Latest California Healthline Stories
An HIV Outbreak in Maine Shows the Risk of Trump’s Crackdown on Homelessness and Drug Use
Public health experts and advocates say the outbreak has been fueled by a confluence of local factors, including the sweeping of a homeless encampment and shuttering of a sterile-syringe program. But those issues may not remain local for long. The Trump administration is leading efforts to promote similar tactics nationwide.
RFK Jr.’s Vaccine Panel Expected To Recommend Delaying Hepatitis B Shot for Children
A federal vaccine panel, recently reshaped by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is expected to vote on delaying the hepatitis B shot for newborns. Pediatricians warn that could open the door to a comeback for a disease virtually eradicated among U.S. children.
Parents Fear Losing Disability Protections as Trump Slashes Civil Rights Office
The Education Department’s civil rights office often intervenes when students face discrimination based on race, sex, religion, or disability and their families can’t resolve complaints locally. Parents fear the effort to gut the federal agency will leave them with nowhere to seek justice.
Under Trump, FDA Seeks To Abandon Expert Reviews of New Drugs
Advisory committee meetings help FDA scientists make decisions and increase public understanding of drug regulation, and abandoning them doesn’t make sense, former officials said.
KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': Countdown to Government Shutdown
With less than three weeks before the deadline to pass legislation to keep the federal government running, lawmakers are still far apart on a strategy. Democrats hope Republicans will agree to extend expanded tax credits for the Affordable Care Act as part of a compromise, but so far Republicans are not negotiating. Meanwhile, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. released his long-awaited “Make America Healthy Again” report, with few specific action items. Anna Edney of Bloomberg News, Sandhya Raman of CQ Roll Call, and Lauren Weber of The Washington Post join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more.
Affirmative Action Critics Refuse To Back Down in Fight Over Medical Bias Training
A nonprofit fighting affirmative action in medicine and a Los Angeles ophthalmologist have launched a long-shot legal appeal aimed at ending California’s requirement that every continuing medical education class include training to recognize and address unconscious bias.
Climate Activists Cite Health Hazards in Bid To Stop Trump From ‘Unleashing’ Fossil Fuels
Buoyed by a Montana court ruling upholding state residents’ right to a “clean and healthful environment,” nearly two dozen people ages 7 to 24 hope to block the Trump administration’s executive orders on energy.
Trump’s Medicaid Cuts Were Aimed at ‘Able-Bodied Adults.’ Hospitals Say Kids Will Be Hurt.
The GOP said its overhaul of Medicaid was aimed at reducing fraud and getting more adult beneficiaries to work. Among the likely side effects: fewer services and doctors for treating sick children.
In the Fallout From Trump’s Health Funding Cuts, States Face Tough Budget Decisions
The Trump administration has pushed a significant amount of health costs to states, whose budgets may already be strained by declining state tax revenues, a slowdown in pandemic spending, and economic uncertainty. State and local governments now face difficult decisions.
KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': On Capitol Hill, RFK Defends Firings at CDC
Just days after his firing of the brand-new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a defiant Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the U.S. secretary of health and human services, defended that action and others before a sometimes skeptical Senate Finance Committee. Criticism of Kennedy’s increasingly anti-vaccine actions came not just from Democrats on […]