When Donald Trump takes the oath of office today, it may well usher in a new era of Republican messaging, and policy, on healthcare. To get there, Trump followed a circuitous path that led him to a recent Democrat and rival-turned-ally, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., his pick to lead HHS. Through his presidential campaigns and first administration, Trump could not quite land on the right message to harness the populist momentum that drove his commanding influence over the Republican party. RFK Jr.'s promise to "Make America Health Again" provided the answer. His rhetoric is more focused on promoting a healthy lifestyle, questioning public health officials, and interrogating the role of big business than on how insurance benefits are designed or how medicines are priced.
Wildfires in Southern California have killed at least 25 people and destroyed at least 12,000 structures since they began burning January 7. Still, area health systems have largely remained operational.
With the new Congress sworn in and President-elect Trump poised for his second inauguration, Republicans have queued up a number of bills that could widely expand veterans' access to the private health care system, setting up the latest battle over VA's reliance on what's known as community care. Efforts to reform how the VA provides healthcare to millions of veterans are heating up in 2025 as pressures to bring down costs and lower wait times for care mount.
The FDA's decision to ban the synthetic dye Red 3 is being hailed by health experts as a step toward improving the nation's food safety. Many insist it's only the beginning of much-needed reform.
Artificial intelligence models are ever-hungry black boxes that need boatloads of bits and bytes from a wide stream of real-world data in order to produce insights about patients and their care. To satisfy this need, a trove of companies have popped up to buy patient data from hospitals and sell it to those wanting to train AI or do research.
“The current system leads people to avoid primary care, which is the worst possible outcome,” Boyarsky Pratt says, later adding, “Research shows our current approach is making obesity worse. It feels like my calling to create something that welcomes patients.”