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When you read, this MORNING EDITION of KFF note some people are asking for unvaccinated blood? This is a mistake. They’re finding the Shingles vaccine delays cognitive decline. Other Vaccines prevent Lung Cancer and Metastatic Breast Cancer. Vaccines are beneficial. Choose life and health!
Morning Briefing
In This Edition:
- KFF HEALTH NEWS ORIGINAL STORIES
- 1. Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act Darkens Outlook for Government-Backed Clinics
- 2. Readers Sound Off on NIH Staff Cuts, Work Requirements, and More
- 3. Listen to the Latest ‘KFF Health News Minute’
- EDITORIALS AND OPINIONS
- 10. Viewpoints: Health Care System Is Woefully Unprepared For Boomers; Compounded GLP-1s Can Be Dangerous
From KFF Health News:
KFF HEALTH NEWS ORIGINAL STORIES
1. Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act Darkens Outlook for Government-Backed Clinics
About 17,000 federally funded health clinics stand to collectively lose $32 billion under GOP-backed fiscal policies in the next five years — just as more uninsured patients will rely on them for low-cost care. (Phil Galewitz, 4/1)
2. Readers Sound Off on NIH Staff Cuts, Work Requirements, and More
KFF Health News gives readers a chance to comment on a recent batch of stories. (4/1)
3. Listen to the Latest ‘KFF Health News Minute’
The “KFF Health News Minute” brings original health care and health policy reporting from our newsroom to the airwaves each week. (3/31)
Here’s today’s health policy haiku:
NOTHING ARTIFICIAL ABOUT A NURSE
AI mental health?
No way to just be human.
Listen to nurses.
– Catherine DeLorey
If you have a health policy haiku to share, please Contact Usand let us know if we can include your name. Haikus follow the format of 5-7-5 syllables. We give extra brownie points if you link back to an original story.
Opinions expressed in haikus and cartoons are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions of KFF Health News or KFF.
Summaries Of The News:
4. Colorado Law Banning Conversion Therapy For LGBTQ+ Kids Struck Down
Eight Supreme Court justices concurred that the First Amendment prohibits states from using their licensing power to prevent therapists from sharing particular views with patients, Politico reported. The ruling could have implications for other states.
Politico: Supreme Court Strikes Down Conversion Therapy Ban
States can’t ban so-called conversion therapy, aimed at changing a minor’s sexual orientation or gender identity, the Supreme Court has ruled. The justices ruled, 8-1, Tuesday that the First Amendment prohibits states from using their licensing power to limit the topics therapists and other professionals can discuss with their clients. “The First Amendment stands as a shield against any effort to enforce orthodoxy in thought or speech in this country,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote for the court’s majority. (Gerstein, 3/31)
New Hampshire Public Radio: NH’s Conversation Therapy Ban In Doubt Following Supreme Court Ruling Striking Down Colorado Law
A New Hampshire law that bans the practice of so-called “conversion therapy” for minors could be in doubt, following a decision by the Supreme Court Tuesday that found a similar law in Colorado is a violation of free speech. (Richardson, 3/31)
The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer: Ohio Bill Pressing For Statewide Conversion Therapy Ban Faces New Obstacles After SCOTUS Ruling
The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling against Colorado’s ban on “conversion therapy” for LGBTQ youth makes an already uphill battle to outlaw the practice in Ohio even steeper, Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio said. (McGowan, 3/31)
More news about LGBTQ+ health —
KTVB.com: Idaho Enacts Strictest Bathroom Law In The Nation Requiring Separation By ‘Opposite Sex’
Idaho Gov. Brad Little signed an extensive bathroom ban into law on Tuesday afternoon, one that will create the strictest guidelines for bathroom use in the nation. House Bill 752 criminalizes any person who “knowingly and willfully” enters a bathroom, locker room or changing room that does not align with their sex assigned at birth. A misdemeanor first offense means up to a year in jail. Upon second offense, that person could spend five years behind bars. Three other states in the country – Florida, Kansas and Utah – have criminal penalties for transgender people who use bathrooms that align with their gender identity, according to the LGBTQ+ advocacy group Movement Advancement Project’s map tracking these bills. But only Idaho’s legislation covers any “place of public accommodation,” including private businesses. (Johnston, 3/31)
Idaho Capital Sun: Idaho Legislature Passes Bill To Force Teachers, Doctors To Out Transgender Minors To Their Parents
The Idaho Senate widely passed a bill Monday that would require teachers and doctors to out transgender minors to their parents, or face lawsuits, advancing the bill to the governor. House Bill 822 would require schools, health care providers and child care providers to notify parents within three days after the entities receive “any request by the minor student to participate in or facilitate the social transition of the minor student.”(Pfannenstiel, 3/30)
Wisconsin Examiner: Evers Vetoes GOP Transgender Bills For Not Upholding ‘Our Wisconsin Values’
Gov. Tony Evers vetoed Republican bills Tuesday that would have placed new prohibitions in state statute related to transgender children, including banning them from sports teams that align with their gender identity, barring them from choosing the name and pronouns used for them in school and from accessing gender affirming medical care. (Spears, 3/31)
Topeka Capital-Journal: Transgender Activist Defies Law By Using Kansas Statehouse Bathroom
A national transgender activist has defied the state’s new transgender bathroom ban by using a female restroom at the Kansas Statehouse. Samantha Boucher, who lives in Colorado and is the executive director of Trans Liberty, used a second-floor bathroom at the Capitol in Topeka in protest of Senate Bill 244. Boucher described it as an act of civil disobedience. (Alatidd and Saldanha-Olson, 3/31)
The Boston Globe: ‘No Longer Eligible’: Inside The Lives Upended By Trump’s Transgender Military Ban
The Globe followed three service members with a combined 54 years of military service, as their identities were upended by the ban. (Yarvis, 3/31)
5. Health Clinics Fret Title X Grants Won’t Be Renewed By Today’s Deadline
The Trump administration, which delayed — and then rushed — the Title X application process, is being mum about whether the funds will be distributed on time. Clinics are making contingency plans to continue reproductive health care. Plus, updates about the surgeon general nomination, peptide restrictions, blood donations, Americans’ health care concerns, and more.
NBC News: Title X Funding For Reproductive Health Care Could Lapse Due To Trump Admin Delays
For health clinics that rely on federal funding through Title X, April 1 is one of the most important days of the year: It’s when the grant program’s annual funds are typically renewed. Clinics rely on the money to provide reproductive health services — such as birth control, cancer screenings, wellness exams and HIV testing — to more than 2.8 million people, many of whom are low-income, uninsured or underinsured. (Bendix, 3/31)
In news about MAHA —
NBC News: White House Pushes Senate To Move Quickly On Casey Means Nomination
The White House is calling on the Senate to confirm Dr. Casey Means as U.S. surgeon general “without further delay,” even as President Donald Trump signaled uncertainty about her path forward. Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday that he didn’t know how Means was faring in the nomination process more than a month after her Senate confirmation hearing. “We have a lot of great candidates,” he added. (Lovelace Jr., Kapur and Bendix, 3/31)
The New York Times: FDA Is Expected To Lift Restriction On Peptides, Heeding RFK Jr.’s Wishes
The Food and Drug Administration is moving toward allowing compounding pharmacies to produce more than a dozen injectable peptides that were banned because of potentially significant safety risks, according to a senior administration official. In 2023, 14 peptides were removed from a list of products that the F.D.A. allows compounding pharmacies to produce. The pharmacies tailor products for individual patients’ needs. The peptides had not been approved by the F.D.A. as safe or effective and, in recent years, the agency had noted that they were increasingly being marketed with unproved claims that they had cosmetic, anti-aging and disease-fighting benefits. (Jewett and Blum, 3/31)
CIDRAP: More People Requesting ‘Unvaccinated’ Blood For Themselves Or Their Children
A growing number of patients who need transfusions are asking for blood from unvaccinated donors, a difficult request to honor, given that blood centers don’t ask donors if they’ve been vaccinated and don’t label blood according to vaccinated status. These requests often delay care and, in some cases, harm patients’ health, according to a report published late last week in Transfusion. Health systems need to develop standardized policies, include counseling, to handle these requests, the report’s authors wrote. (Szabo, 3/31)
More updates from the Trump administration —
Stat: HHS Reorganizes Health IT Office To Focus On Policy Priorities
The Trump administration is changing the name of the federal health IT office back to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). The Tuesday announcement also reverts the organization of the office to focus on external IT coordination, instead of also overseeing Health and Human Services’ internal use of technology. (Trang, 3/31)
Stat: NIH Chief Bhattacharya Sparks Debate On Vannevar Bush’s Legacy
It is perhaps not surprising that the director of the National Institutes of Health would invoke the name of a man revered by scientists as the architect of a policy widely credited with driving the United States’ global supremacy in biomedical research. But Jay Bhattacharya’s claim over the weekend that the Trump administration is pursuing a vision articulated eight decades ago by that scientific leader, Vannevar Bush, has provoked pushback — even outrage — in scientific circles. (Oza, 4/1)
On Medicaid, Medicare, ACA, and the high cost of health care —
NBC News: Medicaid Cuts Threaten Hundreds Of Hospitals, New Report Finds
More than 400 hospitals across the United States are at high risk of closing or cutting services because of the Medicaid cuts in President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” according to an analysis from the progressive watchdog group Public Citizen. The fallout could make it harder for millions of people to get care and put thousands of health care workers’ jobs at risk as hospitals lose a key source of federal funding. Medicaid covers about a fifth of all hospital spending. (Lovelace Jr., 3/31)
KFF Health News: Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act Darkens Outlook For Government-Backed Clinics
Bluestem Health, a clinic that serves low-income and uninsured patients in Lincoln, Nebraska, has lost money for the last two years. And CEO Brad Meyer fears times will soon get worse for the clinic and its 21,000 patients. That’s because Nebraska is set to become the first state to require certain Medicaid enrollees to work or lose their coverage under new rules in President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. (Galewitz, 4/1)
Modern Healthcare: Over 130 Hospitals Sue HHS Over Medicare DSH Payment Changes
More than 130 hospitals sued the Health and Human Services Department seeking to overturn a regulation that allegedly underpays them for treating Medicare patients. Hospitals in 16 states filed a complaint alleging HHS exceeded its legal authority when it finalized a 2023 rule that retroactively changed how the agency counts inpatient stays for Medicare Advantage patients in disproportionate share hospital payments. (Kacik, 3/31)
The Washington Post: Six Times More Federal Dollars Flow To Retirees Than Young People
The federal government spends significantly more on retirees than any other age group in the United States, a sign of the breadth of Social Security and Medicare — and Americans’ determination to keep those programs going. Americans age 65 and older — generally part of the baby-boom generation or Silent Generation — received an estimated $2.7 trillion in federal outlays last year, six times more than the $449 billion for Americans under 26 years old. That ratio is only expected to grow as the population ages. (Lerman, 4/1)
The Hill: Health Care Concerns Surpass Economy In Gallup Poll
Americans are more concerned about the availability and cost of health care than any other domestic issue, with it reclaiming the top spot for the first time since 2020, according to a new Gallup poll. The poll, released Tuesday, found that 61 percent of the 1,000 adults surveyed said they worry a “great deal” about accessing and affording health care, while 23 percent expressed a “fair amount” of concern. (Brams, 3/31)
KFF Health News: KFF Health News’ ‘Letters To The Editor’: Readers Sound Off On NIH Staff Cuts, Work Requirements, And More
‘The Federal Government’s Loss Is the County’s Gain’I wanted to thank Rachana Pradhan and Katheryn Houghton for their coverage of the loss of staff at the National Institutes of Health (“Six Federal Scientists Run Out by Trump Talk About the Work Left Undone,” March 6). In December 2024, I had accepted a tentative job offer for a dream job at NIH after eight years of being a federal contractor supporting data science work with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Global Health Center and the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases during the covid response, and later with the U.S. Agency for International Development, where I supported HIV program monitoring and response data visualization. (4/1)
KFF Health News: Listen To The Latest ‘KFF Health News Minute’
Jackie Fortiér reads the week’s news: Consumers know which party they blame after Congress failed to extend enhanced Obamacare subsidies. Plus, updated standards say seniors should aim for even lower blood pressure readings. (3/31)
6. Judge Orders Trump Admin To Scrap New Criteria For Homelessness Funding
Plaintiffs in the case had argued against new political considerations for receiving funds that included whether jurisdictions “support sanctuary protections, harm reduction practices, or inclusive policies for transgender people.” Other state news is from California, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Maryland, and Alabama.
AP: Judge Rules Trump Administration’s Homeless Funding Changes Unlawful
A federal judge in Rhode Island ruled on Tuesday that the Trump administration’s effort to dramatically change the criteria to get tens of millions of dollars in funding to aid homeless people was unlawful. Several nonprofits filed a lawsuit last year accusing the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development of changing the rules for receiving $75 million to build housing for homeless families and individuals. The plaintiffs accused the Trump administration of issuing a new Notice of Funding Opportunity, or NOFO, for the Continuum of Care Builds program to better align with its social policies. (Casey, 4/1)
Bloomberg: In LA And SF, Urban Alchemy Offers An Unorthodox Fix For Homelessness
In May 2025, pressure at Pete’s Place hit a boiling point. For more than 15 years, the homeless shelter in Santa Fe, New Mexico, had been operated by a nonprofit group called Interfaith Community Services. But calls for police and medical service to the area around the 75-bed shelter had skyrocketed. “We saw pretty astounding levels of overdoses and drug arrests, the kind of indicators that really compelled us as a city to take action,” said Henri Hammond-Paul, then Santa Fe’s director of community health and safety. (Sisson, 3/31)
AP: 4 Charged In Corruption Probe Linked To NYC Homeless Shelter Operator
Four people connected to a company hired by New York City to operate homeless shelters for migrants were arrested Tuesday as part of a federal public corruption investigation that is also examining a City Council member and a top aide to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul. The charges Tuesday focused on two leaders of the nonprofit, BHRAGS Home Care Corp., who are accused of stealing more than $1.3 million from the taxpayer-backed organization, and two subcontractors who the indictment says paid bribes and kickbacks to the men in exchange for contracts worth millions. (Offenhartz and Sisak, 3/31)
In other health news from across the U.S. —
North Carolina Health News: Durham Family Turns Leukemia Journey Into Mission To House Pediatric Patients’ Families
On the days she didn’t need to be hospitalized while being treated for leukemia, 8-year-old Harper Harrell was able to go home and sleep in her own bed. Duke Children’s Hospital is just 1.9 miles from her family’s home in Durham. (Fernandez, 4/1)
The Baltimore Sun: How VR Is Helping Marylanders With Autism And Down Syndrome Master Life Skills
Virtual reality headsets like the Meta Quest 3, PlayStation VR 2 and HTC Vive have long been tied to gaming, covering users’ eyes with high-resolution screens and delivering immersive, interactive worlds to explore and problem-solve. Now, a pioneering study by the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Silver Spring uses that same technology to help young people with Down syndrome and autism practice life skills and learn through experience. (Hille, 3/30)
AP: Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey Hospitalized After Minor Procedure
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey was hospitalized Tuesday after undergoing what her office described as a minor procedure to remove fluid that was pressing on her lung. The 81-year-old Republican governor will be monitored at Baptist Medical Center South in Montgomery “in the coming days” out of an abundance of caution, Ivey spokeswoman Gina Maiola said in a statement. (3/31)
A national recall on grill brushes —
The New York Times: 10 Million Grill Brushes Recalled After Some People Ingested Loose Bristles
More than 10 million grill brushes have been recalled after it was determined that their wire bristles can detach and inadvertently be ingested, a federal regulatory agency said on Thursday. The grill brushes, made by Nexgrill, were sold at Home Depot and online between 2015 and 2026, the company said on its website. Nexgrill said it was voluntarily recalling 10.2 million brushes in total. Customers should immediately stop using the brushes, Nexgrill said, as the potential ingestion of bristles could lead to “serious internal injuries that could require surgery.” (Fahy, 3/28)
7. Surveys Of 20,000 Family Doctors Find Nearly Half Of Them Are Burned Out
An analysis of data collected from 2016 to 2020 showed that 44% felt burned out, leading to higher instances of job changes or quitting medicine altogether. Young or female physicians experienced more burnout, according to the first national-level analysis.
CIDRAP: Nearly Half Of US Family Physicians Report Burnout
Burnout among US family physicians is around 44% and is associated with a significantly higher likelihood of switching jobs or leaving practice altogether. That trend could lead to lower care satisfaction and increased spending for patients, as well as have substantial financial consequences for health care organizations, according to a research letter published yesterday in JAMA Internal Medicine. (Bergeson, 3/31)
Modern Healthcare: House Bill Would Cap Medicare Physician Pay Cuts At 2.5%
Think of it as preventive medicine for doctor pay. A bipartisan House bill that lawmakers plan to introduce this week would cap annual Medicare physician reimbursement cuts at 2.5% while giving regulators more leeway to set annual payment updates. The Provider Reimbursement Stability Act of 2025 is far from the Medicare payment system overhaul doctors have failed to win for years and it does n