The Hill: Trump Administration Makes Sweeping Changes To Obamacare, Ends ‘Dreamer’ Coverage
The Trump administration is shortening Obamacare’s annual open enrollment period and ending the law’s coverage of immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally as children, according to a final rule announced Friday. According to the rule, the federal open enrollment period will run from Nov. 1 through Dec. 31. Currently, federal open enrollment ends Jan. 15. States operating their own health insurance exchanges will have the flexibility to set their open enrollments, so long as they run no longer than nine weeks between the November and December dates. In addition to the shortened enrollment period, the administration said it is ending ObamaCare coverage for immigrants who came into the U.S. illegally as children, also known as “Dreamers.” (Weixel, 6/20)

KVPR: Madera Hospital Celebrates Reopening, But Cuts To Medicaid Could Threaten Future
Services at Madera Community Hospital continue to be restored, more than two years after its initial closure. But the hospital now faces new challenges as Republicans in Congress push a funding bill that includes large cuts to Medicaid. Madera Community Hospital is the only general hospital in the county and serves over 175,000 residents in Madera and surrounding counties. Since it officially closed in January 2023, due to financial instability, residents have had to travel to other nearby counties for procedures and emergency care. (Rangel, 6/20)

Times of San Diego: San Diego Recruits For Emergency Medical Services Training
Applications are now open for the San Diego Emergency Medical Services Corps, a program designed for youth impacted by the child welfare or juvenile justice systems looking for career opportunities. Operated by the county’s Fire and Emergency Medical Services, the five-month program pays a $1,500 monthly stipend and is recruiting for two sessions, one starting in January and the other in June 2026. (Singhai, 6/22)

Becker's Hospital Review: Stanford Medicine, GE HealthCare Renew PET/CT Partnership
Stanford (Calif.) Medicine has renewed its research partnership with GE HealthCare to develop new clinical pathways and imaging solutions through the use of total-body PET/CT. Through their partnership, Stanford Medicine and GE aim to create the “next generation” of PET/CT scan that will reduce both scan time and the required dose of radiation, according to a June 19 news release from GE. (Gregerson, 6/20)

Becker's Hospital Review: Inside Health Systems' Clinical-Supply Chain Collaborations
Health systems are adopting a range of strategies to strengthen collaboration between clinical and supply chain teams, such as implementing formal governance structures, data-driven disruption monitoring and integrated communication workflows to help maintain patient care amid supply challenges. Here are responses from 10 supply chain leaders who were asked: How is your health system enhancing collaboration and communication between supply chain and clinical teams to improve visibility and better manage disruptions? (Murphy, 6/20)

The Washington Post: Insurers Vow To Make Prior Authorization For Treatment Easier
Major health insurers are promising to ease up on a cost-controlling practice long hated by doctors and patients for making it harder to get quick and efficient care. Several dozen insurers — including insurance giants UnitedHealthcare, Elevance, Aetna, Cigna and Kaiser Permanente — announced Monday that they will make this practice, known as “prior authorization,” more efficient and transparent over the next 18 months. (Cunningham, 6/23)

ABC News: Aflac Says Cyberattack Breach Could Expose Personal Data Of Customers
A group of cybercriminals hacked into data systems at insurance company Aflac, possibly gaining access to sensitive information such as Social Security numbers and health reports, the company said on Friday. Aflac, which boasts millions of customers, “identified suspicious activity” and “stopped the intrusion within hours,” the company said. The company attributed the attack to a “sophisticated cybercrime group” but did not identify the organization. (Zahn, 6/20)

Bay Area News Group: Santa Clara County Finds Record Number Of Homeless Residents In Latest Count
Santa Clara County’s homeless population has hit a record number despite local efforts that moved more than 8,000 people into permanent housing over the last few years, according to preliminary results from the county’s “point-in-time” count. The biennial count, which took place over the course of two days in January, is a federally mandated census that helps determine funding and provides a snapshot of the number of residents living in tents, cars, on the street or in homeless shelters. The 2025 count found a 8.2% increase in people experiencing homelessness compared to 2023, going from 9,903 to 10,711 people. In 2022, the county identified 10,028 people experiencing homelessness, the previous record high. (Hase, 6/23)

Los Angeles Daily News: Modular Housing For Homeless Is Underway On Sherman Way In Reseda 
LA Family Housing held a press event on June 18 in Reseda showing a work-in-progress modular housing development that will provide 64 permanent homes for previously homeless people. The modular supportive housing project is scheduled to be completed in spring 2026 at 18722 Sherman Way on the southeast corner of Rhea Avenue. According to LA Family Housing, the modular construction and streamlined financing for the project is building homes quicker for homeless people, as well as cutting construction costs and saving time. LA Family Housing will use the same approach at four more housing developments in Los Angeles. (Andrews, 6/20)

San Francisco Chronicle: California Insurance Crisis Could Crush Affordable Housing
Insurance bills have always been on the high side for Episcopal Community Services, a San Francisco nonprofit that operates more than 2,000 units of permanent supportive housing and serves a population insurers deem risky. But over the past few years, ECS has seen insurance costs skyrocket. Its premiums rose 84% last year, on top of 10% and 15% increases the previous two years. At the same time, ECS’ deductibles quadrupled last year and reached $100,000 for some properties, forcing ECS to cover most of its own claims. Those rising costs were a factor in ECS’ decision to lay off six employees this year, and staff members fear that continued increases could jeopardize essential but expensive ECS services, like the homeless shelter it operates or the seven hotels it leases for supportive housing. (Ellis, 6/22)

The Intersection: Suicide Is Among The Leading Causes Of Death In The San Joaquin Valley. What Are The Signs? What’s Being Done About It?
Over the last seven years, the suicide rate in the San Joaquin Valley has been significantly higher than the statewide rate, according to a review of state and federal data. Across Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, Merced, San Joaquin, Stanislaus and Tulare counties, the overall suicide rate in the region was 10.8 per 100,000 residents – a rate about 15% higher than the statewide suicide rate of 9.4 per 100,000 residents – from 2018 through 2024. During that period, almost 3,300 Valley residents died by suicide. (Sheehan, 6/22)

Los Angeles Times: How ICE Is Disrupting Public Health In Southern California
Missed childhood vaccinations. Skipped blood sugar checks. Medications abandoned at the pharmacy. These are among the healthcare disruptions providers have noticed since Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations began in Southern California earlier this month. (Purtill, 6/20)

Los Angeles Times: What If ICE Comes Knocking? How Child-Care Providers Brace For Raids
Adriana Lorenzo has stopped letting children play outside after 10 a.m. at the child-care program she runs from her Boyle Heights home. That’s the time she’s heard ICE agents start knocking on doors. She’s added extra locks to the outside gate, canceled field trips to the park and library and reassured frantic parents that she won’t let federal agents through her door. She has also made back-up plans for the possibility that a parent will be detained by federal agents while their child is in her care. (Gold, 6/22)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. Restaurants And Nonprofits Mobilize To Deliver Groceries To Sheltering Immigrants
Last weekend, a trio of restaurateurs and a small army of volunteers took over the patio of Boyle Heights’ X’tiosu, packing bags brimming with corn, squash, celery, potatoes, jalapeños, oranges, radishes and sopita ingredients such as boxes of dried pasta. The Oaxacan-Mediterranean restaurant’s staff churned out trays of salads, falafel, burritos, tabbouleh and Oaxacan hummus, in one of many community efforts in Los Angeles to feed and deliver groceries to immigrants and other residents sheltering at home as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids intensify across Southern California. (Breijo, 6/21)

The Bakersfield Californian: Private Prison In California City May Reopen For Immigration Processing 
A private prison facility in eastern Kern County may reopen as a federal immigration processing center if CoreCivic and the government agency known as ICE move forward with a contract. Ryan Gustin, senior director of public affairs for CoreCivic, said in an email on Wednesday that the company has begun some preliminary activation activities in California City, where a 2,560-bed prison facility has been vacant since late 2023. (Elliott, 6/19)

The Guardian: ‘Ticking Time Bomb’: Ice Detainee Dies In Transit As Experts Say More Deaths Likely 
A 68-year-old Mexican-born man has become the first Ice detainee in at least a decade to die while being transported from a local jail to a federal detention center, and experts have warned there will likely be more such deaths amid the current administration’s “mass deportation” push across the US. Abelardo Avellaneda Delgado’s exact cause of death remains under investigation, according to Ice, but the Guardian’s reporting reveals a confusing and at times contradictory series of events surrounding the incident. (Pratt, 6/22)

Times of San Diego: At 93, McAlister Institute Founder Hands Reins To Granddaughter
As she approaches 93, Jeanne McAlister still comes to the office daily, attending board meetings and visiting with clients, driven by the same passion that led her to found the McAlister Institute, one of San Diego County’s largest drug and alcohol treatment providers. After nearly 50 years at the helm, McAlister recently handed the nonprofit’s reins to her granddaughter, Marisa Varond. Together, they form a powerful team bridging generations, unique perspectives and leadership styles. (Ireland, 6/22)

Sacramento Bee: Drunk Driver Changed The Lives Of Galt Teen And Mom
Kelly Carr was ready for the next chapter of motherhood, as her child grew up and she could step back. That future vanished when her daughter, Angel Renteria, was hit by a drunken driver. Three years later, a new normal has set in. In a quaint living room in Galt, Renteria laughs as she gestures from her wheelchair for her friends to sit down around her. Carr sits close by, adjusting her daughter’s clothes and gently wiping her face. (Li, 6/23)

Politico: Senate GOP’s Plan To Push Food Aid Costs Onto States Axed From Megabill 
Senate Republicans’ plan to force states to share the cost of the country’s largest nutrition program to pay for their policy megabill has been halted by the chamber’s rules. The Senate parliamentarian determined that the cost-sharing plan would violate the so-called Byrd Rule, which limits what can be included in the reconciliation process, and would be subject to a 60-vote filibuster threshold, according to an advisory sent out Friday night by Senate Budget Committee Democrats. (Yarrow, 6/21)

Politico: Senate Parliamentarian Greenlights State AI Law Freeze In GOP Megabill
The Senate’s rules referee late Saturday allowed Republicans to include in their megabill a 10-year moratorium on enforcing state and local artificial intelligence laws — a surprising result for the provision that’s split the GOP. Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz (R-Texas) rewrote a House-passed AI moratorium to try to comply with the chamber’s budgetary rules. His version made upholding the moratorium a condition for receiving billions in federal broadband expansion funds. Both parties made their arguments before the parliamentarian Thursday. (Adragna, 6/22)

Politico: Senate GOP Slashes Megabill's Tax Costs With New Accounting Method 
Tax legislation recently unveiled by Senate Republicans only costs $441 billion when tallied using a novel accounting method requested by the GOP. The new estimate by the Joint Committee on Taxation, which was released late Saturday night, shows how Senate Republicans were able to slash the costs of sweeping tax legislation set to be included in the GOP’s sweeping megabill by using a “current policy baseline” — a never-before-used technique that wipes out the cost of extending existing tax cuts that are set to expire at year’s end. The contrast with the traditional method of fiscal scoring, accounting for tax policy as currently enacted into law, is profound: Similar tax legislation that passed the House in May was estimated by JCT to cost $3.8 trillion under the old method. (Guggenheim, 6/22)

Roll Call: Senate GOP Mulls Shielding Rural Hospitals From Medicaid Cuts 
Senate Republicans say they are looking for ways to safeguard rural hospitals from proposed cuts to a key Medicaid funding method, amid concerns from the powerful hospital lobby and others that the budget reconciliation bill could force many facilities to close. (Raman and Hellmann, 6/20)

Times of San Diego: Prebys Foundation Hosts Panel On Federal Medical Research Cuts
Federal cuts to medical research affect communities around the country, including San Diego — and the Prebys Foundation is teaching San Diegans how to take action. The Prebys Foundation, named for developer-turned-philanthropist Conrad Prebys, provides grants to a variety of nonprofits serving the San Diego community. The foundation invests in programs and organizations dedicated to visual and performing arts, medical research, flood relief and youth development. (Wallace, 6/22)

Axios: Accidental Death Data Threatened By Trump CDC Cuts
The CDC center that provides a window into how Americans are accidentally killed could see much of its work zeroed out under the Trump administration 2026 budget after it was hit hard by staff cuts this spring. (Reed, 6/23)

Stat: FDA Cuts Hamper Conflict Of Interest Reviews, Advisory Meetings
Even before he took over the Food and Drug Administration, Marty Makary called for frequent, transparent meetings of the independent panels that advise the agency on controversial regulatory decisions. But current and former agency staff, as well as medical ethics experts, say recent cuts at the FDA are already making it more difficult to plan and run those meetings — and to ensure that the members of those committees don’t have conflicts of interest, a stated priority of Makary and of health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (Lawrence, 6/23)

Politico Pro: RFK Jr.’s Vaccine Shakeup Injects Uncertainty Into Insurance Coverage
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s overhaul of the federal government’s approach to vaccines is complicating health insurers’ decisions on which shots to cover. Some national insurers told POLITICO they worry Kennedy’s firing of 17 members of the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel and hiring of eight others — some of whom have called into question the safety and efficacy of immunizations — could erode public trust in vaccines. And they are unclear of how to proceed, uncertain about whether their coverage will change if the government no longer recommends certain vaccines. (Hooper, 6/23)