Punchbowl News: “For a moment, it seemed like President Donald Trump was nudging Republicans to make a health care deal with Democrats and address one of the biggest election-year vulnerabilities facing the GOP.”

“But it may have the exact opposite effect.”

“On Tuesday, Trump told Republicans to ‘be flexible’ when it comes to restrictions on federal funding for abortion, known as the Hyde Amendment, seen as the biggest obstacle to a bipartisan Obamacare deal…”

“But Trump’s comments sparked immediate outrage from anti-abortion rights groups, as well as pushback from Speaker Mike Johnson and other GOP leaders — effectively sapping any momentum Trump’s prodding may have ignited.”

The Department of Health and Human Services either committed an editing error or is offering “all diseases” to Americans via the Affordable Care Act, Mediaite reports.

From the fact sheet: “Ensures that all the diseases covered by the previous immunization schedule will still be available to anyone who wants them through Affordable Care Act insurance plans and federal insurance programs.”

Playbook: “Trump posted an almost entirely all-caps Truth Social message with a series of medical exhortations that many doctors and public health experts have said largely lack evidence, from telling pregnant women to avoid Tylenol to calling for vaccines to be split up.”

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), a doctor who provided the decisive vote to install Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as he nation’s top health official, decried the change to the country’s vaccine policies, saying it “will cause unnecessary fear for patients and doctors, and will make America sicker.”

“Federal health officials on Monday announced dramatic revisions to the slate of vaccines recommended for American children, reducing the number of diseases prevented by routine shots to 11 from 17,” the New York Times reports.

“The announcement is a seismic shift in federal vaccine policy, and perhaps the most significant change yet in public health practice by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, who has long sought to reduce the number of shots American children receive.”

“Obamacare subsidies used by more than 20 million expired Thursday. Now Democrats are ready to make them a centerpiece of their midterm campaigns,” Politico reports.

“The lapse of enhanced premium tax credits, first passed as a pandemic-era relief measure under President Joe Biden in 2021, will immediately hit the pocketbooks of voters — some of whom will see their monthly insurance premiums rise by hundreds of dollars.”

“Vaccination rates among kindergarten students have plunged across broad swaths of the United States since before the pandemic, exposing children and families to increasing health risks as many school districts pull back from their traditional role as a bulwark against infectious disease,” the Washington Post reports.

“The accelerating decline reveals the lasting medical consequences of a political backlash against public health efforts during the pandemic, which radicalized many against long-standing vaccine mandates.”

“It’s a near certainty that enhanced subsidies for health insurance purchased on the Affordable Care Act marketplace will expire at year’s end amid political gridlock — and some consumers are poised to be hit especially hard by the loss,” CNBC reports.

“The expiration of the enhanced subsidies would raise insurance premiums for roughly 22 million recipients, or about 92% of ACA marketplace enrollees.”

“KFF, a nonpartisan health policy research group, estimates the average recipient would see their premiums more than double in 2026 if the subsidies disappear.”

“But certain people — including early retirees, small-business owners, middle-income consumers, Black and Latino households, and residents of many states that voted for President Donald Trump in 2024 — would be more financially exposed to a subsidy lapse, according to health experts.”

The Economist: “A 60-year-old couple with a household income of $85,000 could see their annual payments rise by more than $22,600 from a baseline of $7,225 this year.”

“The number of recorded measles cases in the U.S. during 2025 has exceeded 2,000 for the first time in more than 30 years,” Axios reports.

“This year’s surge in cases and prolonged outbreaks could cause the U.S. to lose its globally recognized measles ‘elimination status’ for the first time in decades by the end of January 2026.”

“The outbreaks come amid Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s efforts to downplay the risks of measles and spread misleading claims about the vaccine, while suggesting other alternatives without evidence.”

“On his way to being confirmed as the nation’s top health official, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. promised lawmakers he would do nothing that ‘makes it difficult or discourages people from taking vaccines,’” the Washington Post reports.

“Almost 100 days into the job, amid rising measles outbreaks and congressional scrutiny of his messaging on vaccines, Kennedy made clear behind the scenes that he wanted to reshape the nation’s immunization system.”

“At least a dozen states are working to shield people from soaring health insurance costs following Congress’ failure to extend Obamacare subsidies for tens of millions of Americans,” Politico reports.

“The efforts, which include actions taken by state leaders in California, Colorado and Maryland, in nearly every case come with a major caveat: They will only be able to help a portion of the people whose health insurance will be too expensive without the enhanced subsidies that Congress opted not to renew before leaving Washington for the year.”

“The United States, a nation of 343 million people with a complex and overburdened health care system, is poised to adopt the childhood vaccine recommendations used in Denmark, a country of six million with universal health care. The decision has alarmed public health experts in both countries,” the New York Times reports.

“Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the U.S. health secretary, is expected to announce the move in the new year. It would reduce the number of immunizations required for American children to 10 from 17, radically changing the recommended vaccines without the deliberative process that the United States has relied on for decades.”

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s plans to have the U.S. childhood vaccination schedule mirror Denmark’s are also getting pushback from critics who argue that the U.S. doesn’t have European levels of health care access and has different levels of disease, Politico reports.

“Medicaid programs made more than $200 million in improper payments to health care providers between 2021 and 2022 for people who had already died,” the AP reports.