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The House passed a sweeping tax-and-spending cuts bill Thursday that would dramatically reshape the healthcare system by slashing more than $1 trillion from Medicaid and other programs. The majority Republican lower chamber voted 215-214 to approve the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025 just before 7 a.m. EDT after an all-night floor debate. Attention now shifts the GOP-led Senate, which has not commenced public debate on its tax measure. Congress is scheduled to begin a recess Friday and will return to Washington on June 2. (McAuliff, 5/22)

Deep cuts to Medicaid and other healthcare programs the House passed Thursday are unlikely to survive Senate debate intact, key Republicans said. The House approved the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025 by a single vote, and the internal GOP fight in the Senate is likely to be just as hard to resolve as it was in the lower chamber. Hard-line conservatives and swing-state senators are already facing off in a battle to change the House measure. (McAuliff, 5/22)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Republicans Aim To Punish States That Insure Unauthorized Immigrants

President Donald Trump’s signature budget legislation would punish 14 states that offer health coverage to people in the U.S. without authorization. The states, most of them Democratic-led, provide insurance to some low-income immigrants — often children — regardless of their legal status. Advocates argue the policy is both humane and ultimately cost-saving. (Galewitz and Mai-Duc, 5/23)

The tax bill the House passed Thursday would bar Medicaid coverage of all transgender care and prohibit plans offered under the Affordable Care Act’s exchanges from covering such care as an essential health benefit, potentially jeopardizing access to care for hundreds of thousands of trans adults and an unknown number of minors. The bill initially would have prohibited Medicaid from covering “gender transition procedures” for minors, including puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgery. However, House Republican leadership introduced an amendment late Wednesday that struck the word “minors” and the words “under 18 years of age” from that section, The Independent first reported. (Yurcaba, 5/22)

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps, already requires work for some of its roughly 42 million recipients. Adults ages 18-54 who are physically and mentally able and don’t have dependents must work, volunteer or participate in training programs for at least 80 hours a month, or else be limited to just three months of benefits in a three-year period. The legislation passed by the House would raise the work requirement to age 65 and also extend it to parents without children younger than age 7. The bill also would limit the ability to waive work requirements in areas with high unemployment rates. (Mulvihill and Lieb, 5/22)

CMS updated its hospital price transparency guidance May 22, requiring hospitals to post the actual prices of items and services, not estimates. The update comes after President Donald Trump issued an executive order Feb. 25 aimed at boosting healthcare price transparency. In the updated guidance, CMS said hospitals must display payer-specific standard charges as dollar amounts in their machine-readable files (MRFs) whenever calculable. This includes the amount negotiated for the item or service, the base rate negotiated for a service package and a dollar amount if the standard charge is based on a percentage of a known fee schedule. (Cass, 5/22)

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will revise a popular Medicare accountable care organization as new evidence indicates the program is saving more money. CMS is updating financial benchmarks and risk-adjustment formulas for ACO Realizing Equity, Access and Community Health, or ACO REACH, the agency revealed in an update to its website Wednesday. These changes are prompted by a preliminary report showing gross savings are rising even though the alternative payment model remains costlier than the standard Medicare payment system. (Early, 5/22)

President Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, set forth their vision on Thursday for how to “make America healthy again” with the release of an expansive report on a crisis of chronic disease in children. The report lays the blame on ultraprocessed foods, chemical exposures, stress, lack of physical activity and excessive use of prescription drugs, including antidepressants. The product of a presidential commission led by Mr. Kennedy, the report paints a bleak picture of American children, calling them “the sickest generation in American history.” (Gay Stolberg and Blum, 5/22)

A much anticipated report led by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says that children’s health is in crisis and that it’s likely the result of ultraprocessed food, exposure to chemicals, lack of exercise, stress, and overprescription of drugs. But the report, from the Kennedy-led Make America Healthy Again Commission, shies away from the strident language Kennedy has used in the past in demonizing the food, farming and pharmaceutical industries, and leaves for another day proposals for how to improve kids’ health. The accused industries have been lobbying furiously to persuade Kennedy to tone down the rhetoric. (Paun, Cirruzzo, Brown and Lim, 5/22)

The Make America Healthy Again commission’s first report on the nation’s health crisis is in, and it sounds familiar. The assessment, kept tightly under wraps before Thursday — the commission met just once, behind closed doors — lays out health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s views, and gives some sense of where his department will target its efforts. (Cueto, 5/22)

The White House has released its long-awaited “MAHA Report” outlining the government’s target areas for addressing childhood chronic disease: diet, environmental chemical exposure, physical activity/stress and “overmedicalization.” The 68-page report prepared by the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission, which is chaired by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., was ordered by President Donald Trump in February. (Muoio, 5/22)

As the Trump administration pushes for deep cuts in federal health agencies, Robert F Kennedy Jr. has produced a 72-page summary on the environmental toxins, chemicals and ultraprocessed foods he said are causing an “existential crisis” in the United States. In an interview Thursday afternoon with Tom Llamas, senior national correspondent for NBC News and upcoming anchor of “Nightly News,” Kennedy, the secretary of health and human services, said the “Make America Healthy Again” report, which blamed sedentary, technology-driven lifestyles and the overprescribing of medications. (Edwards, 5/23)

President Trump on Thursday claimed his recent “most favored nation” executive order could cause U.S. drug prices to “drop like a rock” in just a matter of weeks, saying the savings will be “incalculable.” In a briefing to discuss the newly released Make America Healthy Again Commission’s report on children’s health, Trump ended the event by talking about the executive order he signed last week aimed at slashing prescription drug prices. (Choi, 5/22)

President Trump said Thursday that autism must not occur naturally, citing figures inflating the spike in autism and suggesting the administration’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission could provide answers. “When you hear 10,000, it was 1 in 10,000, and now it’s 1 in 31 for autism, I think that’s just a terrible thing. It has to be something on the outside, has to be artificially induced, has to be,” Trump said at a MAHA Commission event. (Gangitano, 5/22)

Since taking office, President Trump has vowed to dismantle what he calls the “deep state” and “fire rogue bureaucrats.” His latest attempt to do so has garnered widespread pushback from scientists over concerns that the move will politicize decisions about federal funding for research on a scale never before seen in the U.S. (Oza and Molteni, 5/23)

What’s really behind the Trump administration’s massive cutbacks in research funding? Since January, agency after agency has seen massive spending cuts — adding up to a historic slashing of the globally dominant American research apparatus. The White House’s proposed budget would cut National Science Foundation funding by more than half. A Senate minority staff report cited a $2.7 billion drop in funding commitments to the National Institutes of Health through March compared to last year. (Robertson, 5/22)

In the wake of sweeping workforce cuts at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), leaders from unions representing many of the affected employees descended upon Washington, D.C. on Thursday. American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) locals rallied outside HHS headquarters to "protest the Trump administration's attempts to gut the federal agency that helps prevent employee injuries, illnesses, and deaths at workplaces nationwide," AFGE said in an announcement. (Henderson, 5/22)

Health nonprofits and medical interpreters warn that federal cuts have eliminated dozens of positions in California for community workers who help non-English speakers sign up for insurance coverage and navigate the health care system. At the same time, people with limited English proficiency have scaled back their requests for language services, which health care advocates attribute in part to President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown and his executive order declaring English as the national language. (Sanchez and Orozco Rodriguez, 5/22)

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is enrolling fewer graduate students in its vaunted research programs and laying off employees as the Trump administration’s squeeze on universities muddles its financial outlook. President Donald Trump has slashed funding and reimbursements made through the National Institutes of Health and other federal agencies, key sources of support for research-oriented universities like MIT. The school also faces significantly steeper taxes on its endowment under legislation that passed the US House of Representatives. (Ryan, 5/22)

Marie Chantel Montas, a third-year Ph.D. candidate at Harvard University from the Dominican Republic, was on a road trip with her husband when she got the news: The Trump administration had blocked her school from enrolling international students, while current ones would have to transfer. With two more years before she gets her degree in population health sciences, Montas has no idea what her future holds. (Maglione and Ballentine, 5/23)

Before it became a national scandal, the lead-poisoning-from-applesauce case was just two little kids with concerning blood test results in Hickory, N.C. A state inspector drove out with local health officials in June 2023 to try to find the source. (Boodman, 5/23)

One of the cutting-edge technologies the Food and Drug Administration wants to use to replace animal studies might not be ready for a solo performance. Organ-on-a-chip technology, which uses human cells on microfluidic chips to mimic the structure and function of organs in a laboratory setting, can’t yet replace animal tests, according to a new Government Accountability Office report. Standing in the way: Challenges include cost, availability of materials, a time-intensive process and the need for highly trained staff to operate the technology. (Reader, 5/22)

The companies that make COVID-19 vaccines should update the shots again to target a variant closer to the strains currently on the rise, a committee of independent advisers to the Food and Drug Administration unanimously recommended Thursday. Moderna, Pfizer/BioNTech and Novavax should target strains related to the JN.1 variant with their vaccines for next fall and winter because that strain is closer to the new variants of the virus that are circulating, the advisers voted after a day-long meeting. (Stein, 5/22)

Yesterday the Vaccine Integrity Project (VIP), a panel of leading public health and policy experts, published a viewpoint on the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA's) decision this week to issue new, more restrictive, COVID-19 vaccine recommendations via an opinion piece in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). (Soucheray, 5/22)

Seven weeks into his job as FDA commissioner, Marty Makary, MD, MPH, held his own answering a barrage of sometimes acrimonious questions from Senators about agency staffing cuts, limits on COVID boosters, and more. He had been asked by a subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee to explain -- or defend -- the Trump administration's fiscal 2026 budget request, which some committee members complained they hadn't yet seen. (Clark, 5/22)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Trump’s Team Cited Safety In Limiting Covid Shots. Patients, Health Advocates See More Risk

Larry Saltzman has blood cancer. He’s also a retired doctor, so he knows getting covid-19 could be dangerous for him — his underlying illness puts him at high risk of serious complications and death. To avoid getting sick, he stays away from large gatherings, and he’s comforted knowing healthy people who get boosters protect him by reducing his exposure to the virus. (Armour, 5/23)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's airport screening program has detected multiple cases of the new COVID-19 variant NB.1.8.1, which has been linked to a large surge of the virus in China. Cases linked to the NB.1.8.1 variant have been reported in arriving international travelers at airports in California, Washington state, Virginia and the New York City area, according to records uploaded by the CDC's airport testing partner Ginkgo Bioworks. (Tin, 5/22)

Scientists in the United Kingdom yesterday announced plans to expand use of a low-cost, real-time genome sequencing technique used to detect COVID-19 variants to cover a wider variety of pathogens. Funded by Wellcome, the ARTIC 2.0 project will use an integrated, field-deployable viral sequencing system that was developed by scientists at the University of Birmingham and has been used by thousands of laboratories worldwide to look for COVID-19 variants of concern. (Dall, 5/22)

Coloradans’ potential exposure to measles grew rapidly in recent days with a confirmed traveler’s case coming through Denver International Airport and a nearby hotel, as well as a different case with an out-of-state driver staying at a hotel in Pueblo hotel, state officials said. (5/22) 

A new model developed through the international Pediatric Emergency Research Network (PERN) creates a predictive tool that will help clinicians decide if a child's pneumonia warrants hospitalization or intensive care, according to new findings in The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health. (Soucheray, 5/22)

Today in JAMA Network Open, researchers in Singapore document higher rates of cardiovascular events among adults hospitalized for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) than among those admitted for influenza or COVID-19 Omicron infection. The nationwide study, conducted before RSV vaccines were rolled out in Singapore, compared the risk of cardiovascular events (any cardiac, cerebrovascular, or thrombotic event) and intensive care unit (ICU) admission with or without a cardiovascular event among 32,960 adults hospitalized for an RSV, flu, or COVID-19 infection. (Van Beusekom, 5/22)

New research is showing just how much alcohol has impacted cancer mortality rates in the past three decades. In the analysis, released Thursday ahead of being presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology 2025 conference in Chicago, researchers found alcohol-associated cancer deaths in the United States doubled from 1990 to 2021, rising from 11,896 to 23,207. The authors also found mortality rates were significantly higher in males and those above age 55. On a state level, the analysis found Washington, D.C., had the highest alcohol-related mortality rate across both sexes, while Utah had the lowest. (Moniuszko, 5/22)

“Forever chemicals,” or PFAS—the group of more than 9,000 potentially hazardous synthetic compounds linked to cancer and other health problems—have been found lurking in everything from non-stick pans and candy to butter and processed meats. Oh—and in about half of tap water systems nationwide. So why should your favorite brewski be immune? After testing beers brewed in different areas of the country, researchers with the American Chemical Society have discovered the highest levels of polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in those from regions with known PFAS-contaminated water sources. (Greenfield, 5/22)

A recent study links taurine, an amino acid made by the body and an ingredient found in several types of food, to the growth of blood and bone marrow cancers like leukemia. The research team, headed by Jeevisha Bajaj at the University of Rochester’s Wilmot Cancer Institute, discovered that taurine is made by certain normal cells in the bone marrow, which is where myeloid cancers start and grow. Because leukemia cells cannot produce taurine on their own, they depend on other genes to obtain it and transport it to the cancer cells. (Battaglia, 5/22)

In patients with type 2 diabetes and obesity, use of GLP-1 receptor agonists was associated with a lower risk of obesity-related cancers and death from any cause, a target trial emulation study found. (Ingram, 5/22)

Merus said Thursday that a combination of its experimental drug petosemtamab with the checkpoint inhibitor Keytruda has kept 79% of patients with newly diagnosed metastatic head and cancer alive for at least one year, according to a new analysis of a mid-stage clinical trial. (Feuerstein, 5/22)

Former President Joe Biden’s diagnosis of an aggressive, stage-4 prostate cancer has reignited a long-simmering medical debate: When should men get screened for prostate cancer? For decades, doctors have wrestled with how often to screen men for the disease and when to start and stop. Some medical groups disagree in their recommendations, and guidelines have gone back and forth on whether men should be screened at all. (Abbott, 5/22)

When I learned that former President Joe Biden had not undergone prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening since 2014—and was later diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer—I knew there would be renewed interest and debate about prostate cancer screening guidelines. As a urologist, I regularly discuss the complexities surrounding PSA testing with my patients. The PSA test remains valuable for early detection, but it continues to generate controversy due to its limitations. (Brahmbhatt, 5/22)

Finding a way to fight pancreatic cancer is personal for Kirsten Bryant. She was studying cell biology at Cornell University and considering cancer research during the last year of getting her doctorate in 2013 when her father died from pancreatic cancer. (Fernandez, 5/23)

Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk have waged war on telehealth companies marketing compounded versions of their blockbuster diabetes and obesity medications. With shortages of the branded drugs declared over, and the window for compounding copies closed, though, some virtual care companies are emerging as unlikely allies. (Palmer, 5/23)

Healthcare companies are seeking a more adaptable option for financial expertise without the burden of funding a full-time executive. These executives, called fractional chief financial officers, can provide certain companies with top-tier financial leadership on a part-time basis to help navigate a swath of operational challenges including rising prices, staff burnout and federal policy shifts. (Hudson, 5/22)

A former senior partner at McKinsey & Company was sentenced on Thursday to six months in prison for destroying records that shed light on the firm’s role in the national opioid crisis. The partner, Martin Elling, 60, had pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice as part of a federal case against the firm and its efforts to “turbocharge” sales of OxyContin during an overdose epidemic that had already killed hundreds of thousands of people. McKinsey agreed to pay $650 million to end that investigation last December. (Forsythe, 5/22)

The Department of Veterans Affairs' Office of Inspector General has issued seven recommendations for improvement of the Gainesville Veterans Health System. Their recommendations, published in a report issued Tuesday, stem from issues found during a routine inspection, including improperly stored oxygen tanks, unclean food storage areas, medical equipment that was expired or overdue for maintenance and unsecured medications. These cyclical inspections are done approximately every three years at every VA location. (Moorehead, 5/22)

The Texas House on Thursday approved a bill requiring health agencies to create a new field in medical records for the sex assigned at birth of patients and strict oversight and punishment of health care providers who change records. (Runnels, 5/22)

Reproductive rights advocates sued Arizona on Thursday to unravel several laws regulating abortion in the state. The lawsuit was filed by two providers in the state and the Arizona Medical Association. It comes more than six months after voters enshrined in the state constitution access to abortions up to fetal viability, which is the point at which a fetus can survive outside of the uterus. The advocates are seeking to undo laws including those that bar abortions sought based on genetic abnormalities, require informed consent in-person at least 24 hours before the procedure and offer an opportunity to view the ultrasound, and prohibit abortion medication delivered by mail and the use of tele-health for abortion care. (Govindarao, 5/23)

In July, members of the public will be allowed to carry concealed firearms onto school grounds as long as they have a valid permit. The Legislature repealed gun-free zones earlier this year, paving the way for the legal bearing of arms in schools and on college campuses that had previously banned the practice. School boards can't limit this right, but they can add handgun and scenario-based training requirements for their teachers, other staff and volunteers. (Victor, 5/22)

Brandon Rogers fielded calls from as far away as Australia as his community strained to recover from the worst natural disaster ever to hit his slice of western North Carolina. Texts poured in by the hundreds. The influx kept the Haywood County commissioner and his staff busy as they coordinated an unimaginable humanitarian recovery. (Colman, 5/22)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Volunteers Help Tornado-Hit St. Louis Amid Wait For Federal Aid

Kevin Hines has been living in a house without a roof in the days since a tornado devastated his community. He has seen some of his neighbors sleeping in their cars. A different man has spent untold hours on a bench. In the aftermath of the May 16 tornado, Hines, 60, has a blue tarp covering his home. Still, rain came in three days later — an expected problem in a house without a roof. But he didn’t think wildlife would be an issue. Then a bird landed on his television. He spotted a squirrel on the sofa. (Anthony and Sable-Smith, 5/22)

Across the country, Black women face higher risks of dangerous outcomes during and after pregnancy. According to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Black women are three times as likely to die of pregnancy-related causes than White women. (Richardson, 5/22)

UnityPoint Health–Meriter in Madison, Wis., is preparing for a five-day strike beginning May 27 by union nurses. Service Employees International Union Wisconsin represents nearly 935 registered nurses at the hospital, which is part of a joint operating agreement between UnityPoint Health and Madison-based UW Health. West Des Moines, Iowa-based UnityPoint Health employs more than 29,000 workers total across three states. Union members issued a 10-day strike notice May 9, according to the Wisconsin Examiner. (Gooch, 5/21)

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, often says that when his uncle was president in the early 1960s, Americans were much healthier than they are now. People were thinner and had lower rates of chronic disease, he recalls. Fewer children had autism, allergies or autoimmune diseases. On Thursday, the Trump administration released a report on children’s health premised on the idea that we’ve fallen far since this golden era. But were Americans really healthier back then? (Caryn Rabin, 5/22)

It can be difficult to tell whether your environment is noisy enough to cause damage, but there are signs to watch for: If you need to shout to speak to someone a few feet away, your hearing is probably at risk, according to O.S.H.A. Many smartphones and watches can also alert you if your surroundings reach potentially harmful volumes, said Patricia Gaffney, president of the American Academy of Audiology. The same goes for the volume of music in your headphones. (Mogg, 5/15)

A session with Terry Real can be uncomfortable. The marriage and family therapist is known to mirror and amplify the feelings of his clients — sometimes cursing and nearly yelling — in an attempt to get men in touch with emotions they’re not used to expressing. Real says men are often pushed to shut off their expression of vulnerability when they are young. That process, he says, can lead to myriad problems in their future relationships. Real recently joined Anna Martin, host of the Modern Love podcast, to discuss his work, why he thinks our current models of masculinity are broken and what it will take to build new ones. (5/14)

The energy drink cans are the colors of a tropical beach sunset — aqua and tangerine and neon pink — so they really pop when lined up for fridge organizing shots on TikTok. They’re sugar-free but come in summery dessert flavors like Sherbet Swirl. On social media, the drinks are brandished by members of an official collegiate ambassadors program, gymnasts and cheerleaders whose dewy complexions suggest they’ve never had a hangover or slept through their alarm after a late-night study session. (Todd, 5/13)

A new study shows that only a quarter of fire cleanup workers in Altadena wore gloves, a fifth wore a protective mask, and a mere tenth donned full Tyvek suits, as required by California’s fire cleanup regulations. For Pablo Alvarado, co-executive director and co-founder of NDLON, the results aren’t surprising. (Haggerty, 5/22)

England's National Health Service (NHS) announced today that it is set to launch a vaccination campaign against gonorrhea this summer. Starting in early August, eligible patients, including gay and bisexual men who have a recent history of multiple sexual partners or a sexually transmitted infection (STI), will be able to receive an existing vaccine for meningococcal B disease (4CMenB) at local authority-commissioned sexual health clinics to prevent gonorrhea. (Dall, 5/21)

The loss of key CDC funding is a blow that public health leaders warn could unravel years of progress in a state long tied to Big Tobacco. (Baxley and Hoban, 5/21)

Maria Van Kerkhove knows how to operate under stress. As an epidemiologist and key leader at the World Health Organization during the pandemic, she was at the forefront of trying to combat the ever-changing pandemic. She served as the face of WHO in over 250 media briefings, explaining to the world what scientists were learning about the latest variant and how much sickness and death it might cause. (Lambert, 5/22)

The most important attempt to undermine Obamacare is also the most cleverly disguised. To restrict access to Medicaid — the federal program that Obamacare expanded and that covers medical costs for lower-income people, including children, the elderly and people with disabilities — House Republicans are proposing to add a work requirement to the program. (5/23)

There’s a legitimate debate to be had about adding fluoride to drinking water. The practice has long been lauded as a victory for dental health because the chemical can strengthen tooth enamel and prevent cavities. But too much of it presents real health risks. (5/22)

Since I was a child, I’ve been terrified of appendicitis. There was no horseplay with my cousins and siblings after a meal. I suspect that myth was helpful to parents who wanted their children well-behaved in spite of post-dessert sugar highs. Still, everyone is born with an appendix and so we are all at risk one way or another. (Howard Choa-Eoan, 5/23)

Big pharmacies are in trouble. In March, Walgreens announced that it had reached a $10 billion buyout deal with private-equity firm Sycamore — a price that was just a tenth of its $100 billion value a decade ago. In recent years, the big three — Walgreens, CVS, and Rite Aid — have closed thousands of stores nationwide. Smaller, independent pharmacies are struggling, too. A 2024 National Community Pharmacists Association survey found that nearly a third of these owners and managers were considering closure in the next year. (Patrick Aguilar and Matt Hoff, 5/23)

In 1975, my sister Robin, at 19, became a living kidney donor for our brother.  A few years later, we backpacked through Europe. She later married, had two beautiful children, and launched a successful business. But the donation affected her long-term health. (Jane Zill, 5/23)

As the opioid overdose crisis continues to harm people across Connecticut, there is an urgent need to take bold action. One of the most promising solutions, supported by decades of evidence, is the establishment of overdose prevention centers . These centers save lives and provide comprehensive support to people who use drugs. (Katherine Hill et al, 5/23)