First, selections from MedPage's Washington Watch:

https://www.medpagetoday.com/publichealthpolicy/washington-watch/112987

Some healthcare advocacy groups launched a "Stop RFK War Room" to fight Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s nomination for HHS Secretary. (Politico)

Meanwhile, Robert Redfield, MD, the former CDC director in President-elect Donald Trump's first administration, gave a vote of confidence to Kennedy. (The Hill)

Trump's allies and advisers are discussing possible overhauls to federal safety net programs like Medicaid and food stamps. (Washington Post)

Social media users heeded Elon Musk's call to upload personal health data like MRIs and CT scans to train X's artificial intelligence chatbot, worrying privacy experts. (New York Times)

What's behind the rise in sexual and other violent assaults at hospitals? (NBC News)

Next, Daily Signal's title says it all. I've clipped the health policy portion.

https://www.dailysignal.com/2024/11/18/4-woke-bureaucrats-americans-want-trump-fire-second-term/?

DRAIN THE SWAMP: 4 Woke Bureaucrats Trump Should Fire First

Few bureaucrats exemplify the dangers of transgender orthodoxy more than Rachel Levine, assistant secretary of health at the Department of Health and Human Services.

A male who identifies as female, Levine has admitted that he is glad he didn’t “transition” until later in life because otherwise he would not have had the joys of fatherhood. Yet he boldly advocates for “treatments” that will remove the later possibility of parenthood from young boys and girls who are confused about their gender in the here and now.

Levine has even enlisted doctors to preach the virtues of gender ideology, as if good doctors should be “ambassadors” for the idea that it is healthy for gender-confused children to take drugs that will stunt their growth and make them resemble members of the opposite sex.

In November 2020, the Victory Institute, an LGBTQ activist group, partnered with the prominent LGBTQ activist group the Human Rights Campaign and others to compile a list of qualified candidates for federal positions who identify as LGBTQ. Levine featured prominently on that list.

On the same day, the Human Rights Campaign released a “Blueprint for Positive Change,” recommending specific policies for Biden to implement. According to my analysis, Biden implemented more than 75% of those recommendations.

The Human Rights Campaign acts as a kind of LGBTQ mafia, blackmailing companies into supporting its causes by publishing a “Corporate Equality Score” that investors in the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) movement use to rate firms. The HRC has used this clout to achieve policy wins in the Biden administration, and Trump will likely reverse many of those policies.

Among many other things, HRC urged Biden to hire more LGBTQ people in his administration—likely leading the bureaucracy to hire less qualified staff in order to reach a woke quota.

Levine’s transgender identity made him extremely visible in the administration, and his advocacy for “gender-affirming care” should make him persona non grata in the next administration.

These bureaucrats support woke policies and will work to undermine Trump from within if he does not root them out.

https://www.medpagetoday.com/washington-watch/fdageneral/112921

FDA staff members are considering leaving after president-elect Donald Trump nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for HHS Secretary. (NBC News)

Military suicides among active-duty personnel increased in 2023, continuing a trend. (Military.com)

Trump nominated veteran and former Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.) to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs. (Politico)

Market concentration among health insurers increased from 2011 to 2022, a U.S. Government Accountability Office report found.

Meanwhile, more than 3 million Americans are at risk of losing their health insurance at the end of 2025 if Congress does not renew Affordable Care Act subsidies. (Newsweek)

A federal appeals court ruled that an Indiana law banning gender-affirming care for minors should remain in effect. (The Hill)

https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/uritheflu/112878

The Nation looked at the future of public health under a second Trump administration.

And the New York Times examined what Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s ideas about the FDA might mean for raw milk, stem cell therapies, and more.

One of the top targets to be restructured in the next Trump administration may be the NIH, where Kennedy said he would seek to immediately replace 600 employees. (NPR)

The family of a security guard who was shot and killed at Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center in Portland, Oregon, sued the hospital for $35 million, accusing it of negligence. (AP)

A Chicago news investigation found that 88 Illinois hospitals failed to properly treat sexual assault victims. (NBC Chicago)

Congress faces pressure during the lame duck period to reform the pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) industry. (The Hill)

In Idaho, women suing the state over its abortion ban say they became "medical refugees," forced to leave the state to seek care. (AP)

Meanwhile, a woman in Kentucky seeking an abortion is suing the state over its near-total ban. (The Hill)

Maryland is training more health workers to administer medication abortion pills, procedural abortions, and highly effective birth control methods. (KFF Health News)

Experts warned about the "chilling" effect of the Texas attorney general suing doctors over gender-affirming care. (Salon)

University of Colorado Health agreed to pay $23 million to resolve allegations that it fraudulently billed for emergency department care, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

Also, the DOJ filed a civil antitrust lawsuit to block UnitedHealth Group's proposed $3.3 billion acquisition of home health and hospice provider Amedisys.

Finally, a Florida ophthalmology practice agreed to pay $1.3 million to resolve allegations of fraudulent claims for cranial ultrasounds, the DOJ said.

KFF Health News sued the HHS Office of Inspector General to force it to release Medicare Advantage health plan audits and other data.