October 8, 2025 – The Week in Health Care News
Your digest on the happenings in health care this week | October 8, 2025
The Committee in the News
On Sept. 30, the Committee co-hosted 3 “government shutdown protests” with Opportunity Wisconsin, Protect Our Care, and Family Friendly Wisconsin in La Crosse (WI-3), Eau Claire (WI-3), and St. Francis (WI-1). Committee physicians spoke at the La Crosse and St. Francis events. New8 Now covered the La Crosse event.
On the same day, Committee Advocate Dr. Heidi Appel spoke at the “Health Care Over Billionaires” rally at the US Capitol co-hosted by the Committee, Fair Share America and other partners, calling for Congress to protect health care as Republicans pushed the federal government into shutdown. Other Committee Advocates attended, as well, and you can watch video of the event HERE with Dr. Appel’s comments starting at around the 1:51:00 mark.
Committee Advocate Dr. Atsuko Koyama and Committee Members Drs. Mirielle Algazi and Dr. Michael Hamant are featured in an article in the AZ Mirror about physicians demanding their members of Congress extend the ACA subsidies and end the government shutdown. These physicians also participated in a virtual press conference on Oct. 3.
Committee Advocate Dr. Frederick Southwick, a Florida infectious disease specialist, joined three other specialists for a roundtable discussion to emphasize the importance of vaccines amid the state’s effort to rescind mandates. The event received coverage at ABC 20 WCJB.
Government Shutdown News
The Washington Post: We asked 1,000 Americans who they blame for the shutdown. Here’s what they said.
By a 17-percentage-point margin, the poll finds more saying Trump and Republicans are responsible for the partial government shutdown than Democrats in Congress. [...]
The Post poll finds 71 percent of Americans say federal health insurance subsidies should be extended, while 29 percent say they should end as scheduled. [...]
About three-quarters of Democrats (76 percent) and 55 percent of independents want Democrats in Congress to demand the extension of insurance subsidies even if it extends the shutdown.
NBC News: A majority of Trump supporters back extending Obamacare subsidies, poll finds:
The new survey found 59% of Republicans and 57% of “Make American Great Again” supporters favor extending the enhanced subsidies. [...]
Overall, more than three-quarters of the public — 78% — say they want Congress to extend them. That includes 92% of Democrats and 82% of independents.
Trump claims he wants to “fix” Obamacare. “Obamacare has been a disaster for the people, so we want to have it fixed so it works,” he told reporters Sunday.
KFF Health News: GOP Falsely Ties Shutdown to Democrats’ Alleged Drive To Give All Immigrants Health Care
From the American Journal of Managed Care:
The shutdown immediately threatens the stability of Medicare’s expanded telehealth authority. [...]
Such disruptions could force providers to limit virtual care offerings or shift patients back to in‑person visits, which could delay care and add costs. Seniors and patients with chronic conditions stand to be most affected.
STAT: Home hospital programs in ‘terror’ as they grind to halt ahead of government shutdown
Becker’s Hospital Review: Health systems scramble to discharge hospital-at-home patients
HHS to furlough 41% of workforce during federal government shutdown, NIH research grinds to a halt, and it’s preventing the FDA from accepting applications for new drugs and medical devices.
Trump Administration News
This week, the CDC made official the recommendations from the recent contentious Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices which includes dropping a broad recommendation that Americans age 65 and older get a COVID-19 vaccine. “Informed consent is back,” CDC Acting Director Jim O’Neill said in a statement. “CDC’s 2022 blanket recommendation for perpetual COVID-19 boosters deterred healthcare providers from talking about the risks and benefits of vaccination for the individual patient or parent. That changes today.” O’Neill also called on vaccine manufacturers to develop separate shots for measles, mumps and rubella instead of the current vaccine, which combines the three.
STAT reports that low-income children lack access to Covid vaccines because of stalling by RFK Jr.
MSNBC: He helped build the anti-vaccine movement. RFK Jr. just hired him:
RFK Jr.’s anti-vaxx crusade seems to be working. New polling from the Annenberg Public Policy Center suggests that only 36% of women who are at childbearing age believe mRNA vaccines are safe. That number is down from 42% just last year.
An NIH whistleblower who alleged the Trump administration had defied court orders and undermined vaccine research has been fired.
In an op-ed in MedPage Today, physicians say that “that guilt, self-blame, and panic has set in” among their pregnant patients, thanks to the demonization of acetaminophen by Trump and RFK Jr. “It wasn’t just the degree of anxiety that was striking about her message,” they write. “It was that guilt and self-blame permeated every word.”
More from The 19th: This isn’t the first time moms have been blamed for their kids’ autism
The Trump administration is delaying fixing a loophole that allows drug makers to avoid Medicare drug price negotiations by making tiny tweaks to their drugs by combining an active ingredient subject to negotiation with another ingredient.
Reproductive Rights/Attacks on Medication Abortion
The Hill: Federal judge keeps alive red state lawsuit against mifepristone:
A Texas federal judge late Tuesday declined to dismiss a lawsuit against the Food and Drug Administration seeking to sharply restrict the abortion pill mifepristone, instead transferring the case to Missouri and keeping the effort alive.
U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk ruled that Idaho, Missouri and Kansas — which were not the original plaintiffs — have no ties to Amarillo, Texas, where the original lawsuit was filed.
But instead of dismissing the case outright, Kacsmaryk transferred it to the Eastern District of Missouri “in the interest of justice.”
Kacsmaryk is a well-known conservative judge who is hostile to abortion access and who frequently uses terminology employed by anti-abortion zealots. He issued the original ruling suspending the FDA’s approval of mifepristone which was eventually overturned due to lack of standing by the plaintiffs.
Meanwhile, The Washington Post reports that anti-abortion zealots are furious that the FDA has approved a new generic version of the mifepristone abortion pill. Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley tweeted that he has “lost confidence in the leadership at FDA” because of the decision.
Some shocking news from Oklahoma, via ABORTION, EVERY DAY:
Oklahoma healthcare providers who want to keep getting Medicaid reimbursements will have to sign what amounts to an anti-abortion loyalty pledge—promising that they don’t perform abortions or work with a medical group that does...The pledge asks the respondent to affirm that they don’t “perform, refer for, or are affiliated with the performance of abortions,” and that they aren’t “affiliated with a physician, medical practice, or other organization providing abortion services or facilitating the procurement of abortion services.”
On the heels of Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin ceasing to offer abortion services, Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast in Louisiana is shutting down ALL operations in the state after more than 40 years. The city of New Orleans is trying to pick up some of the slack.
AP: Maine clinics also hit by cuts that targeted Planned Parenthood plan to halt primary care
Meanwhile, Idaho: ‘We aren’t going anywhere:’ Idaho’s last Planned Parenthood plans to stay open despite federal cuts
Other Health Care News
This past week, the Colorado Prescription Drug Affordability Board set a Upper Payment Limit (UPL) for Enbrel, the first UPL in the country. Enbrel’s price has wholesale price has increased 1,582 percent since it was approved in 1998.
The Committee has worked hard for this monumental moment over the past four years.
Pfizer’s agreement with the Trump administration to cut U.S. drug prices is not going over well with the MAHA crowd.