Why it matters: Health officials are sounding the alarm over the potential of low child vaccination rates fueling transmission and carrying the risk of severe illness for some of the youngest Americans.
UnitedHealth Group's $13 billion acquisition of Change Healthcare will proceed, after a federal judge on Monday denied the Justice Department's efforts to block the deal on antitrust grounds.
Why it matters: This is a huge win for UnitedHealth and perhaps an even bigger loss for the Biden administration.
The number of deaths from traffic accidents declined during the second quarter of 2022 — after seven consecutive quarters of year-to-year increases, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Monday.
Why it matters: Motor vehicle traffic deaths have surged during the pandemic, and Monday's figures indicate that the trend may be cooling — but levels remain higher than before the pandemic.
While the supply and distribution of monkeypox vaccine has ramped up since June, there's "substantial variation" in states' criteria for who is eligible, a Kaiser Family Foundation analysis shows.
Why it matters: Eligibility requirements might be limiting who is getting shots, including health care workers who could get exposed on the job or people with HIV.
Soaring medical debt is setting U.S. adults up for higher risks of eviction, food insecurity and bad health outcomes regardless of insurance or income, a new study found.
Why it matters: Uninsured or middle-to-low-income patients are more likely to get stuck with medical debt while the rich are largely spared. But even private insurance offers little protection against unaffordable bills, according to the study published in JAMA Open Network on Friday.
All signs are pointing toward significantly higher health costs in the employer market next year, which will translate into larger-than-normal premium increases.
Why it matters: Employers will have to choose between taking the hit or passing the added cost to their employees — a decision that's particularly difficult in a tight labor market.
What he's saying: "The pandemic is over," Biden told CBS' Scott Pelley. "We still have a problem with COVID. We're still doing a lot of work on it ... but the pandemic is over."
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R.) is reversing the state's policies on how transgender students are treated in schools.
The big picture: Republican-led states around the country have been introducing laws targeting transgender youth. Virginia's new guidelines, released Friday, pit the state at the center of a national battle over how transgender youth should be treated at school, per WaPo.
Republican Sen. Mike Rounds joined several other prominent Republicans in saying he won't support Sen. Lindsey Graham's (R-S.C.) new bill that would ban abortion nationwide after 15 weeks, the South Dakota senator said on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday.
Why it matters: Although the bill doesn't have a chance ofpassing in a Democratic-controlled Congress, some Republican lawmakers, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), have distanced themselves from the proposal ahead of the midterms.
