What you need to know before you go: June 12, 2025
SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KCAU) — Here are the top headlines from this morning.
Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds signed a bill aimed at bringing changes to Pharmacy Benefit Managers.
Iowa Gov. Reynolds signs bill to reform pharmacy benefit managers
Governor Reynolds vetoed a bill that was meant to increase restrictions on the use of eminent domain for CO2 Pipeline construction.
Iowa governor rejects GOP bill to increase regulations of Summit's carbon dioxide pipeline
The Iowa Department of Health and Human Services confirmed a third case of Measles in the state, from a non-vaccinated child.
Iowa HHS confirms third case of measles in 2025
Check out more stories in the video above.
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Yahoo
12 minutes ago
- Yahoo
‘Undermining trust': Kennedy's promises on vaccines put to the test
In convincing wary senators to confirm him as the nation's top health official, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. promised he would not discourage people from getting vaccines or make the shots 'difficult' to access. Now that the longtime anti-vaccine activist has the job, he's putting his promise to the test. In the four months since GOP senators signed off on Kennedy's appointment as secretary of Health and Human Services, Kennedy has moved deliberately to upend the people and processes that have guided decision-making about vaccines. This week, he purged a government panel of outside vaccine experts and appointed eight replacements, some of whom share his view that the government has covered up vaccine side effects. He skipped the advisory process in changing who the government says should get Covid vaccines and stoked confusion when he issued updated guidance that gave parents room to decide for themselves. He's hired an anti-vaccine activist to scour government records on vaccine safety and launched a search for autism's cause. Kennedy has long believed vaccines are one cause of the neurological disorder. 'If we have a system that has been dismantled — one that allowed for open, evidence-based decision-making and that supported transparent and clear dialogue about vaccines — and then we replace it with a process that's driven largely by one person's beliefs, that creates a system that cannot be trusted,' said Dr. Helen Chu, a University of Washington School of Medicine professor who was dismissed from the vaccine panel this week. In the absence of independent, unbiased advice, she added, 'we can't trust that safe and effective vaccines will be available for use in the United States.' Kennedy's sweeping moves in his first few months on the job underscore the broad mandate President Donald Trump gave him to remake the federal health department. 'Secretary Kennedy is restoring trust by demanding radical transparency and ending the complacency that defined past public health failures,' HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon told POLITICO in a statement Thursday, noting that Kennedy's commitment to putting 'accountability and radical transparency first' will 'restore trust in our public health system.' Kennedy has said his mission is to reestablish trust by rooting out corruption in the health agencies — stemming, he believes, from the symbiotic relationship between regulators and industry. But leaders in the public health establishment say his actions are more likely to do the opposite, arguing he distorts scientific data to suit his message. 'What he's doing is undermining trust,' said Tom Frieden, who led the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during Barack Obama's presidency. Frieden worries that Kennedy's hyper-skepticism about vaccine safety, which could be amplified now by like-minded members of his vaccine advisory panel, will mislead more people into believing the shots are unsafe, causing immunization rates to dip and infectious diseases to spread. Kennedy's belief that vaccines often carry serious side effects already has led to policy change, with HHS dropping guidance that pregnant women get vaccinated for Covid. HHS cited evidence that the shot was linked to miscarriages — though one of the researchers footnoted in an HHS document disputed the agency's characterization. Thirty-two medical groups protested the decision earlier this week. Among the new members of the vaccine advisory panel are Dr. Robert Malone and Retsef Levi, who share Kennedy's view that Covid vaccine side effects are more serious than the government has disclosed. The changes Kennedy has made, public health experts warn, are upending the nation's health agencies and risk paralyzing decision-making about what advice to give the public. But to Kennedy's supporters, he's just doing what Trump asked him to do. 'Frankly, the experts really got an awful lot wrong about Covid in particular, so I think in general the American population right now is pretty darn skeptical of the so-called experts,' said Mary Holland, president and general counsel at Children's Health Defense, the anti-vaccine nonprofit Kennedy founded. The vaccine panel Kennedy has upended, the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, is one of four external panels housed at HHS that advise agencies on vaccine policy, but it's regarded as the most influential. The panel helps set the CDC's childhood and adult immunization schedules, and several state and federal laws reference ACIP recommendations — including the Affordable Care Act, which requires health plans to cover vaccines the committee recommends for routine use without cost-sharing. ACIP also votes on whether vaccines should be offered through the Vaccines for Children program that ensures low-income and under- and uninsured kids can access shots for free. 'If the secretary puts in place an advisory committee that shares his views around vaccination … I can envision the committee not making recommendations for vaccine use in children, or revisiting the existing schedule and changing some of those recommendations,' Dr. Richard Besser, a former CDC acting director who's now president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, told POLITICO Tuesday. 'We would be in a situation where your ability to get a vaccine depends on how much money is in your pocket.' The demise of an independent ACIP, Chu said, would lead to 'a patchwork of different policies by different states' — a development that could see some states stop mandating certain vaccines for school entry and likely increasing the risk of infectious disease. Historically, the CDC director decides whether to accept, reject or amend the group's recommendations, but it's unclear whether anyone is filling that role. Dr. Susan Monarez, a former Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health official, was tapped to lead the CDC, compelling her to step down as acting director. Kennedy told lawmakers in May that agency chief of staff Matthew Buzzelli — a lawyer with no public health background — was in charge. Even Holland called the absence of a confirmed CDC director 'troubling' and questioned whether the Senate is prioritizing the position. If approved, Monarez would be the first confirmed CDC director since Congress changed the law in 2023 to require the Senate to vote on the position. The Office of Government Ethics posted her financial disclosure forms on Saturday, which clears the way for the Senate health panel to schedule a confirmation hearing. ACIP voting members usually serve four-year terms — and STAT has reported that the Biden administration intentionally stacked the committee's membership, selecting replacements for members whose terms were set to expire in June. Even so, Kennedy's decision to fire all of the panel's members and replace them is unprecedented. The HHS secretary wields broad authority to manage the panel as he sees fit under federal law. And the slate he announced late Wednesday includes several people known for questioning the safety of either messenger RNA vaccines specifically or, more broadly, the childhood schedule. Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, a former public health official in California, has informally advised Kennedy since the November election, including compiling a list of names for new ACIP members who he thought would balance public health imperatives with vaccine safety concerns. None of his suggestions made the cut so far, he told POLITICO. 'Most people don't understand there are very different ethics in the practice of public health. In medicine, it's all about 'do no harm,' and it's about advocating as much as one can for the benefit of that individual patient,' Klausner said. 'In public health, you're trying to do the most good for the most people.' Kennedy said the new members will 'review safety and efficacy data for the current schedule,' raising questions about how the new panel may seek to change recommendations relied upon by pediatricians nationwide. 'I'm very disappointed. Not so much for me, but for public health,' said Mysheika W. Roberts, health commissioner for Columbus, Ohio, who was slated to join ACIP in July, replacing one of the members whose terms was set to expire. 'How are we going to make sure we have individuals at the table who can make decisions that impact everyone in our country, and really make those decisions based on proper data and proper science?' The firing of the vaccine advisers is only Kennedy's most recent effort to remake HHS' administrative structure in his image. It follows his decision to launch a search for autism's cause — he's putting $50 million into it and promising answers within months — and his cancellation of a nearly $600 million contract with Covid shotmaker Moderna to use its mRNA platform to develop a bird flu vaccine. Kennedy has called the mRNA Covid shots from Moderna and Pfizer the 'deadliest vaccine ever made.' At the same time, Kennedy and the vaccine-wary wing of his Make America Healthy Again movement have elevated the once-fringe view that vaccination should be an individual choice and not a public obligation. Kennedy has made the point repeatedly in congressional testimony and in his response to an ongoing measles outbreak. He has said he believes reassuring Americans that vaccination is up to them, and not required, is essential to restoring trust in public health after vaccine mandates drew backlash during the pandemic. But Kennedy's perception of 'evidence-based decision-making with objectivity and common sense' — the approach he said the vaccine advisory panel's new roster would take — runs contrary to that of most scientists. They see vaccination as one of the most important public health interventions to limit and prevent disease spread, along with clean water, and believe it essential that people feel an obligation, if not a requirement, to get vaccinated. 'It's the rise of individualism going against collective good, and public health DNA is public good — it's protecting the population to protect the most vulnerable,' said Katelyn Jetelina, an epidemiologist who's consulted for the CDC. 'That's just a very different framework in theory than the medical freedom movement, and how you reconcile those two things in this moment is the big question.' While Klausner said he's disappointed with Kennedy's ACIP choices, he'll continue to offer the secretary advice because he's in the position of authority. 'I'm trying to work with him to keep things on the rails,' he said.
Politico
34 minutes ago
- Politico
‘Undermining trust': Kennedy's promises on vaccines put to the test
In convincing wary senators to confirm him as the nation's top health official, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. promised he would not discourage people from getting vaccines or make the shots 'difficult' to access. Now that the longtime anti-vaccine activist has the job, he's putting his promise to the test. In the four months since GOP senators signed off on Kennedy's appointment as secretary of Health and Human Services, Kennedy has moved deliberately to upend the people and processes that have guided decision-making about vaccines. This week, he purged a government panel of outside vaccine experts and appointed eight replacements, some of whom share his view that the government has covered up vaccine side effects. He skipped the advisory process in changing who the government says should get Covid vaccines and stoked confusion when he issued updated guidance that gave parents room to decide for themselves. He's hired an anti-vaccine activist to scour government records on vaccine safety and launched a search for autism's cause. Kennedy has long believed vaccines are one cause of the neurological disorder. 'If we have a system that has been dismantled — one that allowed for open, evidence-based decision-making and that supported transparent and clear dialogue about vaccines — and then we replace it with a process that's driven largely by one person's beliefs, that creates a system that cannot be trusted,' said Dr. Helen Chu, a University of Washington School of Medicine professor who was dismissed from the vaccine panel this week. In the absence of independent, unbiased advice, she added, 'we can't trust that safe and effective vaccines will be available for use in the United States.' Kennedy's sweeping moves in his first few months on the job underscore the broad mandate President Donald Trump gave him to remake the federal health department. 'Secretary Kennedy is restoring trust by demanding radical transparency and ending the complacency that defined past public health failures,' HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon told POLITICO in a statement Thursday, noting that Kennedy's commitment to putting 'accountability and radical transparency first' will 'restore trust in our public health system.' Kennedy has said his mission is to reestablish trust by rooting out corruption in the health agencies — stemming, he believes, from the symbiotic relationship between regulators and industry. But leaders in the public health establishment say his actions are more likely to do the opposite, arguing he distorts scientific data to suit his message. 'What he's doing is undermining trust,' said Tom Frieden, who led the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during Barack Obama's presidency. Frieden worries that Kennedy's hyper-skepticism about vaccine safety, which could be amplified now by like-minded members of his vaccine advisory panel, will mislead more people into believing the shots are unsafe, causing immunization rates to dip and infectious diseases to spread. Kennedy's belief that vaccines often carry serious side effects already has led to policy change, with HHS dropping guidance that pregnant women get vaccinated for Covid. HHS cited evidence that the shot was linked to miscarriages — though one of the researchers footnoted in an HHS document disputed the agency's characterization. Thirty-two medical groups protested the decision earlier this week. Among the new members of the vaccine advisory panel are Dr. Robert Malone and Retsef Levi, who share Kennedy's view that Covid vaccine side effects are more serious than the government has disclosed. The changes Kennedy has made, public health experts warn, are upending the nation's health agencies and risk paralyzing decision-making about what advice to give the public. But to Kennedy's supporters, he's just doing what Trump asked him to do. 'Frankly, the experts really got an awful lot wrong about Covid in particular, so I think in general the American population right now is pretty darn skeptical of the so-called experts,' said Mary Holland, president and general counsel at Children's Health Defense, the anti-vaccine nonprofit Kennedy founded. The vaccine panel Kennedy has upended, the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, is one of four external panels housed at HHS that advise agencies on vaccine policy, but it's regarded as the most influential. The panel helps set the CDC's childhood and adult immunization schedules, and several state and federal laws reference ACIP recommendations — including the Affordable Care Act, which requires health plans to cover vaccines the committee recommends for routine use without cost-sharing. ACIP also votes on whether vaccines should be offered through the Vaccines for Children program that ensures low-income and under- and uninsured kids can access shots for free. 'If the secretary puts in place an advisory committee that shares his views around vaccination … I can envision the committee not making recommendations for vaccine use in children, or revisiting the existing schedule and changing some of those recommendations,' Dr. Richard Besser, a former CDC acting director who's now president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, told POLITICO Tuesday. 'We would be in a situation where your ability to get a vaccine depends on how much money is in your pocket.' The demise of an independent ACIP, Chu said, would lead to 'a patchwork of different policies by different states' — a development that could see some states stop mandating certain vaccines for school entry and likely increasing the risk of infectious disease. Historically, the CDC director decides whether to accept, reject or amend the group's recommendations, but it's unclear whether anyone is filling that role. Dr. Susan Monarez, a former Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health official, was tapped to lead the CDC, compelling her to step down as acting director. Kennedy told lawmakers in May that agency chief of staff Matthew Buzzelli — a lawyer with no public health background — was in charge. Even Holland called the absence of a confirmed CDC director 'troubling' and questioned whether the Senate is prioritizing the position. If approved, Monarez would be the first confirmed CDC director since Congress changed the law in 2023 to require the Senate to vote on the position. The Office of Government Ethics posted her financial disclosure forms on Saturday, which clears the way for the Senate health panel to schedule a confirmation hearing. ACIP voting members usually serve four-year terms — and STAT has reported that the Biden administration intentionally stacked the committee's membership, selecting replacements for members whose terms were set to expire in June. Even so, Kennedy's decision to fire all of the panel's members and replace them is unprecedented. The HHS secretary wields broad authority to manage the panel as he sees fit under federal law. And the slate he announced late Wednesday includes several people known for questioning the safety of either messenger RNA vaccines specifically or, more broadly, the childhood schedule. Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, a former public health official in California, has informally advised Kennedy since the November election, including compiling a list of names for new ACIP members who he thought would balance public health imperatives with vaccine safety concerns. None of his suggestions made the cut so far, he told POLITICO. 'Most people don't understand there are very different ethics in the practice of public health. In medicine, it's all about 'do no harm,' and it's about advocating as much as one can for the benefit of that individual patient,' Klausner said. 'In public health, you're trying to do the most good for the most people.' Kennedy said the new members will 'review safety and efficacy data for the current schedule,' raising questions about how the new panel may seek to change recommendations relied upon by pediatricians nationwide. 'I'm very disappointed. Not so much for me, but for public health,' said Mysheika W. Roberts, health commissioner for Columbus, Ohio, who was slated to join ACIP in July, replacing one of the members whose terms was set to expire. 'How are we going to make sure we have individuals at the table who can make decisions that impact everyone in our country, and really make those decisions based on proper data and proper science?' The firing of the vaccine advisers is only Kennedy's most recent effort to remake HHS' administrative structure in his image. It follows his decision to launch a search for autism's cause — he's putting $50 million into it and promising answers within months — and his cancellation of a nearly $600 million contract with Covid shotmaker Moderna to use its mRNA platform to develop a bird flu vaccine. Kennedy has called the mRNA Covid shots from Moderna and Pfizer the 'deadliest vaccine ever made.' At the same time, Kennedy and the vaccine-wary wing of his Make America Healthy Again movement have elevated the once-fringe view that vaccination should be an individual choice and not a public obligation. Kennedy has made the point repeatedly in congressional testimony and in his response to an ongoing measles outbreak. He has said he believes reassuring Americans that vaccination is up to them, and not required, is essential to restoring trust in public health after vaccine mandates drew backlash during the pandemic. But Kennedy's perception of 'evidence-based decision-making with objectivity and common sense' — the approach he said the vaccine advisory panel's new roster would take — runs contrary to that of most scientists. They see vaccination as one of the most important public health interventions to limit and prevent disease spread, along with clean water, and believe it essential that people feel an obligation, if not a requirement, to get vaccinated. 'It's the rise of individualism going against collective good, and public health DNA is public good — it's protecting the population to protect the most vulnerable,' said Katelyn Jetelina, an epidemiologist who's consulted for the CDC. 'That's just a very different framework in theory than the medical freedom movement, and how you reconcile those two things in this moment is the big question.' While Klausner said he's disappointed with Kennedy's ACIP choices, he'll continue to offer the secretary advice because he's in the position of authority. 'I'm trying to work with him to keep things on the rails,' he said.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
House tax-and-spending bill and other Trump administration changes could make millions of people lose their health insurance coverage
President Donald Trump has promised not to cut Medicaid many times over the past decade, including in the tax-and-spending legislative package he has made a top priority in his second administration. But several provisions in the bill, which the House of Representatives passed in a largely party-line 215-214 vote in May 2025, could cause millions of Americans enrolled in Medicaid to lose their health insurance coverage, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Medicaid is funded jointly by the federal government and the states. The program provides nearly 80 million Americans, most of whom are low-income or have disabilities, with health insurance. The legislation, which advances Trump's agenda, faces a tough battle in the Senate despite the Republican Party majority in that chamber. Several GOP senators have either said they oppose it or have expressed strong reservations for a variety of reasons, including the trillions of dollars the package would add to the U.S. government's debt. As a scholar who researches access to health care, I am concerned about the possibility that millions of people will lose their health insurance coverage should this bill become law. In many cases, that could occur due to new bureaucratic obstacles the bill would introduce. About 25.3 million Americans lacked insurance in 2023, down sharply from 46.5 million in 2010. Most of this 46% decline occurred because of the Affordable Care Act of 2010. The Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan agency that provides evidence-supported information to Congress, estimates that 10.9 million Americans would lose their health insurance by 2034 if the House of Representatives' version of that package were to become law. Of these, as many as 7.8 million would lose access to Medicaid. Another 2.1 million people who the CBO estimates would end up uninsured are Americans who today have coverage they bought in the marketplaces that the Affordable Care Act created. In addition to the measures in the tax-and-spending bill, other changes are looming. These include the expiration of some ACA-related measures adopted in 2021 that Trump does not intend to renew, and new regulations. All told, the number of Americans losing their health insurance by 2034 could total 16 million, according to the CBO. Other estimates suggest that the number of Americans losing their coverage could run even higher. The House bill would reduce incentives the federal government provides states to expand their Medicaid programs as part of the ACA. Eliminating these incentives would make it even less likely that Texas and the other nine states that still have not expanded Medicaid eligibility would do so in the future. The bill would also make it harder for states to come up with their share of Medicaid funding by limiting 'provider taxes.' These taxes are charged to hospitals, doctors and other medical providers. The revenue they raise help pay for the state's share of Medicaid costs. And the legislative package would also reduce federal funding to cover Medicaid costs in states that provide coverage to unauthorized immigrants using only their own funds. Threatened with billions in losses, the states that do this are unlikely to maintain these programs. In California alone, this would jeopardize the coverage of 1.6 million of its residents. Losing Medicaid coverage may leave millions of low-income Americans without insurance coverage, with no affordable alternatives for health care. Other proposed changes in the House bill would indirectly cut Medicaid coverage by forcing people to deal with more red tape to get or keep it. This would happen primarily through the introduction of 'work requirements' for Medicaid coverage. When enrolled in the program, applicants who are between 19 and 64 years old would need to certify they are working at least 80 hours a month or spending that much time engaged in comparable activities, such as community service. Work requirements specifically target people eligible for Medicaid through the Affordable Care Act's expansion of the program. They tend to have slightly higher incomes than the other people eligible for this benefit. Arkansas gave Medicaid work requirements a try during the first Trump administration. Researchers who studied what happened found that 1 in 4 of the Arkansans enrolled in Medicaid affected by the policy lost their health insurance coverage. They also found that in most cases, this occurred because of bureaucratic obstacles, and that the policy didn't lead to more people getting jobs. By some estimates, the work requirements provision alone would lead to close to 5 million people of the 7.8 million being denied Medicaid coverage. At the same time, the bill would increase how often Medicaid beneficiaries have to reapply to the program to keep their coverage from once every 12 months to twice a year. It also would delay or reverse several policies that made it easier for Americans to enroll in Medicaid and maintain their coverage. Many of those who aren't kicked out would also face either new or higher co-payments for appointments and procedures – restricting their access to health care, even if they don't wind up without insurance. There is ample evidence that obstacles like these make it hard to remain enrolled in safety net programs. Historically, the people who are most likely to lose their benefits are low-income, people of color or immigrants who do not speak English well. The bill would also affect the more than 24 million Americans who get health insurance through Affordable Care Act Marketplace plans. Changes in the House version of the bill would make it harder to get this coverage. This includes reducing the time Americans have to enroll in plans and eliminating certain subsidies. It also makes the enrollment process more complicated. Combined with other changes the Trump administration has made, experts expect Marketplace premiums to skyrocket. The Congressional Budget Office expects more than 2 million beneficiaries to lose coverage due to these new policies. Americans buying their own insurance on the ACA marketplaces may also face higher premiums. Increased subsidies in place since 2021 are set to expire at the end of the year. Combined with Trump regulatory decisions, this may lead to more than 5 million Americans losing coverage – whether or not the GOP's tax-and-spending package is enacted. The effects of the bill would also be compounded by further changes by individual states. This could include the introduction of monthly premiums that people with Medicaid coverage would have to pay, in Indiana and other states. Some states may also reduce eligibility for certain groups or cover fewer services, as states seek to reduce their Medicaid costs. And some states, including Iowa and Utah, are already pursuing work requirements on their own whether or not they become mandatory across the nation. If fewer Americans have health insurance due to changes the Trump administration is making and the policies embedded in the pending tax-and-spending legislative package, the health of millions of people could get worse due to forgone care. And at the same time, their medical debts could grow larger. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Simon F. Haeder, Texas A&M University Read more: US health care is rife with high costs and deep inequities, and that's no accident – a public health historian explains how the system was shaped to serve profit and politicians There's no evidence work requirements for Medicaid recipients will boost employment, but they are a key piece of Republican spending bill Work requirements are better at blocking benefits for low-income people than they are at helping those folks find jobs Dr. Simon F. Haeder has previously received funding from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Pennsylvania Insurance Department, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for unrelated projects.
