Axios

CVS Health is weighing various strategic options, including a possible breakup of the company, as first reported by Reuters.

Why it matters: CVS is America's largest pharmacy operator and one of its top health care companies, but is being hammered by increased costs at its Aetna insurance unit.

Americans have never been wealthier. That's thanks in large part to the way in which they jumped feet-first into the stock market as soon as the pandemic hit.

Why it matters: Retail investors, it turns out, didn't panic when confronted with market volatility, as they were in March 2020.

Hospital mergers and acquisitions have left nearly half of the metropolitan areas in the U.S. with just one or two health systems controlling all inpatient care, according to a new KFF study.

Why it matters: Hospital consolidation is seen as a big driver of rising health costs and has become a prominent focus of Congress and antitrust regulators.

The already fragile medical supply chain is facing more stress this week, after Hurricane Helene ravaged a huge Baxter International plant in North Carolina that makes IV fluids for many U.S. hospitals.

Why it matters: While the damage hasn't been totaled up, and the company says it's lining up backup plants and making other contingencies, the closure of the flooded facility threatens to upend such basics as intravenous dialysis care and complicate the federal disaster response.

A Fulton County superior court judge again struck down Georgia's 2022 ban on abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy Monday, the AJC reports.

Why it matters: As a result, abortions are legally allowed until about 22 weeks of pregnancy — for now.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Saturday vetoed a bill that would have given his state the ability to block private equity acquisitions of most health care facilities and service providers.

Why it matters: This likely kills the idea on a national level, where it was proposed by Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) in response to the Steward debacle.

About five times as many cases of whooping cough have been recorded this year compared with 2023, returning the U.S. to pre-pandemic conditions, when more than 10,000 cases of the bacterial disease were reported annually, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Why it matters: Lower children's vaccination rates are opening the door to more outbreaks of the disease, also known as pertussis. And the end of COVID-era masking requirements and remote learning also are driving higher transmission.

Drug developers are pursuing a new option for reproductive care in the post-Roe landscape: birth control pills for men.

Why it matters: Mounting abortion restrictions across the U.S. are driving a search for new contraceptive methods that can be reversed, aimed at male Gen Zers and millennials.