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Democrats at the federal and state levels are pushing to pass bills protecting sensitive reproductive health data before Republicans take control of key legislative chambers. (Panetta, 12/10)

Most women in the United States haven’t received birth control prescriptions or other family planning services in recent years, a new report suggests, even as abortion restrictions have grown. Family planning – including birth control, emergency contraception, sterilization and counseling for these services – is an important part of health care, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (McPhillips, 12/11)

A federal appeals court scrutinized the impact of Idaho’s strict abortion ban on emergency medical care on Tuesday, weighing whether the ban criminalizing abortions should be enforceable in life- and health-threatening situations. John Bursch, an attorney with the Alliance Defending Freedom representing Idaho, asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel of 11 judges to urgently lift the injunction preventing the state from enforcing its abortion ban in emergency room settings, saying it “harms Idaho sovereignty, harms women, (and) harms unborn children.” (Boone and Ding, 12/11)

Women should have the option of taking their own test samples for cervical cancer screening, an influential health panel said Tuesday. Draft recommendations from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force are aimed at getting more people screened and spreading the word that women can take their own vaginal samples to check for cancer-causing HPV. Women in their 20s should still get a Pap test every three years. But after that — from age 30 to 65 — women can get an HPV test every five years, the panel said. (Johnson, 12/10)

Testing for high-risk human papillomaviruses every five years – even with a self-collected sample – is the “preferred screening strategy” for cervical cancer starting at age 30, according to a new draft recommendation from the US Preventive Services Task Force. (Howard, 12/10)

Support for Luigi Mangione, charged in connection with the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, is part of the bitter messaging that's been bubbling up amid debate about health care in America since the CEO attack that captured the country's attention. (Mirabella and McDermid, 12/10)

Health insurance costs are far outpacing inflation, leaving more consumers on the hook each year for thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket expenses. At the same time, some insurers are rejecting nearly 1 in 5 claims. That double whammy is leaving Americans paying more for coverage yet sometimes feeling like they're getting less in return, experts say. Frustration over denials and medical costs has fueled an outpouring of vitriol against health insurance companies in the wake of the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. (Picchi, 12/10)

The battle lines over the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, and the ethics of the health care industry, are receiving additional scrutiny from Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D), the most high-profile politician yet to weigh in on the matter. Shapiro, who had been under consideration to be Vice President Harris’s running mate in this year’s election, pushed back hard against those who have sought to minimize the killing of Thompson. ... Shapiro, speaking at a Monday evening news conference, said, “In some dark corners, this killer is being hailed as a hero. Hear me on this: He is no hero.” (Stanage, 12/10)

Brian Thompson, the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare who was gunned down in a brazen killing in New York, was laid to rest this week at a private funeral service in his Minnesota hometown. On Monday ... family and friends of the slain executive gathered at a Lutheran church in Maple Grove, Minn., to mourn the loss of a husband and father who ascended from modest roots in Iowa to one of the most powerful roles in the health care industry. (Harris and Londoño, 12/10)

A law enforcement bulletin obtained by The Associated Press said that at the time of his arrest, Mangione was carrying a handwritten document expressing anger with what he called “parasitic” health insurance companies and a disdain for corporate greed and power. He wrote that the U.S. has the most expensive health care system in the world and that profits of major corporations continue to rise while “our life expectancy” does not, according to the bulletin. (Sisak and Scolforo, 12/11)

Chronic back pain is a common and sometimes debilitating health condition with many possible causes. ... Statistics differ on the number of people who suffer with back pain—but all sources consistently say that, in the U.S., the number is high. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated in 2021 that 20.9 percent of U.S. adults—that's 51.6 million people—had chronic pain, and in 2019 the National Health Interview Survey found that 39 percent of adults had experienced back pain in the previous three months. (Willmoth, 12/10)

CBS News Miami sat down with Russell Lazega, an insurance claims attorney based in South Florida and asked him, what do you do when your claim is denied? "You have to go through the insurance company's internal appeals process. What a lot of folks don't know is that when you do that, you're creating a record to any future case or challenge to that appeal decision," said Lazega. Lazega adds, that it's critical to meticulously document every step of the process because if you fail to do that, it won't be considered later. (McAllister, 12/10)

After nearly two years of review and discussion, scientists charged with advising federal health and agriculture agencies on the next edition of dietary guidelines issued their report Tuesday, clarifying the role of food in health promotion and disease prevention. (Cooney, 12/10)

Americans should eat more beans, peas and lentils and cut back on red and processed meats and starchy vegetables, all while continuing to limit added sugars, sodium and saturated fat. That’s the advice released Tuesday by a panel of nutrition experts charged with counseling the U.S. government about the 2025 edition of the dietary guidelines that will form the cornerstone of federal food programs and policy. (Aleccia, 12/10)

Ultra-processed food might be driving colon cancer risk by fueling inflammation in the body, according to a study scientists believe could "revolutionize cancer treatment." Scientists in Florida have uncovered a potential link between inflammatory foods in the diet and the growth of tumors in the gut, by analyzing the tumors of people with cancer. (Willmoth, 12/10)

What kind of sugary treat you are having might change its impact on your health, according to a new study. Sugary drinks were associated with a greater risk of developing cardiovascular health disease than sweets like baked goods, said lead study author Suzanne Janzi, a doctoral student in nutritional epidemiology at Lund University in Sweden, via email. (Holcombe, 12/10)

Major food companies, including Kraft Heinz (KHC.O), Mondelez (MDLZ.O), and Coca-Cola (KO.N), were hit with a new lawsuit in the U.S. on Tuesday accusing them of designing and marketing "ultra-processed" foods to be addictive to children, causing chronic disease. The lawsuit was filed in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas by Bryce Martinez, a Pennsylvania resident who alleges he developed type 2 diabetes and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, diagnosed at age 16, as a result of consuming the companies' products. (Pierson, 12/11)

Leading Democratic lawmakers are demanding answers from Dr. Mehmet Oz on his previous support for eliminating traditional Medicare in favor of private Medicare Advantage plans. Led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), the lawmakers sent a letter to Oz on Tuesday “regarding our concerns about your advocacy for the elimination of Traditional Medicare and your deep financial ties to private health insurers.” (Weixel, 12/10)

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is the latest Donald Trump Cabinet pick facing trouble in the Senate. At least three closely watched senators are noncommittal about confirming the vaccine critic, who’s being considered to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. Those include swing votes like Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, as well as Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a physician who will chair a committee that could host confirmation hearings for Kennedy. (Perano, 12/10)

The public trusts Anthony Fauci more than President-elect Trump and his incoming health team as a source of medical information, according to the latest Axios-Ipsos American Health Index. (Bettelheim, 12/11)

Despite the seemingly uncontroversial goal of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to “Make America Healthy Again,” many of his health care stances are deeply divisive: In the last two years alone, he has suggested that Covid-19 was genetically engineered to spare specific ethnicities, stated that radiation from cell phones causes cancer, and doubled down on the long-disproven claim that HIV does not cause AIDS. (Facher, 12/11)

Eli Lilly, CEO David Ricks on Tuesday said at the Economic Club of Washington that tax and regulation reform and drug affordability were some policy focuses for the company in a second Trump administration. President-elect Donald Trump met with Ricks and the chief executive of industry lobbying group PhRMA in Florida last week. It was also reported that Pfizer (PFE.N), CEO Albert Bourla attended. (Wingrove, 12/10)

Republican U.S. Rep. Brett Guthrie of Kentucky has secured the chairmanship of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which wields broad jurisdiction over issues affecting the daily lives of Americans. ... Guthrie’s new role puts him at the forefront of some of the nation’s biggest policy discussions. The Kentucky congressman will lead a committee with jurisdiction over the country’s health care system, energy and environmental policies, consumer safety, and telecommunications and technology innovation. (Schreiner, 12/10)

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) received medical attention after falling following a Republican lunch meeting Tuesday. A spokesman for McConnell said the GOP leader tripped after the lunch. “He sustained a minor cut to the face and sprained his wrist. He has been cleared to resume his schedule,” the aide said in a statement. McConnell was later seen at the Capitol with a brace on one wrist and a bandage on his face. Asked by reporters how he was feeling, McConnell responded, “good.” (Bolton and Weaver, 12/10)

Lawmakers and advocates are making a last-ditch effort to include pharmacy benefit manger-focused provisions and other legislation in year-end government funding bills, as a flurry of activity targets telehealth measures. Some of the items under consideration were part of a proposal leaked to lobbyists and reporters last week, including a possible three-year extension of expiring telehealth authorities in Medicare. But PBM legislation was not floated as part of the deal, and proponents inside and outside of Congress are pushing to bring those bills to the forefront. (McAuliff, 12/10)

When Eagle visited the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center in a suburb south of Boston, with her mother in the early 2000s, the 14-year-old stepped into the brick building and caught a bizarre sight: kids wearing backpacks with wires bursting out of them. She asked a staff member about the backpacks, and was told that it was a graduated electronic decelerator, a device capable of shocking someone’s skin. (Broderick, 12/11)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: Listen To The Latest '�������ýҕ�l Health News Minute'

This week on the �������ýҕ�l Health News Minute: Leaders often fail to address racial health disparities even when they have data showing they exist, and state programs to import cheaper drugs from Canada are struggling to get off the ground. (12/10)

The World Health Organization chief on Tuesday voiced confidence that states could finalise a pandemic agreement by May 2025, despite questions about whether the administration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump will support it. The WHO's 194 member states have been negotiating for two years on an agreement that could increase collaboration before and during pandemics after acknowledged failures during COVID-19. (12/10)

Federal disease trackers reported Tuesday that the first child diagnosed with bird flu in an ongoing U.S. outbreak was infected with a virus strain closely related to one moving rapidly through dairy cattle, even though there is no evidence the youngster was exposed to livestock or any infected animals. The finding by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about the child, who lives in California, deepened the mystery about the spread of H5N1 bird flu, a viral ailment that epidemiologists have watched warily for more than two decades, fearing it could spark a pandemic. (Sun, 12/10)

Though virus RNA levels in the sample from a California child whose H5N1 avian flu infection was reported in November weren’t enough for complete sequencing, complex analysis was able determine that is most closely resembles the B3.13 genotype found in cattle, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today in a technical update. In other developments, the CDC said yesterday that follow-up testing didn’t confirm two recent cases from Arizona as H5 infections, though they are classified as probable cases. (Schnirring, 12/10)

A second infant has died in an 8-state listeria outbreak related to recalled Yu Shang Food ready-to-eat meat and poultry products, according to federal health officials. The products were sold online and at retail locations nationwide, according to federal health officials. Nineteen cases are confirmed, with 17 hospitalized, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in its latest update. States with confirmed illnesses include: California, Georgia, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon and Tennessee.  (Gibson, 12/10)

It’s that time of year again, when the misery of norovirus strikes much of the U.S. Each year the pathogen causes an average of 900 deaths, 109,000 hospitalizations, 465,000 emergency room visits, and 19 to 21 million illnesses, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency reports national norovirus trends as three-week moving averages of positive test rates. So far in the 2024–25 season, infections peaked the week of Nov. 30, 2024, at 17.06% positivity. (Prater, 12/11)

Sandra Revill Tremulis was a healthy 39-year-old who taught fitness classes and had recently run a marathon when extreme fatigue and chest tingling drove her to see a cardiologist. The doctor discovered she had 95% blockage in one of her coronary arteries and that a heart attack was imminent. ... Further bloodwork revealed the culprit: high levels of a particle called lipoprotein(a) in her arteries. (Greenfield, 12/10)

A mysterious illness outbreak that has sickened at least 416 people and killed 31 in a remote region of the Democratic Republic of Congo may be at least partly caused by malaria, health officials said Tuesday. (Goodman, 12/10)

Dengue fever is sweeping across the Caribbean and the Americas, with a record 12.6 million suspected cases of the mosquito-transmitted virus reported this year, nearly triple the number from last year, health officials said Tuesday. Cases of dengue have been surging globally as warmer weather brought on by climate change enables mosquitoes to expand their reach. The Pan American Health Organization —the regional office of the World Health Organization in the Americas — said deaths from dengue are also rising. (Coto, 12/10)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: Toxic ‘Forever Chemicals’ Taint Rural California Drinking Water, Far From Known Sources

Juana Valle never imagined she’d be scared to drink water from her tap or eat fresh eggs and walnuts when she bought her 5-acre farm in San Juan Bautista, California, three years ago. Escaping city life and growing her own food was a dream come true for the 52-year-old. Then Valle began to suspect water from her well was making her sick. “Even if everything is organic, it doesn’t matter, if the water underground is not clean,” Valle said. (Norman, 12/11)

Some breast cancer patients are at higher risk of having their disease spread elsewhere in their body because of an inherited genetic predisposition, researchers reported in Cell. The vast majority of cancer deaths stem from the spread of cancer, rather than issues associated with the initial tumor. (Reed and Goldman, 12/11)

New data suggests researchers may have found one of their most promising candidates yet for the next generation in immunotherapy drugs — bispecific antibodies targeting two key proteins in cancer, PD1 or PD-L1 and VEGF. (Chen, 12/10)

Transmission of vaccine-strain rotavirus was uncommon and had no clinical consequences in a US neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) that routinely administers the live pentavalent (five-strain; RV5) rotavirus vaccine, a report published yesterday in Pediatrics suggests. (Van Beusekom, 12/10)

Two new large studies, one based on outcomes among US children and teens and the other on adults in Japan, show COVID-19 vaccines are protective against long COVID. Both studies were conducted when the Omicron strain of the virus was dominant, with the first also assessing the Delta variant. (Soucheray, 12/10)

Around one in every five people aged below 50 around the world is infected with incurable genital herpes, researchers have newly estimated. According to a new paper in the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections, 846 million people worldwide are genitally infected with the herpes simplex virus—which causes both genital and oral herpes—with 42 million new cases in 2020 alone. During the same year, the researchers predict that over 200 million 15 to 49-year-olds likely had at least one outbreak of the infection. (Thomson, 12/10)

Siga Technologies' (SIGA.O) antiviral drug did not reduce the time to lesion resolution or have an effect on pain among adults affected by the clade II strain of mpox, according to a U.S. National Institutes of Health study published on Tuesday. A data safety and monitoring board recommended stopping further enrollment of patients in the study based on the interim results. (12/10)

A paper published yesterday in the American Journal of Infection Control describes a small cluster of extensively drug-resistant (XDR) Shigella cases in California. The three cases of XDR Shigella sonnei were identified in men who have sex with men (MSM) in Los Angeles who all presented with symptoms within 3 months of one another in 2023. All three men had reported histories of high-risk sexual behavior, and one was HIV-positive. (Dall, 12/10)

Socially vulnerable adults hospitalized for influenza required invasive mechanical ventilation and/or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) support at greater rates than their higher-income counterparts during five respiratory virus seasons in the United States, concludes a study published in JAMA Network Open. (Van Beusekom, 12/10)

Stem cells have been taken from the blood of 'superagers' – people aged 100 or more - and reprogrammed so that they are again capable of becoming any cell type in the body in research that could open the door to a better understanding of how cells age, and how some of us become more resistant to diseases of aging such as Alzheimer's. (Duke, 12/10)

Early detection is vital to treating Alzheimer’s disease — and AI could help doctors make the diagnosis faster. What now? A $2.35 million NIH grant to train Arizona State University doctoral students to build artificial intelligence-backed tools to diagnose and treat neurodegenerative diseases is the agency’s latest contribution to the fight. The project will connect molecular scientists, AI experts and local research institutions like Mayo Clinic with students to develop AI medical imaging technology. (Svirnovskiy, Reader and Paun, 12/10)

Eli Lilly, the company that makes the blockbuster weight loss treatment Zepbound, will start studying its obesity products as treatments for alcohol and drug abuse, making it the first major drugmaker to do so, CEO David Ricks said Tuesday. (Chen, 12/10)

A federal judge in Oregon blocked Kroger’s proposed $25 billion tie-up with Albertsons, ruling that the largest merger in US supermarket history would limit competition and harm consumers. The ruling is a major setback for the chains and puts the merger’s likelihood in jeopardy. The judge issued a preliminary injunction halting the deal, which the companies can appeal. (Meyersohn, 12/10)

Walgreens is reportedly in talks to sell itself to private equity firm Sycamore Partners. Walgreens and Sycamore have been discussing a deal that could close in early 2025, according to a Tuesday report from the Wall Street Journal, which cited people familiar with the matter. The deal would take Walgreens off the public market. (Hudson, 12/10)

Creditors of CarePoint Health and its New Jersey regulator are seeking to remove three board members affiliated with Hudson Regional Hospital, a competing hospital operator that has proposed taking over the CarePoint hospitals out of bankruptcy. The three individuals, employed by Hudson Regional, can’t sit on CarePoint’s board while providing loans to the hospital operator and attempting to acquire its assets. ... These roles pose insurmountable conflicts of interest, the objecting lawyers said. (Biswas, 12/10)

Siemens Healthineers has finalized its deal to purchase radiopharmaceutical company Advanced Accelerator Applications Molecular Imaging from Novartis, the company announced Tuesday. The property, which Siemens renamed Advanced Accelerator Applications, manufactures and distributes diagnostic radiopharmaceuticals for positron emission tomography scans. The Siemens Healthineers-Novartis deal is worth $224 million, Reuters reported. (Dubinsky, 12/10)

Health systems are using artificial intelligence to get patients in and out of the hospital quicker, increase capacity and hone staffing levels. Cleveland Clinic, OhioHealth and UCHealth are among the many systems using predictive analytics and machine learning to try to run hospitals more efficiently, cut down on unnecessary expenses, increase revenue and improve the patient experience, executives said. Much of the cost savings stem from reallocating nurses to different departments based on demand, and revenue increases come from treating more patients. (Kacik, 12/10)

National pharmacy chains cannot be held liable for allegations they violated an Ohio public nuisance law by flooding communities with addictive pain pills, the state’s Supreme Court ruled Tuesday. The decision marks a blow to efforts by governments to hold companies accountable for their alleged role in fueling the nation’s opioid crisis. It also highlights the high-stakes risks of litigation: The same legal strategy has led to more than $50 billion in opioid settlements across the country while delivering losses in some states. (Ovalle, 12/10)

Flavored tobacco that can be found in vapes and e-cigarettes has become incredibly popular among young populations, and the Michigan Legislature is using one of its waning session days to consider banning them. A package of seven bills were approved for consideration by the full state House on Tuesday afternoon. The bills would also change advertising, licensing, criminal penalties for possessing tobacco as a minor, and local ordinances among other reforms. (Meyers, 12/10)

Colorado residents Karmen Peak and her husband have two children, both who she says are thriving because of their access to a critical autism therapy. "What the staff members are doing at my kids' center is life-changing for my kids," Peak said. She started fighting to maintain that access last summer and came to CBS Colorado after her family lost care. (Morfitt, 12/10)

A federal judge has again given the state more time to end its practice of holding mental health patients in emergency departments for prolonged periods. For over a decade, people held involuntarily for mental health treatment have faced lengthy waits in the emergency room – often days or longer – before they’re transferred to an appropriate inpatient facility, because the state has too few psychiatric beds. (Cuno-Booth, 12/10)

The federal government has sued South Carolina, saying the state has not done enough to make sure people with serious mental illnesses are taken out of group homes and helped to get back into the community where they can work and lead independent lives. The lawsuit filed Monday said the state violates the Americans with Disabilities Act by opting, through money and policy decisions, to leave people with mental illnesses in group homes where they can’t choose what to eat, pick their own roommate, find a way to work at a job or go to church and other activities. (Collins, 12/10)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: Former Montana Health Staffer Rebukes Oversight Rules As A Hospital 'Wish List'

A former Montana health department staffer who described himself as the lead author of legislation to scrutinize nonprofit hospitals’ charitable acts said new rules implementing the bill amounted to a hospital “wish list” and that the state needs to go back to the drawing board. The Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services recently adopted the rules outlining how the state will collect data on nonprofit hospitals’ charitable acts with the goal of eventually creating giving standards. That could include benchmarks, such as how much financial aid hospitals must provide patients. (Houghton, 12/11)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: Federal Judge Halts Dreamers’ Brand-New Access To ACA Enrollment In 19 States

A federal judge in North Dakota has ruled in favor of 19 states that challenged a Biden administration rule allowing — for the first time — enrollment in Affordable Care Act coverage by people brought to the U.S. as children without immigration paperwork, known as “Dreamers.” The move effectively bars those who have qualified for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in those 19 states from enrolling in or getting subsidies for ACA plans. It does not appear to affect enrollment or coverage in other states, lawyers following the case said Tuesday. (Appleby, 12/10)

Americans pride themselves on leading the world in innovation, freedom, and opportunity. Yet, when it comes to health, the numbers tell a damning story. (Habib Benzian, 12/10)

Clinicians are acutely aware of how a lack of access to electricity can undermine their patients’ health. I have treated people with asthma and emphysema who went days without medical devices such as nebulizers and oxygen machines because their power was turned off. I have seen patients suffer life-threatening hypothermia and heatstroke from not being able to afford heating and air conditioning. (Leana S. Wen, 12/11)

The suspect arrested in the death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, Luigi Mangione, reportedly suffered from excruciating backpain. That is no surprise to the people who have spent the past week sharing stories of health care denied by insurance companies. Decades ago, the health insurance business put in place a dike to hide and contain the public’s disdain for for-profit health insurers, and to keep reformers at bay. Now, that dike might collapse. (Wendell Potter, 12/11)

Texas has long ranked among the worst states for maternal mortality and rates worsened during the COVID pandemic, especially among Black women. But in June, a Johns Hopkins study published in JAMA Pediatrics found that deaths of infants alone increased by 255 between 2021 and 2022. That’s a 12.9% jump compared with 1.8% for the rest of the U.S. (12/8)

In recent years, there has been a growing awareness about the mental health challenges faced by medical students. The pandemic only exacerbated concerns about med student well-being, making it more critical than ever to ensure that future physicians with mental health issues have access to top-notch, affordable, confidential care. (J. Wesley Boyd, 12/11)