Durante una cena bajo palmeras en la terraza de Mar-a-Lago en diciembre, el presidente electo Donald Trump tranquilizó a los directores ejecutivos de las farmacéuticas Eli Lilly y Pfizer diciéndoles que el activista antivacunas Robert F. Kennedy Jr. no sería una elección radical para dirigir el Departamento de Salud y Servicios Humanos (HHS). “Creo que…
CNN’s Erica Hill spoke with KFF Health News correspondent Amy Maxmen about leadership changes at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Maxmen noted that turmoil at the CDC has been occurring since early in the Trump administration. She recently explored these issues in her article “As Measles Exploded, Officials in Texas Looked to CDC…
Four senior officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced their resignations in recent days, citing what they described as growing political interference in the agency’s scientific work, particularly regarding vaccines. Two of them — Debra Houry, the CDC’s chief science and medical officer, and Demetre Daskalakis, who led the National Center for…
The Trump administration’s cuts to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention funding for state and local health departments had vastly uneven effects depending on the political leanings of a state, according to a KFF Health News analysis. Democratic-led states and select blue-leaning cities fought back in court and saw money for public health efforts restored…
Preocupados por la inflación, los estadounidenses han estado atentos a precios de productos cotidianos como los huevos y la gasolina. Pero un gasto menos conocido debería causar más alarma: el aumento de las primas de los seguros médicos. Llevan años subiendo, y ahora lo están haciendo a un ritmo sin precedentes. Hay que considerar que,…
Don’t get Nathan Jones started on xylitol, the active ingredient in his chewing gum, nasal spray, and other products. He’ll talk your ear off about its wondrous powers against tooth decay, as well as its potential to fight covid, heart disease, Alzheimer’s — you name it. For now, Jones, the founder of Xlear, can’t make…
As measles surged in Texas early this year, the Trump administration’s actions sowed fear and confusion among CDC scientists that kept them from performing the agency’s most critical function — emergency response — when it mattered most, an investigation from KFF Health News shows. The outbreak soon became the worst the United States has endured…
Jonnell Wieder earned too much money at her job to keep her Medicaid coverage when the covid-19 public health emergency ended in 2023 and states resumed checking whether people were eligible for the program. But she was reassured by the knowledge that Medicaid would provide postpartum coverage for her and her daughter, Oakleigh McDonald, who…
UnitedHealth Group’s multibillion-dollar pharmacy benefit manager, Optum Rx, is suing five Kentucky counties in an attempt to force them out of national opioid litigation against the company. Pharmacy benefit managers, often called PBMs, act as middlemen that negotiate prescription drug prices between drug companies, insurance plans, and pharmacies. Some lawyers and advocates say PBMs helped…
Dining under palm trees on a patio at Mar-a-Lago in December, President-elect Donald Trump reassured chief executives at pharmaceutical giants Eli Lilly and Pfizer that anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wouldn’t be a radical choice to head the Department of Health and Human Services. “I think he’s going to be much less radical than…