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The House is teeing up a series of health care votes this week as Democrats face a choice on their willingness to back anything but a straight extension of enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies. (Sullivan, 12/15)

The Baltimore Sun recently sat down with Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul in his Russell Senate office for a wide-ranging conversation that touched on childhood and COVID vaccine mandates, the power of federal health agencies, the influence of Big Pharma, the future of the Affordable Care Act, and his proposals to lower healthcare and insurance costs. The interview has been edited for clarity. (Williams, 12/15)

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) called on Congress to pass legislation addressing expiring subsidies offered under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), regardless of who gets the credit. “Good policy is good politics,” Cassidy told host Chris Stirewalt on NewsNation’s “The Hill Sunday.” “Let’s not have a Republican plan or a Democratic plan, let’s have an American plan. If we address it, I don’t care who gets the credit.” (Rego, 12/14)

With key Obamacare tax credits set to expire within weeks, Democrats have unified behind a simple message: extend the subsidies and keep health insurance premiums from spiking for more than 20 million Americans. Republicans, meanwhile, have engaged in a wide-ranging blame game while scrambling to coalesce behind an easily digestible plan to lower health care costs. That struggle comes to a head this week as House leaders move to put what they hope will be a consensus GOP plan up for a vote. (Carney, Lee Hill and Wu, 12/15)

With subsidies for Affordable Care Act (ACA) health insurance set to expire, Americans who rely on them will probably switch to plans with lower monthly premiums and high deductibles or decide not to purchase any coverage, which will have a serious and damaging impact on the entire sector, according to healthcare policy experts. The average amount ACA plan enrollees pay annually for premiums is estimated to more than double, from an average of $888 this year to $1,904 in 2026, according to a �鶹Ů�� analysis. (Berger, 12/14)

For one Wisconsin couple, the loss of government-sponsored health subsidies next year means choosing a lower-quality insurance plan with a higher deductible. For a Michigan family, it means going without insurance altogether. For a single mom in Nevada, the spiking costs mean fewer Christmas gifts this year. She is stretching her budget already while she waits to see if Congress will act. (Swenson, 12/13)

Also —

In a year dominated by vaccine policy, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, the Trump administration has set in motion other policy changes that are still in the works and could influence billions of dollars in health spending. (Goldman, 12/15)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: �鶹Ů�� Health News’ ‘An Arm and a Leg’: How To Pick Health Insurance — In The Worst Year Ever
As health insurance premiums skyrocket in both employer-based plans and Affordable Care Act marketplaces, millions face worse choices than ever during this open enrollment.The team behind “An Arm and a Leg” examines their own limited options, walking through how they approached reading the fine print to weed out the worst choices — and potentially save thousands of dollars. (Weissmann, 12/15)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: �鶹Ů�� Health News’ ‘On Air’: Journalists Talk Increasing Insurance Costs, From Marketplace Plans To Employer Coverage 
�鶹Ů�� Health News chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner discussed Affordable Care Act subsidies on Crooked Media’s What a Day on Dec. 10 and on Slate’s What Next on Dec. 9. (12/13)

A federal appeals court on Friday allowed the Trump administration to continue withholding funding from Planned Parenthood as mandated in the tax and domestic policy bill President Trump signed in July. The provision requires the government to stop making Medicaid reimbursements to a subset of the nation’s largest abortion providers, in a manner so narrowly defined that Planned Parenthood claimed it had been deliberately singled out. The decision clears the way for the provision to stay in effect and sends the group’s lawsuit back to a lower court to untangle. (Montague, 12/12)

Nearly every week for three years, as the morning light crept over the horizon, Addie Evans climbed into her Subaru Outback, iced coffee in hand. The Cranberries played through the speakers as she turned up the volume and set off on the familiar drive north, leaving behind the rolling hills of Mankato for the Twin Cities metro. The Subaru was more than just Evans’ transportation. It also doubled as a mobile office, packed full of lists, a journal, her laptop, gloves, birth control pills, condoms and packages of misoprostol, a medication that can be used to end a pregnancy. (Zurek, 12/15)

More news on the Trump administration —

A coalition of blue states is suing the Trump administration over its fee of $100,000 for H-1B Visas, several Democratic attorneys general announced on Friday. The Trump administration announced in September that it would be implementing the fee for H-1B visas, citing that the program for the visas is overused. California Attorney General Rob Bonta, joined by Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell and New York Attorney General Letitia James and others, is leading the suit. (Gannon, 12/12)

A program for deafblind children helped 3-year-old Annie Garner, born with poor vision and no ears, learn to communicate. The Trump administration cut the program’s funding over diversity goals. (Rao, 12/15)

As President Donald Trump prepares a historic relaxation of marijuana restrictions, Americans may wonder what it means for buying and using the country’s most popular illicit drug. The answer: Not that much. Reclassifying the drug from its status as the most tightly regulated Schedule I substance would not legalize or decriminalize cannabis. You won’t see it start to appear in pharmacies or liquor stores. (Hatzipanagos and Portnoy, 12/12)

The problem, the experts said, is that nobody has been listening to men. For too long, hormone therapy has been inaccessible for cisgender men who need it — or so said clinicians, professors and a pharmaceutical CEO gathered this week by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Testosterone, a controlled substance, should be deregulated and patients should be able to access it at pharmacies without stigma, they said. Low testosterone in men is not just a cosmetic issue, they claimed — it’s an American health crisis. (Rummler, 12/12)

Gov. JB Pritzker on Friday signed into law a measure that would allow doctors to help terminally ill people end their lives after the controversial bill barely cleared the Senate during the fall legislative session, where one skeptic said it could bring “a culture of death” to Illinois. (Gorner and Olander, 12/12)

It may soon be easier for Illinois residents to find therapists who accept their insurance, after Gov. JB Pritzker signed a bill into law Friday taking aim at insurance reimbursement rates for behavioral health services. (Schencker, 12/12)

Health news from California, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania —

Gov. Gavin Newsom plans to announce on Monday that California has hired two former leaders of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who accused the Trump administration of abandoning scientific standards. One is Susan Monarez, a former director of the C.D.C., who was fired by the White House in late August after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tried to remove her from her position and she resisted leaving. The other is Dr. Debra Houry, a former chief medical officer of the C.D.C., who quit partly in protest over the firing of Dr. Monarez. Both will now serve as consultants for the California Department of Public Health. (Rosenhall and Mandavilli, 12/14)

A growing group with unique medical needs — older adults living with inflammatory bowel disease — now have a practice tailor-made for them: a UCSF clinic in San Francisco focusing exclusively on patients 65 and older. Among them is 81-year-old Peter Milkie. Every four weeks, he goes to an infusion center at UCSF Mount Zion for about an hour, where he gets a dose of a medication that helps with bloating, cramping and other symptoms of ulcerative colitis. (Ho, 12/14)

North Carolina Treasurer Brad Briner has made waves during his first year in office among state employees, who will see a sharp uptick in their health insurance premiums starting next month. Briner says the increase is necessary to address a shortfall in the North Carolina State Health Plan he found when he arrived. (Hoban, 12/15)

Medetomidine, a veterinary sedative mixed into fentanyl, has sent thousands to hospitals, not only for overdose but for life-threatening withdrawal. It is spreading to other cities. (Hoffman, 12/15)

Connecticut health officials on Thursday reported the state’s first case of measles since 2021 after an unvaccinated child traveled internationally. The case was detected in a child younger than 10 years in Fairfield County, according to a statement from the Connecticut Department of Public Health (DPH). (Mancini, 12/12)

Measles outbreaks are spreading across the U.S., and the nation is likely to lose its status as a country where the disease is eliminated, something that infectious disease specialists say is directly related to President Trump’s appointment of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). South Carolina this week quarantined at least 254 people after confirming more than two dozen measles cases in the state. It’s the latest in what has been the worst year for measles in the U.S. in recent history. (Choi, 12/13)

“Reckless” and “dangerous” were just two of the broadsides American medical groups lobbed at Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s vaccine advisers after they recommended ending universal vaccination at birth for hepatitis B, the virus that causes liver failure and cancer. Retsef Levi, one of the advisers, has some choice words for the critics: They’re conflicted. They’re misleading the public. They’re party to gross, even criminal negligence, he says. (Röhn, 12/14)

President Donald Trump is showing increasing interest in reducing the number of routine childhood vaccines in the United States. As part of that justification, he and anti-vaccine activists are pointing to what’s recommended in other countries — an idea that medical and public health experts say ignores key differences about the United States’ health care system. (Rodriguez, 12/12)

The heated debate over Florida’s plan to revoke some school vaccine mandates was on full display Friday when state officials held a meeting for the public to weigh in on the proposed changes. The current plan, according to officials at the Florida Department of Health, is to eliminate requirements that children be vaccinated against hepatitis B, chickenpox and haemophilus influenza type B (Hib) in order to attend private or public schools in the state, including prekindergarten. (Bendix, 12/13)

On unhealthy air —

The warm spices in gingerbread, the woodsy aroma of pine and fir trees, and the fruity tang of mulled wine are smells synonymous with the holiday season. Many people enjoy lighting candles, incense and fireplaces in their homes to evoke the moods associated with these festive fragrances. Burning scented products may create a cozy ambiance, and in the case of fireplaces, provide light and heat, but some experts want people to consider how doing so contributes to the quality of the air indoors. All flames release chemicals that may cause allergy-like symptoms or contribute to long-term respiratory problems if they are inhaled in sufficient quantities. (Mumphrey, 12/14)

Astronomers have been calling attention to whether so much activity high above might compromise their opportunities to study distant objects in the night sky. At the same time, other scientists have concentrated on the physical dangers. Several studies project a growing likelihood of collisions and space debris — debris that could rain down on Earth or, in rare cases, on cruising airplanes. More recently, however, scientists have become alarmed by two other potential problems: the emissions from rocket fuels, and the emissions from satellites and rocket stages that mostly ablate (that is, burn up) on reentry. (Gertner, 12/15)

The Food and Drug Administration rarely uses its authority to pull dangerous medical devices off the market and is so poorly staffed that it’s sometimes unable to make sure companies are taking critical steps to protect patients during health emergencies, according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office. The inquiry by the congressional watchdog was requested nearly two years ago by top members of the Senate in the wake of an investigation about the 2021 recall of breathing machines that threatened the health of millions of Americans. (Hamill, Dai and Medill Investigative Lab, 12/12)

More pharmaceutical updates —

Andexanet alfa (Andexxa) will officially be taken off the U.S. market this month as an emergency reversal medication for contemporary blood thinners. "The Biologics License Application for Andexxa has been withdrawn for commercial reasons, effective December 22, 2025," a spokesperson from drugmaker AstraZeneca said in an email to MedPage Today. (Lou, 12/12)

Sanofi’s experimental multiple sclerosis drug got hit with two setbacks on Monday: a regulatory delay in the US as well as a failure in a late-stage clinical trial. The US Food and Drug Administration decision on the medicine, called tolebrutinib, to treat an advanced form of multiple sclerosis will likely be delayed, with further guidance from the regulator at the end of the first quarter, the French drugmaker said. The shares plunged as much as 6.4% in early Paris trading, the biggest decline in more than three months. (Furlong, 12/15)

Novo Nordisk A/S said its high-dose version of blockbuster Wegovy has been cleared by the European Union’s drug advisory board, opening the way for use of a shot that delivers more weight loss than the standard dosage. The European Medicines Agency’s drug review committee recommended allowing the new high-dose shot based on the results from large clinical trials in people with obesity, with and without diabetes, Novo said in a statement. The committee’s backing means the shot could be available early in the new year, pending final approval from the European Commission, Novo said. (Kresge, 12/12)

Pediatrician Kristin Sohl has lost count of how many times parents of children with autism have asked her for a prescription for leucovorin — the drug thrust into the spotlight after President Donald Trump touted it at a White House event this fall. Since September, despite the rising queries, Sohl has typically told her patients no. Early clinical trials of the drug showed hints of promise in boosting communication and cognition for some children with autism. But the studies have been small, often just a few dozen participants. (Eunjung Cha, 12/14)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: FDA Panelists Questioned Antidepressants In Pregnancy. But Doctors Call Them A Lifeline
Before giving birth to her second child, Heidi DiLorenzo was anxious. She worried about her blood pressure, and the preeclampsia that prompted her to be hospitalized twice during the pregnancy. She worried that some terrible, unnamed harm would come to her 3-year-old daughter. She worried about her ability to love another baby as much as she loved her first. But DiLorenzo, an attorney in Birmingham, Alabama, did not worry about taking Zoloft. She had used the medication to treat anxiety before she had her first child, and she continued it throughout that pregnancy and this latest one. (Rab, 12/15)

In other health care industry news —

Rural departments have long relied on cheap software solutions to keep their operations running. But fire chiefs report sharp price increases as investors have entered the market. (Baker, 12/14)

Mass General Brigham has launched a spinoff artificial intelligence company, the system said Friday. AIwithCare, developed by researchers at Mass General, aims to speed up the process of finding patients for clinical trials. It offers a tool, the RAG-Enabled Clinical Trial Infrastructure for Inclusion Exclusion Review, that the health system said streamlines finding eligible clinical trial participants and enrolling them faster than using standard manual entry procedures. (DeSilva, 12/12)

Health tech companies are eager to see if they will benefit from a new payment model designed to reward providers that improve outcomes for traditional Medicare beneficiaries with chronic conditions. Earlier this month, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation announced the creation of its ACCESS (Advancing Chronic Care with Effective, Scalable Solutions) Model. The agency is looking for Medicare Part B-enrolled organizations that offer tech-enabled care that may include remote patient monitoring, wearables, coaching, behavioral support, patient education and medication management. (Perna, 12/12)

Though tanning may be far from the minds of chilly Illinois residents at the moment, a new study out of Northwestern Medicine is highlighting the risks of tanning beds, and showing how they can lead to skin cancer. Not only is the use of tanning beds associated with nearly triple the risk of developing melanoma, but heavy users of tanning beds also had more damage to the DNA of their skin cells, according to the study published Friday in the peer-reviewed journal Science Advances. (Schencker, 12/12)

More about cancer —

Researchers at the University of Maryland, College Park, tested a program they say could eliminate cervical cancer by analyzing and recommending improvements to national vaccination strategies for the virus that causes the cancer. (Hille, 12/12)

A new study suggests that tailoring breast cancer screening to a woman’s individual risk can be as safe as yearly mammograms while reducing unnecessary testing for some and better targeting of care for others. Breast cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer death for women around the world, affecting about 1 in 8 women in the United States. (Johnson and Eunjung Cha, 12/12)

A Los Angeles jury awarded $40 million on Friday to two women who claimed that talcum powder made by Johnson & Johnson caused their ovarian cancer. The giant health care company said it would appeal the jury’s liability verdict and compensatory damages. The verdict is the latest development in a longstanding legal battle over claims that talc in Johnson’s Baby Powder and Shower to Shower body power was connected to ovarian cancer and mesothelioma, a cancer that strikes the lungs and other organs. (12/13)

On social media and mental health —

TikTok’s algorithm favors mental health content over many other topics, including politics, cats and Taylor Swift, according to a Washington Post analysis of nearly 900 U.S. TikTok users who shared their viewing histories. The analysis found that mental health content is “stickier” than many other videos: It’s easier to spawn more of it after watching with a video, and harder to get it out of your feed afterward. (Merrill, Hunter, Fox and Shapiro, 12/12)

On the gun violence epidemic —

In 2019, a 16-year-old student at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, California, pulled a gun from his backpack and opened fire on his classmates in the school quad. Mia Tretta, then a 15-year-old freshman, was shot in the abdomen and hospitalized. Her best friend was killed. The shooting shaped Tretta’s decision to attend Brown University, in a state she deemed to have strong gun laws and located far away from home, on the opposite coast from the trauma that upended her time in high school. (Wu, 12/14)

A gunman remains at large, two days after opening fire inside a Brown University academic building, killing two students and injuring nine others. Officials in Providence, R.I., said Sunday evening that police are releasing a man in his 20s who was briefly held as a person of interest. His release leaves authorities without any known suspect. "We have a murderer out there," Attorney General Peter Neronha said at a news conference late Sunday. (Hernandez and Rosman, 12/15)

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and state leaders pledged to strengthen gun laws a day after a father and son killed 15 people in the nation’s deadliest terror attack. The National Cabinet has tasked police ministers and attorneys-general to explore options including caps on the number of firearms an individual can hold, limits on open-ended licenses, stricter rules on the allowed types of guns and modifications, and a requirement that license holders be Australian citizens. (Chandler and Whitley, 12/15)

To democratize access to these weight-loss drugs, we need flexible, employer-driven solutions. (Roger W. Ferguson Jr. and Grant Verstandig, 12/15)

In the last year or so, health influencers — and a lot of women on social media — have talked up testosterone therapy as a kind of perimenopausal panacea. They promise boundless energy, crisper thinking, better sleep — and, most of all, a roaring libido. Sounds awfully tempting. (Lisa Jarvis, 12/13)

Here are some data points that Republicans ought to bear in mind as they contemplate their health-care strategy. (Jonathan Chait, 12/12)

In oncology we return, again and again, to first principles. The cell is our unit of life and of medicine. When a normal cell becomes malignant, it does not merely divide faster; it eats differently. It hoards glucose, reroutes amino acids, siphons lipids, and improvises when a pathway is blocked. We have learned to poison its DNA, to derail its signaling, to enlist T cells as sentinels. We have been slower to ask a simpler question that sits at the cell’s kitchen table: What if we change what a tumor can eat? (Siddhartha Mukherjee, 12/15)

Bullets tore through Michael Thompson’s car at a stop sign, ending the life of a 35-year-old father in an instant. Just minutes earlier, he had dropped his 8-year-old daughter, Emma, at dance class, her pink tutu bouncing as she waved goodbye. (Raya Elfadel Kheirbek, 12/15)