. It’s part of administration efforts to make rare disease drug approvals a priority.
AXIOS is bullish on a new agreement between the Trump administration and the makers of weight loss drugs:
Anti-obesity drug manufacturers publicly agreed yesterday to essentially trade higher prices for more patients.
Without knowing exactly how the White House’s deal with Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly will shake out, it may end up being the case that everyone involved is a winner — an extremely rare phenomenon in health policy.
The federal government will supposedly pay around the same amount as it does now for GLP-1s. Companies will receive about the same amount of money from the federal government while expanding their overall patient base. More people with obesity and related health conditions will be able to access remarkably effective treatments.
MedPage Today has more:
As part of a new deal with the White House, doses of Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly’s blockbuster drugs for patients without insurance will be priced at $350 through TrumpRx for a month’s supply -- the GLP-1 receptor agonists currently carry list prices of over $1,000 per month. Starting doses of new, pill versions of the treatments also will cost $149 a month if they are approved. The TrumpRx website is expected to launch before the end of the year.
A senior administration official said coverage of the drugs will expand to Medicare patients starting next year, with Medicare paying $245 for semaglutide and tirzepatide. Those who qualify will pay $50 copays for the medicine.
The MAHA crowd is not happy about this development:
Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was uncharacteristically chummy with pharma executives at the White House on Thursday as he cheered the Trump administration’s plan for lowering obesity medication prices. Kennedy has railed against drugmakers in the past, and his lifestyle-focused Make America Healthy Again movement has opposed Medicare coverage of GLP-1 weight loss drugs. [...]
But Kennedy’s shift did not go over well with some of his followers. While obesity, diabetes, and other metabolic conditions are a key focus of Kennedy’s movement, many in MAHA see them as treatable with lifestyle adjustments, like a healthier diet or more exercise.
Reproductive Rights/Attacks on Medication Abortion
AP reports that Florida’s attorney general has filed a lawsuit against Planned Parenthood, claiming the organization is “misrepresenting the safety” of abortion pills:
Florida’s lawsuit claims Planned Parenthood is violating a Florida law against deceptive and unfair trade practices and its activities constitute “racketeering,” a charge that was originally used to fight organized crime.
“Planned Parenthood and its Florida operations mislead women about the critical and undeniable risks of a chemical abortion by deceptively claiming these powerful drugs are less risky than everyday pain medication,” the complaint reads.
The lawsuit seeks estimated damages of $350 million and asks the court to consider implementing a suite of sanctions against Planned Parenthood, including requiring the organization to sell off real estate, bar it from providing abortions, or order that the organization be dissolved.
The full Democratic Caucus is demanding answers from FDA Commissioner Martin Makary and RFK Jr. In a letter sent to the two, the Democrats pressed them to explain how they’ll comply with last week’s federal ruling that said medically unnecessary restrictions on mifepristone are unlawful.
WESA: Pa. Commonwealth Court examines whether Medicaid abortion ban violates equal rights protections:
A case that could redefine abortion access in Pennsylvania was argued before the state’s Commonwealth Court Wednesday. Abortion clinics are challenging the state’s restrictions on Medicaid coverage for abortion, and argue such limits are unconstitutional and discriminatory. [...]
Some state Medicaid programs cover the procedure, but Pennsylvania is among a group of states that only allows coverage under three circumstances: rape, incest or when the life of the mother is at grave risk.
Other Health Care News
The Colorado Sun: After Colorado put a price cap on its drug, Amgen sued the state board that did it. Again.:
The pharmaceutical company Amgen has again sued Colorado over a state board’s decision to place a price cap on the blockbuster rheumatoid arthritis drug Enbrel.
The Colorado Prescription Drug Affordability Review Board placed the price cap on the drug last month and set it at $600 for a standard weekly dose — about $31,000 per year but still almost 50% less than what patients and insurers paid for a yearly dose on average in Colorado in 2023. The board, also known as the PDAB, is one of the centerpieces of Gov. Jared Polis’ approach to reducing health care costs through stronger government regulation.
Amgen said the price cap, which is formally called an upper payment limit, is unconstitutional and will cause the company financial damage. [...]
Amgen reported making more than $3.3 billion in Enbrel sales worldwide last year.
Around one thousand anti-vaxx leaders met in Austin last week for a conference, where they embraced the “anti-vaxx” label, once seen as a pejorative. “God is an anti-vaxxer, and he needs you to speak up,” declared former top Kennedy political adviser and head of the anti-vaccine group Informed Consent Action Network Del Bigtree. More from The New York Times:
“I’ve come to this anti-vax conference with a message that we need to be more boldly anti-vax,” said Mark Gorton, the president of the MAHA Institute, a group that works to advance Mr. Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” agenda. Mr. Gorton assailed the website of Mr. Kennedy’s former nonprofit as “some pretty weak anti-vaxxery.”
Meanwhile, Children’s Health Defense, founded by RFK Jr., is working to entrench themselves in the minds of the public.
From AXIOS: New argument against enhanced ACA subsidies:
[Conservative think tank] Paragon crunched numbers and is arguing that ACA enrollees receive a much bigger tax benefit than those with employer insurance, which has several negative consequences.
“Workers face a large penalty if they receive health insurance through their employers rather than through the exchanges,” [they say]... “[B]ad for people with employer insurance” could end up being a potent political argument against the enhanced subsidies.
UNDARK reports that a group called “Frontline Health Advocates” is selling medical vaccine exemptions for $495. Via MedPage Today:
Frontline Health Advocates utilizes legal strategies, like forming itself as a Private Ministerial Association, which has special First Amendment protections, and invoking federal disability law, arguing that medical exemptions are protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act which they say supersedes state vaccine laws.
MSNBC: Meet the anti-vaccine activist who could lead the response to the next pandemic:
Historically led by doctors, military officers or career public health officials, the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (or ASPR, pronounced “Asper”) is now being directed instead by John Knox, a firefighter turned anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist with no background in management or public health. [...]
It was the pandemic that forced Knox’s hand. As he tells it, Knox didn’t trust the government or the media about Covid’s severity or the reported death toll: “Fear porn,” he called it. And when the mRNA vaccines were rolled out, he didn’t see it as a scientific breakthrough or a triumph of public health, but something sinister.