Tuesday, July 07, 2026
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Morning Briefing 

RECENTLY GIVE BIRTH OR ARE ABOUT TO?

Share your story and questions about the costs: What does it cost to give birth in the U.S. these days? Maybe you saved and planned ahead but were still hit with unexpected expenses. Trying to map out costs can be tough. What do you wish you knew? How could you have been more prepared? What stumbling blocks did you face in terms of healthcare choices and managing the costs?

Healthcare Helpline helps you navigate the hurdles between you and good care. We’re reporting on the cost of giving birth in the U.S. We want to hear from you. New or prospective parents, what questions or reflections do you have? What are you worried about? Click here to share your questions and story with us. We may have a reporter help find answers.

In This Edition:

• KFF HEALTH NEWS ORIGINAL STORIES 
• 1. Copay Assistance Is Meant To Defray Patient Drug Costs. Some Insurers Keep It Instead.
• 2. Thousands of Medicare Beneficiaries Thought Their Drug Plan Was Free. Then They Lost It.

• ADMINISTRATION NEWS 
• 3. Trump Administration Blocks Preventive Services Panel From Meeting — Again

• HEALTHCARE COSTS 
• 4. Obamacare Enrollment Has Plummeted In All But One State, Data Show

• PUBLIC HEALTH 
• 5. Secret Shopper Study Raises Concerns Over Online GLP-1 Prescriptions

• STATE WATCH 
• 6. Heat Wave Death Toll Reaches Almost 30 In New Jersey, 4 In Chicago Area

• OUTBREAKS AND HEALTH THREATS 
• 7. New York Legionnaires’ Disease Cluster Sickens More Than 20

• CAPITOL WATCH 
• 8. How Is Mitch McConnell? Staff Is Staying Mostly Mum About Senator’s Health

• EDITORIALS AND OPINIONS 
• 9. Viewpoints: Gen Z Doctors Are Reshaping Medicine; San Diego Must Fight To Maintain Role As Biotech Pioneer

From KFF Health News:

KFF HEALTH NEWS ORIGINAL STORIES1. Copay Assistance Is Meant To Defray Patient Drug Costs. Some Insurers Keep It Instead. Drugmakers provide financial assistance to help patients afford increasingly expensive medications. But some insurers do not count those payments toward a plan’s deductible or out-of-pocket maximum and make patients pay instead. (Daniel Chang, 7/7) 2. Thousands of Medicare Beneficiaries Thought Their Drug Plan Was Free. Then They Lost It. Thousands of people who had a Medicare drug plan with zero-dollar premiums last year got small premium increases this year — and didn’t know it. They were dropped from their coverage for failing to pay amounts as little as $8, and most can’t get it again until 2027. (Susan Jaffe, 7/7)

Here’s today’s health policy haiku:

PATIENTS AND PATIENCE

An empty clinic.
Yet another doctor leaves
before the sunrise.

– Travis Park

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:

ADMINISTRATION NEWS3. Trump Administration Blocks Preventive Services Panel From Meeting — Again 

The administration postponed a planned July meeting of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, which has not met in person since March 2025, The New York Times reported. Also: A look at how anti-smoking public health campaign efforts have changed under the Trump administration.

The New York Times: Key Health Care Panel Is Again Blocked From Meeting Under RFK Jr.  For the fourth time, the Trump administration has prevented an important public health panel from meeting as planned. The panel, the United States Preventive Services Task Force, has not met in person since March 2025. … The delay of a meeting scheduled for this month was announced in an email last week to people who work with the panel. It was confirmed on Monday by Emily Hilliard, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services. (Astor, 7/6)

More Trump administration news —

The New York Times: Efforts To Help Smokers Quit Stall Under Trump The ads were jarring: a man with a hole in his throat where his larynx, or voice box, hado once been. A woman whose teeth and jaw had been removed after oral cancer. Another woman speaking in a robotic voice, which was altered when her larynx was removed: “I wish I’d never seen a cigarette in my entire life.” A black screen followed, saying she died two days later. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s 14-year ad campaign, called Tips From Former Smokers, was highly memorable and, research shows, highly effective in motivating people to quit. Last year, though, as tobacco companies gave millions to political organizations related to the Trump administration, the campaign went dark. (Jewett, 7/6)

NBC News: Is Testosterone Therapy A Fix For Aging? The Trump Administration Proposes Easing Prescription Rules American men may soon find it easier to get testosterone therapy under a new federal proposal that would loosen restrictions on prescriptions. (Sudhakar, 7/6)

The 19th: How Government Agencies Are Targeting Gender-Affirming Care For Youth The United States is using the full power of the federal government to restrict gender-affirming care for transgender youth. (Rummler, 7/6)

The Hill: Trump Pardons Clean Air Act Violators Trump pardoned nine people who were found to have either tampered with equipment in trucks used for emissions control, or sold aftermarket parts disabling those controls and bypass the mandatory parts. Federal law prohibits removing or modifying emissions control devices in vehicles. So-called defeat devices can be used to get around a vehicle’s emissions controls. The Trump administration previously said it would generally stop prosecuting people who sell them. (Frazin, 7/6)

On the immigration crisis —

AP: Ex-Afghan Ally Died In ICE Custody After Allergic Reaction, Document Says An Afghan national who fought alongside U.S. forces died from an allergic reaction while in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, one day after he was detained for deportation proceedings, his death certificate shows. Mohammad Nazeer Paktiawal, 41, suffered “an adverse drug reaction” to an unidentified substance, which triggered anaphylaxis and exacerbated his asthma, according to the document. His March 14 death at a Dallas hospital was ruled to be an accident. (Foley, 7/6)

ProPublica: Deportations Of Unaccompanied Minors Have Tripled Under Trump A first-of-its-kind analysis of Immigration and Customs Enforcement data found that unaccompanied minors living in the U.S. are being detained and removed at about three times the rate they were during the last time President Donald Trump was in office. In addition, a ProPublica analysis of court data found that immigration judges, who report to the Justice Department, have issued more than 10,000 removal and voluntary departure orders each month for immigrant minors who either migrated alone or with relatives, a rate that is nearly four times higher than in Trump’s last term. (Rosenberg and Ernsthausen, 7/6)

Updates from the Supreme Court —

The Washington Post: Supreme Court Lets Texas Enforce Law That Restricts App Purchases By Kids The Supreme Court on Monday declined to pause enforcement of a Texas law that restricts which apps children can download from online stores, in a case that involves the balance of online safety for kids and the Constitution’s free-speech guarantees. Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed the law last year in an effort to give parents more control over their kids’ app downloads and in-app purchases. It requires users to verify that they’re at least 18 years old; if they are not, minors must receive consent from their parents for every download or in-app purchase. California, Louisiana and Utah have passed similar age-verification laws for app stores. (Mark, 7/6)

The New York Times: A Supreme Court Case On AR-15s Could Hinge On Their ‘Common Use’  We all may know what makes a gun dangerous, but what makes it both dangerous and unusual? Largely lost amid the Supreme Court’s decisions on birthright citizenship, asylum and campaign finance was its announcement last Tuesday that it would take up that enigmatic question, which is at the heart of the country’s struggle to balance the rights of gun owners against the specter of mass shootings. The court’s decision could be a watershed moment. (McIntire, 7/7)

HEALTHCARE COSTS4. Obamacare Enrollment Has Plummeted In All But One State, Data Show 

While New Mexico saw a roughly 14% bump in Affordable Care Act enrollments — it’s the only state that replaced lost federal subsidies — Ohio and Oklahoma each saw a more than 32% decline over the past year, according to an AP analysis of data from Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Other states posting more than a 25% drop of their enrollees were Arizona, South Carolina, Minnesota, Indiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Missouri.

AP: New 50-State Data Shows Steep Drops In Affordable Care Act Enrollment States across the country saw steep drops in the number of people covered by the Affordable Care Act over the past year, with Ohio and Oklahoma each losing nearly one-third of enrollees, according to new federal data that provides the first complete 50-state breakdown of sharp enrollment declines following the January expiration of enhanced subsidies. The data, posted in late June by the Trump administration and first reported on by The Associated Press, reveals how changes in each state’s insured population led to around 2.6 million fewer Americans having Obamacare plans in February compared with the same time last year. (Swenson, 7/6)

Modern Healthcare: ACA Exchange Insurers Owe $11.2B In Risk-Adjustment Payments Health insurers will swap $11.17 billion in exchange risk-adjustment payments this year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services disclosed. Centene, Elevance Health, CVS Health subsidiary Aetna and Oscar Health will receive the largest transfers based on their 2025 performance while Molina Healthcare and UnitedHealth Group subsidiary UnitedHealthcare will make the highest payments, according to an analysis from the investment bank Barclays. (Tong and Broderick, 7/6)

“Out of Pocket, Out of Reach” from Stat —

Stat: Part 1: America’s Small Businesses Are Giving Up On Health Insurance It has never been more difficult for employers to offer health insurance for their workers. That’s especially true for America’s small businesses, the backbones of entire communities. More and more, they’re giving up entirely. (Herman, 7/7)

Stat: Part 2: For A Georgia Entrepreneur, Health Coverage Has Never Been Affordable Amy Bielawski has gone most of her life without health insurance. For 32 years, the 61-year-old has run her own entertainment company in Tucker, Ga. — setting up bounce houses, petting zoos, stilt walkers, and other attractions for family and corporate events. For several years, she did two of her specialties, face painting and balloon sculpting, for kids before Atlanta Hawks home games. (Herman, 7/7)

Stat: Part 3: Insurance Whistleblower Says Employers Are Not Helpless Bystanders  It should have been a triumphant moment for Chris Deacon. Last November, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield, the insurance giant that manages health benefits for 750,000 New Jersey state workers, family members, and retirees, paid $100 million to wipe away allegations that it knowingly overpaid hospitals and doctors and fraudulently won its state contract. (Herman, 7/7)

More about healthcare costs and coverage —

The Texas Tribune: Healthcare Costs Push Texas Businesses To Breaking Point The expenses to operate three restaurants in Waco are rising across the board, but there’s one growing cost in particular that feels nearly impossible to manage — providing employee health insurance, co-owner Kyle Citrano said. (Cobler, 7/6)

The Colorado Sun: This Rural Colorado Hospital Is Using AI To Go After Health Insurers That Ghosted Payments. Here’s How.  At Spanish Peaks Regional Health Center in rural Huerfano County, medical claims submitted by the nonprofit health facility are denied daily by insurance companies. (Chuang, 7/6)

Modern Healthcare: The Strategies Hospitals Are Using Now To Prepare For A Tough 2027 It’s the calm before the storm for hospitals and health systems. As the industry moves into the second half of 2026, many health systems are keeping balance sheets stable with strong patient volumes and revenue diversification, while cutting administrative expenses and rethinking service lines. (Hudson, 7/6)

KFF Health News: Thousands Of Medicare Beneficiaries Thought Their Drug Plan Was Free. Then They Lost It Jude Pare and his partner, Diane Tix, live in rural Minnesota until temperatures dip below freezing, when they take refuge in Arizona for the winter. While away, their mail is forwarded. But Pare, 77, said he didn’t receive any warning from his Medicare prescription drug plan that his $0 monthly premium was about to increase. So he didn’t know he had a bill to pay. (Jaffe, 7/7)

KFF Health News: Copay Assistance Is Meant To Defray Patient Drug Costs. Some Insurers Keep It Instead For 16 years, Larry Gruber, a fitness coach from Wilton Manors, Florida, received a coupon card to help him pay for a psoriatic arthritis medication he needs that costs more than $7,700 a month. Each year, Amgen, which makes the drug, called Enbrel, sent the coupon card worth thousands of dollars, and that counted toward Gruber’s health insurance deductible and out-of-pocket maximum. (Chang, 7/7)

PUBLIC HEALTH5. Secret Shopper Study Raises Concerns Over Online GLP-1 Prescriptions 

Stat reported on the study’s findings, including how fast and easy it is to get weight loss drugs online, as well as experts’ concerns over the standards of care involved. Especially concerning to clinicians, Stat reported, was that 45% of sites didn’t ask patients about eating disorders, which can be triggered or exacerbated by GLP-1 use.

Stat: Secret Shopper Study Reveals Questionable Telehealth GLP-1 Practices  A secret shopper study has pulled back the veil on the practices of nearly 50 telehealth sites that prescribe popular GLP-1 medications for weight loss. (Palmer, 7/6)

NBC News: New Research Aims To Get Closer Whether GLP-1s Are Worth The Cost A fierce debate is underway over who needs treatment with GLP-1s and who should pay for that treatment. New research aims to get closer to the answer. (Thomas, 7/6)

In other health and wellness news —

Axios: Chinese Fentanyl Makers Find New U.S. Market In Peptides The influencer-driven craze for peptides — the heavily hyped but loosely regulated proteins — may be turning into an unexpected bonanza for Chinese manufacturers of fentanyl precursors. (Reed, 7/7)

MedPage Today: Alzheimer’s Biomarkers Change After Tuberculosis Vaccination The bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine, commonly used against tuberculosis, changed how immune cells behaved and altered markers linked to Alzheimer’s disease in a pilot study involving two open-label trials. In a year-long study, BCG vaccination induced persistent, trained immunity-like changes in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), including enhanced innate immune responsiveness, reported Steven Arnold, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and co-authors in Communications Medicine. (George, 7/6)

HealthDay: Fatty Liver Linked To More Deadly Colon Cancer, Study Finds Fatty liver disease can fuel the most aggressive form of colon cancer, a new study says. People with fatty liver disease are more prone to have their colon cancer travel to their liver as well, causing their survival odds to plummet, researchers reported recently in the journal Nature. (Thompson, 7/7)

HealthDay: High-Dose IV Vitamin C May Cut Death Risk In Trauma Patients People who’ve been severely injured in an accident might have a lower risk of death if doctors pump them full of vitamin C, a new evidence review says. High doses of intravenous (IV) vitamin C appear to reduce the risk of death and sepsis in trauma patients, researchers reported recently in the journal BMJ Military Health. Vitamin C might even shorten hospital stays following an injury, researchers said. (Thompson, 7/7)

The New York Times: For Families With Nonspeaking Autistic Children, A Fierce Debate Over Assisted Spelling In early June, Ally Betchan and her family made the monthly trek from their small central Texas town to a therapy center in Austin, hoping that she could learn to communicate. Like nearly 30 percent of people with autism, Ally is severely disabled and does not speak. Ally, 22, sat quietly in a small room next to her instructor, Soma Mukhopadhyay, a sprightly 63-year-old who, by contrast, talked almost nonstop. More than 30 years ago, Ms. Mukhopadhyay taught her nonspeaking autistic son, Tito, to write and type independently, creating a communication method that supporters hailed as transformative and critics have challenged ever since. (Ghorayshi, 7/6)

STATE WATCH6. Heat Wave Death Toll Reaches Almost 30 In New Jersey, 4 In Chicago Area 

According to the New Jersey Department of Health, the heat wave over the Fourth of July weekend might have caused as many as 29 deaths. Pathologists must still confirm the likely heat-related fatalities, The New York Times reported. Also, extreme heat in Chicago likely contributed to the deaths of at least four people.

The New York Times: Death Toll From Oppressive Heat In New Jersey May Be As High As 29  The death toll in New Jersey from a days-long heat wave that gripped much of the East Coast during the Fourth of July weekend may be as high as 29, the state’s Department of Health said on Monday. Those who died ranged in age from their mid-30s to their 80s, and most of the deaths occurred in New Jersey’s densely populated central and northern regions, where temperatures exceeded 100 degrees for days and remained exceptionally warm even after the sun set, state officials said. (Tully and Goldstein, 7/6)

Chicago Tribune: At Least 3 Dead On South Side After Chicago Heat Wave At least three South Side residents died of causes related to last week’s heat wave, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. (Anastasakos and Kenny, 7/6)

More news from across the U.S. —

North Carolina Health News and The Charlotte Ledger: Lawmakers End Multi-Million-Dollar Hospital Tax ‘Loophole’ A little-noticed provision in the state budget that was approved last week aims to shut down a tax strategy used by at least one hospital system to exceed the state’s sales tax refund cap. The change would require nonprofit and public hospital systems to file a single sales tax refund claim for all their related entities. (Crouch, 7/7)

Alaska Public Media: Alaska’s Food Assistance Program Had The Highest Payment Error Rate In The U.S. Again Alaska’s food assistance program had the highest payment error rate in the country for a fourth straight year last year, according to rankings put out by the Agriculture Department late last month. During the last federal fiscal year, which ended in September 2025, 23% of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients in Alaska ended up with significantly more or significantly less in benefits than they should have, according to the federal report. The national average was 11%. (Stone, 7/7)

MPR News: Allina Hospice Workers On One-Day Strike As Bargaining Continues  Dozens of hospice nurses at Allina Health are on strike Monday, as they push for a contract and pay raises. The group of 65 hospice nurses work in homes and nursing facilities around the Twin Cities metro area. They unionized in the spring of 2025 with SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa, and have been negotiating toward their first contract for nearly a year. (Timar-Wilcox, 7/6)

AP: Utah Lets AI Refill Prescriptions. Doctors Are Wary A prescription refill program that quietly launched in Utah earlier this year has kicked off a big medical debate: Is artificial intelligence ready to take over tasks that, until now, could only be performed by doctors? The program allows Utah residents to skip the doctor’s office and get their prescriptions refilled online by an AI chatbot called Doctronic. It’s a seemingly simple step toward making healthcare more convenient for patients and prescribers. (Perrone, 7/6)

AP: Mother Who Said Her Twins Died After Vaccinations Charged With Murder An Idaho woman who said her toddler twins died last year after being vaccinated faces murder charges connected to their deaths, authorities said. A grand jury indicted Andrea Shaw, who is accused of suffocating her 18-month-old twins in May 2025, on two counts of first-degree murder on June 29, according to court records and a statement from the Payette Police Department. While appearing last year on an internet show produced by Children’s Health Defense — an anti-vaccine group founded by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — Shaw said her twins died after getting vaccinated. (Kelety, 7/7)