October 15, 2025 – The Week in Health Care News
Your digest on the happenings in health care this week | October 15, 2025
Committee News
On Oct. 7, Committee Board Chair Dr. Kristin Lyerly joined Chris Matthews on his Hardball with Chris Matthews show to talk about vaccine disinformation by RFK Jr. and the Trump administration.
On Oct. 7, Committee Advocates Drs. Peter Wallace and Jim Kettelkamp participated in a press conference and rally in Davenport, IA to hold Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Sen. Joni Ernst accountable for their votes to slash health care. The event received coverage by Our Quad Cities News.
On Oct 7, the Committee held a press call with physicians from Philadelphia, Hershey, and Pittsburgh, PA on the importance of voting to retain the Supreme Court justices in the Nov. 4 Supreme Court retention election. It was reported in WHYY, WESA, and WJAC.
On Oct. 8, Michigan Committee Lead Dr. Farhan Bhatti and Committee Member Dr. Chris Ford joined Lincoln Square Media to dive into the impact and importance of ACA tax credits.
On Oct. 8, the Committee hosted “Organize to Protect Our Health,” an event attended by over 60 medical professionals in the Boston area to discuss how people across the medical profession can use their collective power to protect health care and public health, and build pro-patient majorities in 2026. Massachusetts state Senator Cindy Friedman was one of several special guest speakers at the event.
On Oct. 12, the Committee hosted “Connecting for Care” in Downtown Detroit, an event for Michigan physicians to come together, strategize, and activate to impact health policy legislation at the state level, and establish pro-patient majorities in Lansing and DC in 2026. Rep. Debbie Dingell (MI-6), and state Rep. Matt Longjohn, MD spoke at the event.
Government Shutdown News
Yet another poll, this one by Navigator Research, shows that Americans blame Republicans for the shutdown more than Democrats.
AXIOS reports that some moderate Senate Democrats say they are open to placing an income cap on eligibility for Affordable Care Act tax credits to help facilitate a deal with Republicans but that cutting off access for higher earners alone is unlikely to be enough for them.
For their part, Republicans are floating the idea of income limits, as well, along with minimum out-of-pocket premiums, cutting off enhanced tax credits for new enrollees, and adding new abortion restrictions, per POLITICO.
As the shutdown continues, the Trump administration is using government resources to blame Democrats. Workers at the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Social Security Administration received an email from their leaders blaming Democrats in Congress for the government shutdown.
On federal websites, banners appeared with the same message. For example, HUD’s website says, “The Radical Left in Congress shut down the government. HUD will use available resources to help Americans in need.” Other banners appeared on the websites of CDC, DOJ, DEA, ATF, FDA, and the U.S. Forest Service.
At least one member of Congress and the nonprofit group, Public Citizen, are demanding an investigation into what appears to be a blatant violation of the Hatch Act. The Center for Biological Diversity, has filed a complaint, as well.
As he promised, Trump is using the shutdown to fire federal workers, including health workers.
Trump Administration News
An op-ed in The Washington Post by six former U.S. surgeons general appointed by every Republican and Democratic president since George H.W. Bush has a simple message: “We are compelled to speak with one voice to say that the actions of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are endangering the health of the nation.”
HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon called the doctors the same officials “who presided over the decline in America’s public health.”
Trump is trying to use the shutdown as an excuse to stop a lawsuit over its proposed Medicaid cuts to Planned Parenthood. A federal judge shot the idea down saying, “the lapse in appropriations does not justify a stay of these proceedings.”
POLITICO: CDC, its advisers quietly expand access to Covid-19 shot for pregnant women:
The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices [ACIP] voted in September to advise that adults get the Covid-19 shot through shared clinical decisionmaking between patients and providers. It did not specifically vote on whether the shot should be administered during pregnancy, yet the vote appears to encompass pregnant women, according to an update this month on the CDC website that reflects the new guidance.
Meanwhile, ACIP has cancelled their meeting planned for Oct. 22 and 23 with no indication of when a future meeting will take place or why it was moved.
House Speaker Mike Johnson seems to be distancing himself from White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt’s evasive dodge on checking ER patients’ immigration status before receiving life-saving treatment.
Donald Trump Jr. is about to cash in on the Trump administration’s deals with Big Pharma:
The country’s top drugmakers are set to meet in early December at the Four Seasons hotel in Georgetown with Donald Trump Jr. and senior Trump administration officials that regulate the pharmaceutical industry, The Wall Street Journal reports. The host is BlinkRx, an online prescription drug delivery company that this year installed Trump Jr. as a board member. The summit will conclude with a dinner at the Executive Branch, the exclusive new club founded by Trump Jr. and his close friends.
Aaron Siri, an ally of RFK Jr., is hoping to cash in if acetaminophen makers are required to put a stronger warning label on their products:
On the same day that President Trump told pregnant women not to take Tylenol based on an unproven link to autism, a legal ally of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s also took a swing at the issue.
The ally, Aaron Siri, a plaintiff’s lawyer who for years joined with Mr. Kennedy in court battles over vaccines, filed a 12-page petition to the Food and Drug Administration demanding that it strengthen warnings on the painkiller’s label.
The issue is familiar to Mr. Siri, whose law firm encouraged people in 2023 to file claims about Tylenol and autism as lawsuits were pending across the country.
An official F.D.A. warning related to pregnancy would likely bolster any litigation against the manufacturers of acetaminophen, including Kenvue, the maker of Tylenol.
Speaking of acetaminophen, a new KFF poll shows that 65% of Americans think Trump’s comments about it causing autism are probably or definitely false, and 59% said they disapprove of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s job performance.
Also, the AP reports that, last week, RFK Jr. “reasserted the unproven link between the pain reliever Tylenol and autism, and suggested people who opposed the theory were motivated by hatred for President Donald Trump”. He also said, without evidence, “There’s two studies that show children who are circumcised early have double the rate of autism. It’s highly likely because they are given Tylenol.” (Video of the circumcision comment HERE.)
STAT: Pharma companies scramble to make deals with Trump after Pfizer scored White House praise
AXIOS: Trump administration cuts federal support for disabled Americans facing homelessness
Reproductive Rights/Attacks on Medication Abortion
The Hill: GOP senators urge RFK Jr. to crack down on medication abortion
In what appears to be a move toward an egregious expansion of the anti-abortion surveillance state, conservative lawmakers asked the EPA if they could test wastewater for traces of mifepristone. The letter to Congress was organized by the extremist anti-abortion group Students for Life of America who claim they just want to expose environmental harms and threats to public health these residues could cause.
In a shocking attack on medical privacy rights, Missouri’s Attorney General has subpoenaed patient records from Planned Parenthood Great Plains and Planned Parenthood Great Rivers. She is demanding patient medical records, incident reports, “adverse event documentation” and communications about patient care. “We’re not surprised, but disappointed, that Missouri’s first female Attorney General sprinted to carry on the State’s tradition of perverted intrusion into patient’s private medical records,” Mallory Schwarz, the executive director of Abortion Action Missouri, told Jezebel.
Jessica Valenti and Kylie Cheung at ABORTION, EVERY DAY points out that this is happening in other states, too:
The obsession with patient records isn’t limited to Missouri: Indiana’s Attorney General Todd Rokita has been on a one-man mission to make abortion reports public records—like birth and death certificates—and Ohio Republicans want to create a searchable public database of abortion records.
St. Louis Public Radio reports that a Missouri judge has approved updated ballot language for Amendment 3, a proposal to reverse one passed by voters just last year to secure reproductive rights in the state (which was also called “Amendment 3.”) The proposal makes no mention of the fact that it would ban abortions once again. This is the third version of the ballot language.
Tennessee Lookout:Planned Parenthood closes a Memphis clinic after Trump administration stops Medicaid payments
Other Health Care News
BenefitsPRO: California governor signs sweeping pharmacy benefit manager bill:
California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill Saturday that will revamp the laws governing pharmacy benefit managers operating in his state.
The bill “represents the most aggressive effort in the country to lower prescription drug costs,” Newsom said in a bill signing statement.
The new California PBM law appears to be broader than the PBM laws recently adopted in states like Illinois and Massachusetts.
New polling shows once again that doctors are the most trusted messengers for health-related issues. A Washington Post-KFF poll finds that pediatricians are the most trusted source for vaccine information and that confidence in them is a strong predictor of vaccination.
BenefitsPRO: Trust in U.S. health insurers is critically low
STAT reports that a federal appeals court unanimously rejected a Novo Nordisk challenge to Medicare’s drug price negotiation program, a ruling that will allow the government to lump together products with the same ingredient for the purpose of choosing drugs for negotiation.
MedPage Today: Medicaid Expansion Linked to Better Cancer Survival at 5 Years
Measles continues to spread across America, which now has had 1,563 confirmed cases this year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s the highest annual number in more than three decades.
A new study shows that the 2022 Supreme Court decision ending affirmative action has had the entirely predictable result that fewer people of color are graduating from medical school.