Jessie Hellmann
@jessiehellmann.bsky.social
Health care reporter with CQ Roll Call
The second story in my series on barriers to hepatitis C elimination in the U.S. focuses on legislative hurdles. A bill would do what other countries and some states already do: negotiate with drug companies to lower treatment costs and expand access to those who need it most.
Public health departments are laying off staff and cancelling vaccine clinics after the Trump administration prematurely pulled billions of dollars in funding rollcall.com/2025/04/04/a...
Amid measles outbreak, Trump pulls funding for vaccines - Roll Call
The Trump administration clawed back $12 billion in grants for state and local health departments, leading to vaccine clinic cancellations.
rollcall.com
Updated just now. Six pages so far. The breadth of destruction is staggering.
Marisa Kabas@marisakabas.bsky.social · 2y agoI've created a shareable document with a list of the HHS offices gutted today that I'll be updating as often as possible. Have something to add? Message marisakabas.04 on Signal or email MKwrites4000@proton.me docs.google.com/document/d/1...
The Trump admin terminated NIH grant funding for a long-running research network that studied HIV in adolescents. One of the immediate impacts of this is a cancelled study to examine whether an antibiotic currently only approved for men to prevent STDs can also work in women.
The Trump admin is canceling NIH grants it deems to be "DEI" related. Mostly health equity grants, including one that studied maternal mortality in Black women, and a slew of HIV grants. rollcall.com/2025/03/24/t...
Trump cancels NIH grants on equity research - Roll Call
Grantees were told that diversity, equity and inclusion studies "are often used to support unlawful discrimination on the basis of race.”
rollcall.com
NEW: It’s unclear whether new NIH guidance will impact active grants, but it appears to halt opportunities for future funding of studies focused on the health effects of climate change. One climate health expert called the directive “catastrophic.” @anniewaldman.bsky.social/@fastlerner.bsky.social
NIH Ends Future Funding to Study the Health Effects of Climate Change
It’s unclear whether the guidance will impact active grants, but it appears to halt opportunities for future studies. One climate health expert said the directive would have a “devastating” impact on ...
propub.li
The Trump admin is canceling NIH grants it deems to be "DEI" related. Mostly health equity grants, including one that studied maternal mortality in Black women, and a slew of HIV grants. rollcall.com/2025/03/24/t...
Trump cancels NIH grants on equity research - Roll Call
Grantees were told that diversity, equity and inclusion studies "are often used to support unlawful discrimination on the basis of race.”
rollcall.com
My story about how the Trump administration is undermining its own 2019 initiative to end the HIV epidemic in the US rollcall.com/2025/03/19/t...
Trump’s policies threaten his 2019 vow to end HIV, experts say - Roll Call
Trump's second term has included pauses to HIV public awareness campaigns and the cancellation of at least 20 grants funding HIV research.
rollcall.com
Thank you @stephanienolen.bsky.social for writing this, “Despite being fully treatable, tuberculosis claimed 1.25 million lives in 2023, the last year for which data is available…The main TB research effort, testing new diagnostics and therapies, has been terminated.”
Stephanie Nolen@stephanienolen.bsky.social · 2y agoIn Kenya parents who took their sick children to get tested for TB the day before Trump was inaugurated are still waiting to hear if their children are infected. People with drug-resistant TB are not being treated. A global health risk, delivered by the aid freeze www.nytimes.com/2025/03/11/h...
My story about how Trump is canceling LGBTQ+ research grants at NIH and how that's a wild departure from historical norms: rollcall.com/2025/03/07/a...
After Trump’s inauguration, a dramatic halt to LGBTQ+ research - Roll Call
The Trump administration has dramatically dialed back research into LGBTQ+ health, and researchers say the impact has been dramatic.
rollcall.com
My story about how Trump is canceling LGBTQ+ research grants at NIH and how that's a wild departure from historical norms: rollcall.com/2025/03/07/a...
After Trump’s inauguration, a dramatic halt to LGBTQ+ research - Roll Call
The Trump administration has dramatically dialed back research into LGBTQ+ health, and researchers say the impact has been dramatic.
rollcall.com
While President Trump talks about childhood cancer at the faux SOTU, it’s a fact that billions of dollars in research funding has been frozen at NIH and staff who support researchers have been fired.
Looking for sources who can talk about how HIV care and research in the US might be impacted by Trump’s executive orders and actions on DEI and gender. Hoping to talk to service providers, researchers, people with lived experiences, etc. DMs open!
I'm working on a story about how the Trump administration's EOs on DEI could impact federal funding of research on health disparities & health equity. If you're a researcher whose work has been impacted by this or you fear if might be, I'd love to chat. I can keep you anonymous. Signal:jshellmann.18
Death is not the only outcome that matters when it comes to infectious disease. In the TX measles outbreak, 16 people have been hospitalized so far, which can be traumatizing for kids and financially destructive for their parents. Measles can also cause a variety of adverse outcomes such as…
NEW: Some study sections resuming, but damage accrues. The resumption of some study sections is the latest twist in a whiplash-inducing four weeks of unprecedented delays that have left researchers reeling and already held up an estimated $1.5 billion in new funding. www.statnews.com/2025/02/24/s...
Some NIH study sections will resume reviewing grants, but final funding decisions are still in limbo
While some NIH study sections will resume, advisory council meetings, which make final funding decisions, seem to still be held up.
statnews.com
reminder: Medicaid expansion was approved by Idaho voters in 2018 with more than 60 percent of the vote.
Miranda Yaver@mirandayaver.bsky.social · 2y agoI missed that on Thursday, the bill to effectively repeal Idaho’s Medicaid expansion cleared a big legislative hurdle, passing 38-32. The bill pushes for a Medicaid work req, a cap on Medicaid enrollment, and kicking people off Medicaid expansion after 3 years. www.eastidahonews.com/2025/02/divi...
WSJ did a back of the envelope calculation and figured Apple’s $500B US spending announcement is basically what it would have spent anyway, but packaged it as an appeasement gift to Trump. Brilliant. www.wsj.com/tech/apples-...
Apple’s $500 Billion U.S. Investment Is Mostly Already in the Books
The U.S. expansion plan is in line with the company’s spending pattern and its efforts to diversify manufacturing away from China.
wsj.com
"At first glance, we were ecstatic... And then we're like, 'Well, where are all the female cancers?'" 19thnews.org/2025/02/canc...
Future of cancer coverage for women federal firefighters uncertain under Trump
Biden's Labor Department added ovarian, uterine, cervical, and breast cancer coverage for wildland firefighters. It’s unclear whether the new protections will stick under Trump.
19thnews.org
For parents of kids and adult children with immunocompromised systems, the consequences of fewer people vaccinating themselves and their children could be life-threatening.
For families with sick kids, the rise of vaccine hesitancy could be life-threatening
Some parents are concerned about the recent confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has a history of anti-vaccine views, to oversee the nation’s health department.
19thnews.org
It’s hard to describe simply the Medicaid cuts in the House budget plan, but the short answer is they're big. The Energy and Commerce Committee has to produce at least $880 billion in cuts in its jurisdiction. Medicaid isn’t the only program, but it’s by far the biggest.
Billionaires are using a loophole to avoid Medicare taxes. Closing it — and eliminating other ways around the tax for wealthy business owners — could raise more than $250 billion over 10 years for the program. (Published Dec. 2024)
How a Decades-Old Loophole Lets Billionaires Avoid Medicare Taxes
Some of Wall Street’s richest and most powerful figures are using a legal loophole to avoid paying millions of dollars in taxes earmarked for health care, a ProPublica investigation found.
propub.li
NEW: Trump actions on science may affect a generation as pauses + cuts in graduate admissions begin. “We had just flown them out, we told them we love you, we want to admit you, and then everything just stopped." "It's freezing everybody into inaction." www.statnews.com/2025/02/19/t...
Graduate student admissions paused and cut back as universities react to Trump orders on research
In response to Trump science policies, universities are accepting fewer graduate students than normal and freezing positions, STAT has learned.
statnews.com
After the Trump administration was required to restore health websites, this disclaimer appears on top of targethiv.org
It's difficult to reconcile President Trump's vow to "love and cherish" Medicaid with his endorsement of the House budget that could cut over $800 billion from the program. Cuts of that magnitude go well beyond eliminating fraud and abuse.
on this week's #WTHealth podcast: The courts push back on Trump actions, plus budget battles on Capitol Hill, with @shefali.bsky.social, @jessiehellmann.bsky.social, and Maya Goldman. Plus a chat w/Mark McClellan on NIH grants. kffhealthnews.org/news/podcast...
Courts Try To Curb Health Cuts - KFF Health News
Some of the Trump administration’s dramatic funding and policy shifts are facing major pushback for the first time — not from Congress, but from the courts. Federal judges around the country are attem...
kffhealthnews.org
“If it’s not there,” Leach said of the federal money that covers the salaries for 40% of her staff, “things get really bad, really fast.” www.propublica.org/article/trum...
The Courts Blocked Trump’s Federal Funding Freeze. Agencies Are Withholding Money Anyway.
Agencies continue to suspend funding, despite multiple court orders blocking the federal freeze. Experts say the Trump administration’s actions set the stage for challenges to Congress’ authority — an...
propublica.org
The Modern Medicaid Alliance, a coalition of providers, health plans and advocacy organizations, urges Congressional leaders to drop efforts to cut #Medicaid and uphold Trump's recent promise to protect the program. modernmedicaid.org/pressrelease...
Health Care Leaders Urge Congress to Uphold President Trump’s Promise to Protect Medicaid Beneficiaries - Modern Medicaid Alliance
Washington, D.C. – Following President Trump’s statement this weekend that his administration is committed to protecting the Medicaid program and not undermining the millions of Americans who rely on ...
modernmedicaid.org
NEW on CNN: Rubio spent years defending USAID/foreign aid as vital to US interests—arguing it was necessary to counter China. A CNN KFile review of Rubio’s Senate record show a decade of praise for USAID, including calling foreign aid “critical to our national security” . www.cnn.com/2025/02/05/p...
Rubio’s years of strong support for USAID stands in contrast to his sudden criticism of the aid agency | CNN Politics
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, newly in charge of the besieged US Agency for International Development, was for years a staunch supporter of its mission while in the US Senate, reversing his views on...
cnn.com
