What the Health? From KFF Health News

@whatthehealthfromkffhealthnews · Podcast

Latest segments

• Compounded peptide guidance, 2026-10-29
  Reports Kennedy's plan to sell six unapproved peptides
  Reports that Kennedy put out a plan on Wednesday letting compounding pharmacies and telehealth companies sell six unapproved peptides without FDA review, bypassing agency safeguards. FDA staff involved opposed it, but the segment frames the move as Kennedy's own, not the OMB guidance.
• ACA purge of 700,000, 2026-10-29
  Adds senators' letters to 10 ACA insurers
  Adds a new front in the purge fight: Wyden, Sanders and about a dozen Democratic senators sent letters to 10 top ACA insurers accusing them of violating consumer protections by cooperating with the terminations. Walks through the June CMS letter, the 30-day outreach window and the unanswered question of how many legitimate enrollees were caught.
• ACA purge of 700,000, 2026-10-29
  Walks through the new marketplace verification rules
  Walks through the new marketplace verification rules for the 2027 open enrollment: one-time agent confirmation codes, high-risk flags for recent movers, new agents and sub-$30 premiums, and Experian identity checks. Adds that two agent groups have sued for a restraining order over the moratorium.
• Hepatitis B birth dose studies, 2026-10-22
  Covers two models of ending the birth dose
  Covers two new studies modeling the end of the hepatitis B birth dose recommendation: an Annals model finding half of children could reach adulthood susceptible and an 80 percent-plus case increase, and a Kaiser Permanente study finding most young children were exposed by someone other than their mother.
• ACA purge of 700,000, 2026-10-22
  Follows the ACA purge into its next step
  Follows the ACA purge into its next step: the administration is restoring a small number of the dropped enrollees, and the Washington Post editorial page puts the figure at 51. Notes a further half million enrollees are under review for possible cuts.
• Fraud whistleblower rewards, 2026-10-22
  Questions whether the reward program lands
  Covers Trump's new Fraud Whistleblower Incentive Program, placing it against the 1863 False Claims Act and Grassley's career of whistleblower pushes, and questions whether it registers with voters. Notes the tip line is being flooded with tips about the administration itself.
• Trump's women's health order, 2026-10-22
  Sets the women's health order against history
  Recaps the executive order and sets it against history: the NIH women's health office dates to 1990, was codified in 1993 and expanded under the ACA, and Jill Biden rolled out a similar measure in 2023. Adds that women's health grants have been canceled as DEI and that the initiative carries no deadline.
• NIH peer review score proposal, 2026-10-15
  Adds Collins's record and the Murray proposal
  Adds detail to Collins's role: she has beaten back political oversight of NIH grants at least twice, but only short-term, and is now working with Patty Murray on a proposal to curb White House involvement in grant making.
• Surprise billing arbitration costs, 2026-10-15
  Previews the lame duck surprise billing fix
  Turns to the lame duck session and the No Surprises Act fix talk: Pallone's proposal to scrap arbitration for median in-network rates, Murphy saying Ways and Means will move legislation, and Cassidy promising a bill. The first concrete legislative path on the record.
• ACA purge of 700,000, 2026-10-15
  Reports CMS's 189,000 duplicate enrollees
  Reports CMS's follow-on announcement: 189,000 subsidized ACA enrollees were also in another government health program or are deceased, and eliminating the duplication would save about $1.5 billion. Also notes $500 checks going to roughly a million enrollees, mostly in healthcare.gov states with competitive Senate races.
• Siberia plague outbreak, 2026-10-08
  Recaps the lab worker's death and Russian assurances
  Brief mention of the Siberian lab worker's death from unidentified pneumonia while studying plague, plus Russian assurances the situation is under control. A short recap that stays inside the facts already on the record.
• NIH peer review score proposal, 2026-09-24
  Adds Collins forcing the oversight retreat
  Adds the political-oversight fight to the peer review story: an OMB regulation imposing political oversight on grantmaking across government, blocked by Congress until December, and a Washington Post-reported executive order creating an NIH oversight committee that the administration dropped after Susan Collins objected publicly.
• ACA purge of 700,000, 2026-09-24
  Adds broker suspensions to the ACA purge
  Picks up the ACA purge at the point of Vance's Tuesday press conference and adds the enforcement machinery: brokers and agents suspected of fraud are being suspended and new ones frozen out, with Oz calling many of the cut phantom enrollees. The insurance industry's double-counting objection is the pushback on record.