"It remains to be seen if Republican candidates in close races will want to go head-to-head with Democrats on health care, despite Trump’s urging them to do so. They may feel they have other cards to play, and some will not want to highlight decisions they made to cut Medicaid and double people’s ACA premium payments in a general election."

Beyond the Data: The Midterms Lurk Behind Every Health Policy Move Now

In his latest column, President and CEO Dr. Drew Altman discusses how midterm political strategy will shape health policy in 2026, focusing on recent moves by President Trump. He writes: “Democrats start out with a significant advantage on health in the midterms, but rather than cut and run to other issues, Trump wants Republicans to try to erode that advantage where they can.”

vaccines

Tracking Polling on Health Information and Trust

KFF’s new interactive polling dashboard draws on more than a dozen surveys to show trends in trust in health information, attitudes toward vaccines, and use of news, social media, and AI for health-related information.

new and noteworthy

The Monitor: How AI Can Both Detect and Enable Fraudulent Research

A new study finds that nearly 10% of cancer research papers showed signs of being fabricated by “paper mills.” The problem may intensify as generative AI becomes more sophisticated, prompting lawmakers to demand information about safeguards. And, claims that physicians are financially incentivized to promote vaccines persist, despite lack of evidence.

What Newly Released Medicaid Data Do and Don’t Tell Us

What Newly Released Medicaid Data Do and Don’t Tell Us

CMS released a dataset with provider-level spending data that the agency suggests could be used to identify unusual billing patterns for specific services, states, or providers. This policy watch describes the data and how they could potentially lead to mistaken conclusions given the data’s limitations.

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