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TheVoiceOfJoyce KFF Morning Briefing, there’s always healthcare news to Report. Todd Blanche threatens to stop mail in orders for “the day after pill”. Besides being misogynist , Trump’s administration wants to measure soldiers testosterone? Meanwhile, folks in Missouri are concerned without an income tax, they’ll have a sales tax on physicians and medication? Trump’s nominees records must be accessed, no one can believe they oppose RFK or Trump. Do your research on all Trump’s candidates before confirmation.

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sday, July 16, 2026
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Morning Briefing 

In This Edition:

From KFF Health News:

KFF HEALTH NEWS ORIGINAL STORIES1. A Sales Tax on Doctor Visits and Medicine? In Missouri, Some Worry A ballot measure to eliminate Missouri’s income tax would give the state legislature broad authority to levy new sales taxes to replace the lost revenue. Critics say that could mean adding a sales tax on medical services or prescription medicines. Those types of taxes are unusual, but not unheard of, in the U.S. (Bram Sable-Smith, 7/16)

2. Readers Share Personal Insights on Deadly Denials and Pregnancy Centers KFF Health News gives readers a chance to comment on a recent batch of stories. (7/16)

3. Listen to the Latest ‘KFF Health News Minute’ The “KFF Health News Minute” brings original healthcare and health policy reporting from our newsroom to the airwaves each week. (7/16)

Here’s today’s health policy haiku:

TRUST THE EXPERTS

Misinformation.
Outdated philosophy.
What about science?

– Natalie Bardin

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:

CAPITOL WATCH4. CDC Director Nominee Pledges To Defend Science During Confirmation Hearing 

Dr. Erica Schwartz, President Donald Trump’s third CDC nominee, is a board-certified preventive medicine physician and served as HHS’ deputy surgeon general during Trump’s first term. During the hearing, Schwartz avoided answering directly the question about whether she would protect the CDC from political interference, but she affirmed her support for vaccines and medical evidence, Fierce Healthcare reported.

Fierce Healthcare: ‘I Will Never Betray The Science’: CDC Nominee To Lawmakers Erica Schwartz, M.D., the latest nominee to lead the beleaguered Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), told lawmakers on Wednesday that she was committed to scientific integrity and transparency to restore trust in the country’s top public health agency. “As CDC director, my sacred responsibility is to provide the American people with public health guidance that is clear, honest and evidence-based. I will never betray the science,” Schwartz said during a confirmation hearing with the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. (Landi, 7/15)

The Hill: Blanche Pledges To End Mail-Order Abortion Medication Under Trump Admin Acting attorney general Todd Blanche pledged on Wednesday to take action to stop abortion medication from being available through the mail. Blanche committed to Republican senators he would prioritize taking action on mifepristone if confirmed but declined to go into specifics. He said the Trump administration opposes a Biden-era policy that allowed the abortion pill mifepristone to be sent through the mail, and suggested the Department of Justice could review it. (Weixel, 7/15)

CIDRAP: ‘Why Would You Repeat The Damn Lies?’ Cassidy Asks Health Security Nominee About Vaccines Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican and chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, appeared exasperated, at times even livid, during today’s confirmation hearing for Sean Kaufman, MPH. Kaufman, a senior adviser in global affairs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR), an agency with the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). (Boden, 7/15)

Politico: The GOP Senators Trump Disrespected Are Now Interrogating His Nominees President Donald Trump’s decision this spring to oust longtime and well-liked senators of his own party is making life difficult for the Trump nominees who still need their votes. Trump has relied on the near-unanimous support of Republican senators to get his nominees through since he returned to the White House last year. Two defeated senators, John Cornyn and Bill Cassidy, along with Thom Tillis, who’s retiring after policy disagreements with Trump, showed that their loyalty to the president isn’t what it used to be on Wednesday as they gave Trump nominees a grilling at Judiciary and Health Committee hearings. (Zeller, 7/15)

In other news from Capitol Hill —

Roll Call: Bipartisan Bill To Eliminate Hepatitis C Unveiled In House  A bipartisan pair of House members is introducing legislation aimed at treating millions of Americans of a deadly-but-curable liver disease, the culmination of a yearslong push from public health advocates. (Hellmann, 7/15)

Politico: The Military Benefits Bill That’s Tearing The Veterans Community Apart A sweeping veterans benefits measure pitched by Republicans as a boon for tens of thousands of veterans has instead become a divisive wedge for the normally tight-knit military advocacy community — and split the GOP caucus. The fight over the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act, expected to be on the House floor Thursday, threatens to complicate future work on military and veterans reforms, which are frequently viewed as non-controversial political crusades for lawmakers. (Shane III and Lee Hill, 7/15)

Military.com: House Bill Renames VA Clinic In Memory Of Army Veteran, NFL Player Pat Tillman House lawmakers on Wednesday passed bipartisan legislation to rename the VA outpatient clinic in San Jose the Corporal Patrick D. Tillman VA Clinic. The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.) and co-led by Rep. Ken Calvert (D-Calif.), was co-sponsored by every member of the California Congressional delegation. Companion legislation has been introduced in the Senate by Democrat Adam Schiff. (Mordowanec, 7/15)

AP: America Already Tried Permanent Daylight Saving Time. It Lasted Less Than A Year. Could It Work Now? It’s an idea whose time, as it were, may have come — again. The twice-yearly changing of the clocks in the United States could be a thing of the past if legislation currently in Congress that calls for permanent daylight time makes it through. But even as annoying as some find the back-and-forth of the time shift in the spring and the fall, that doesn’t necessarily mean sticking to one would go over well. America has tried it before, most recently in the 1970s, and it didn’t last. (Hajela, 7/16)

Also —

Stat: Graham’s Death From Aortic Dissection Raises Questions About Preventing The Rare Disorder Sen. Lindsey Graham’s death Saturday at age 71 following an aortic dissection has focused attention on the life-threatening condition. Details about his diagnosis and treatment are not available while a final death certificate is pending, but experts agree on both how serious it is and how suddenly it erupts after a long prelude. (Cooney, 7/15)

OUTBREAKS AND HEALTH THREATS5. Hazardous Air, High Temps Blanket Stretch Of US, Prompting Health Alerts 

People in the Midwest and Northeast are being advised to stay indoors, if possible, to protect themselves from the one-two punch of Canadian wildfire smoke and extreme heat. For those who must venture outside, experts suggest wearing an N95 mask. Plus, the latest about the cyclosporiasis outbreak.

AP: Wildfire Smoke Engulfs Swaths Of The US Midwest And Northeast Thousands of visitors were told to evacuate a remote Minnesota wilderness area accessible only by boat as wildfires send dangerously heavy smoke over the U.S. Midwest and Northeast this week. More than 100 wildfires are burning in Canada, where a train crew in northern Ontario filmed themselves surrounded by flames before being safely evacuated. Winds are carrying the smoke southeast. (Pineda and Ganun, 7/15)

In related news about heat and sleep —

Bloomberg: Hotter Nights Linked To 56 Hours Of Lost Sleep Per Year, Climate Central Reports Climate change is contributing to higher nighttime temperatures that are causing people to lose an average of almost 56 hours of sleep a year and threatening health, according to a new study. An analysis of 1,338 major cities estimated that residents in Saudi Arabia, Oman and the United Arab Emirates were worst impacted, with people in those locations losing between 55 and 87 hours of sleep a year between 2020 and 2025 because of warmer nights, said the report published Wednesday by the US-based nonprofit research group Climate Central. (Usmani, 7/15)

On the cyclosporiasis outbreak —

The Washington Post: How Much Did CDC Cuts Really Impact This Cyclosporiasis Outbreak? The CDC last year reduced its surveillance for cyclospora and several other pathogens in a program that tracks longer-term disease trends. The program, known as FoodNet, was scaled back because funding for food safety has not been maintained over the last several years (even before Robert F. Kennedy Jr. became health secretary and cuts from the U.S. DOGE Service), said Dan Jernigan, former director of CDC’s Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, which includes foodborne outbreaks. That program is not designed for real-time outbreak detection or response, and the Trump administration cuts would have little impact on the current situation, said Jernigan, one of three top CDC officials who quit last year over Kennedy’s policies. (Sun, 7/15)

USA Today: Are Locally-Grown Fruits And Vegetables Safer? Experts Explain While a nationwide surge in cyclosporiasis cases has many concerned about eating certain produce, experts say locally grown fruits and vegetables – like those sold at farmers markets –may be a safer option. (Khan, 7/16)

CBS News: NYC Man Spent Weeks Suffering From Cyclosporiasis: ‘My Body Would Not Allow Me To Eat Food’ When he began experiencing symptoms back in May, Chase Strangio thought he had a stomach virus, but as the days progressed, he didn’t see any improvements. “My body would not allow me to eat food, and it even reached the point where drinking water was challenging,” he said, “and I was having a lot of pain.” No one in Strangio’s family got sick, but many friends he had lunch with a week prior did. “The common ingredient we were able to discern was either a lettuce or a cilantro,” he said. (DeAngelis, 7/15)

On tuberculosis, measles, and childhood vaccines —

The Colorado Sun: GEO Group Blocking Tuberculosis Investigation At Aurora ICE Facility The private company that operates the immigration detention facility in Aurora is blocking investigation into the possible spread of tuberculosis there, an Adams County health official stated in a court document earlier this month. Now, a new report is raising questions about how much the highly contagious disease has spread in the facility, even as the standoff with the public health department continues. (Ingold, 7/15)

ABC News: Measles Cases In 2026 Are Set To Surpass Last Year’s Total. Here’s Why The number of reported measles cases in the United States this year is soon set to surpass the total reported for all of last year. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows the U.S. has reported 2,231 cases as of July 9, which is just 58 shy of the 2,289 cases reported for the entirety of 2025. Previously, the 2025 total was the highest number of cases seen in more than 30 years, and some public health specialists believe the U.S. is on track to lose the elimination status it earned in 2000. (Kekatos, 7/16)

The Baltimore Sun: Five Cases Of Measles Confirmed At Westminster Hospital Five cases of measles have been confirmed in Maryland residents, according to the Maryland Department of Health. Officials are warning anyone who visited the Carroll Hospital Center emergency department waiting room in Westminster on July 13 between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. may have been exposed. All five cases were in people who recently traveled together to a location in the U.S. that has an active measles outbreak. (Byrne, 7/15)

CIDRAP: Slight Gains Made In Global Childhood Vaccination Rates, Says New Report Despite vaccine hesitancy spreading worldwide, the number of children receiving the diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis (DTP) vaccine has slightly increased, according to the World Health Organization (WHO)-United Nation Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Estimates of National Immunization Coverage published today. DTP immunization rates often show how successful a country is at providing routine childhood vaccines. Almost 116 million infants (90%) globally received one dose of DTP, and 110 million babies (85%) were fully vaccinated with three shots. (Holohan, 7/15)

The latest on the Ebola outbreak —

Reuters: Uganda To Discharge Last Ebola Patient, Spokesperson Says  Uganda is due to discharge its last Ebola patient on Thursday, triggering a 42-day countdown that ​could see the country declared free of the ‌virus, a spokesperson for the government said. The wider outbreak, which the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a public health emergency in the Democratic Republic ​of Congo (DRC) in May, has caused 2,011 confirmed cases ​of infection and 754 confirmed deaths in the ⁠DRC as of Wednesday, according to data from the ​government. (7/16)

ADMINISTRATION NEWS6. Testosterone Testing Added To Service Members’ Annual Checkups 

Troops who are 30 and older will be required to have their levels checked each year to ensure they “have the right testosterone levels to operate at [their] absolute best,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said. Testosterone replacement therapy will be offered to those who are deficient.

NBC News: U.S. Military Will Test Service Members’ Testosterone Levels, Pete Hegseth Says The U.S. military will begin testing the testosterone levels of some service members and recommending hormone therapy if needed, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday. The new policy comes amid a larger push by the Trump administration to promote and expand public access to testosterone replacement therapies. (Brand and Gains, 7/15)

The Washington Post: MAHA Activists Thought Trump Would Limit Pesticides. His EPA Has Green-Lit More. South Dakota farmer Jonathan Lundgren was perplexed last month while he was in the Oval Office. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, Lundgren recalled, indicated that an hours-old Supreme Court ruling that limits lawsuits over a popular weed killer’s possible health impacts was a win for farmers. Regenerative farmers like Lundgren view the active ingredient in the pesticide Roundup, glyphosate, as a harmful chemical that helped inspire the Make America Healthy Again movement. Tens of thousands of plaintiffs have alleged it causes non-Hodgkin lymphoma, which Roundup’s manufacturer, Bayer, denies. (Roubein, 7/16)

Becker’s Hospital Review: CMS Proposes Ban On Third-Party Remote Patient Monitoring: 6 Notes CMS is proposing a Medicare payment ban for remote patient monitoring services delivered by third-party vendors. Here are six things to know: 1. The proposed rule, released July 14 as part of the 2027 physician fee schedule, would allow payment for remote physiologic monitoring and remote therapeutic monitoring only when clinical staff employed by the billing practice furnish the services, not contracted third-party companies. Staff would not need to be on-site, but the billing relationship would have to run through the practice itself. (Bruce, 7/15)

On prescription drug prices —

NPR: TrumpRx Only Offers Some Brand-Name Drugs For Sale To Consumers A centerpiece of President Trump’s push to make prescription medicines more affordable is a government website for drug discounts that carries his own name. TrumpRx, launched in February, now boasts 92 deals on brand-name prescription drugs made by pharmaceutical companies that announced highly publicized agreements with the Trump administration. But nearly six months since the website’s launch, those deals on TrumpRx represent fewer than 12% of the more than 800 brand-name drugs made by the participating pharmaceutical companies. (Lupkin, 7/16)

KFF Health News: KFF Health News’ ‘Letters To The Editor’: Readers Share Personal Insights On Deadly Denials And Pregnancy Centers KFF Health News gives readers a chance to comment on a recent batch of stories. … I read your article in The Washington Post about the woman whose Humana policy required prior authorization for a drug she’d been taking (Bill of the Month: “She Struggled To Get a Lifesaving Drug Even After Insurers Vowed To Help,” June 29). My husband, Kenney, had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. On June 7, he fatally shot himself after a COPD exacerbation event. (7/16)

KFF Health News: Listen To The Latest ‘KFF Health News Minute’ Sam Whitehead reads the week’s news: Some health plans are pocketing their enrollees’ drug discounts, while many Affordable Care Act insurers want to raise rates by double digits next year. (7/16)

HEALTH INDUSTRY7. Elevance Exiting Underperforming DC Medicaid Market; Other Departures To Come 

The Indianapolis-based insurer is not attributing its downsizing to legislative policy changes, an executive explained to Healthcare Dive, noting the company can manage such changes.

Healthcare Dive: Elevance Shuts Down D.C. Medicaid Business, Eyes Additional Exits After Passable Q2 Elevance Health is shrinking its Medicaid business, worried about future profits in the beleaguered safety-net insurance program. The insurer is leaving Washington, D.C.’s Medicaid market this summer, and plans to exit additional Medicaid markets over the next 18 months, executives said during a call to discuss Elevance’s second quarter financial results Wednesday morning. (Parduhn, 7/15)

Healthcare Dive: Judge Tosses Another No Surprises Lawsuit Against HaloMD  It’s the third recent legal victory in No Surprises lawsuits for billings intermediary HaloMD, which has also had suits dismissed in California and Texas. (Olsen, 7/15)

Modern Healthcare: HCA Healthcare’s ACA Losses Signal Deeper Strain For Hospitals Health systems already were bracing for substantial losses as people exited Affordable Care Act exchange programs, and HCA Healthcare’s disclosure Tuesday suggests the financial toll across the industry could be worse than expected. HCA said Tuesday it took a $400 million hit to pretax earnings in the second quarter, including $75 million carried over from the first quarter, as patients lost exchange health insurance. (Hudson, 7/15)

More healthcare industry updates —

Becker’s Hospital Review: Hacking Group Says It Won’t Target Hospitals A cybercriminal group calling itself The Syndicate claims it breached Israeli fintech firm Nayax and stole more than 1 billion payment card records, while telling DataBreaches.net it steers clear of attacking hospitals. Asked whether it refrains from hacking certain sectors, the group said in the July 15 story: “We don’t target hospitals or critical infrastructure, anything that directly endangers lives.” It said its focus is financial services, technology and retail companies with significant capital, and that it also avoids Commonwealth of Independent States countries. (Bruce, 7/15)

Fierce Healthcare: Amazon Pharmacy, ENavvi Collab On Real-Time Prescription Info Amazon Pharmacy is collaborating with digital prescription platform eNAvvi to provide clinicians with real-time medication information and delivery options through its e-prescribing workflow. The partnership allows providers to see current pricing and stock for prescriptions, including cash pricing versus estimated insurance copays, and shows how quickly medications will reach patients, the companies said. The goal of the partnership is to support medication adherence and increase access for patients, especially for those in “pharmacy deserts.” (Gleeson, 7/15)

Cardinal News: LewisGale Adds Simulation Lab For Nurses And Clinicians  LewisGale Regional Health System celebrated the opening of its new clinical simulation center last week with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. The 5,700-square-foot HCA Healthcare Center for Clinical Advancement in Roanoke allows nurses and other health care professionals to practice patient care in realistic hospital rooms using high-fidelity mannequins that simulate medical emergencies and a range of illnesses. (Schabacker, 7/16)

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