Hello from the Common Health Coalition! The 2-4-2 Digest is a weekly snapshot for health leaders - 4 key insights in 2 minutes or with 2 swipes on your phone.

Weekly Health Insights

ACA Subsidies: With enhanced ACA subsidies set to end, many people are seeing higher premiums for 2026 coverage. The White House is exploring replacement options, including direct payments to consumers, as Congress prepares for a December vote.

ACIP: The next ACIP meeting is slated for December 4-5, 2025. The committee is expected to revisit delaying the hepatitis B birth dose, modifying the childhood immunization schedule, and reviewing ingredients like aluminum adjuvants.

Reproductive Health: South Carolina lawmakers are debating a bill that would ban nearly all abortions, establish criminal penalties for patients and providers, and restrict certain forms of contraception and IVF. The bill will be up for a second hearing today (11/18), but legislative action is uncertain.

Government Shutdown: ASTHO’s review of the 43-day U.S. government shutdown shows how lapses in federal funding directly disrupted core public health functions, including major furloughs at CDC and SAMHSA, pauses in Medicare reimbursements and telehealth, and instability in WIC and SNAP.

Colleague Corner

As federal health datasets are reduced or removed, experts note growing gaps in the information needed to track conditions like flu, COVID, STDs, and maternal and child health. Dr. Alonzo Plough and Mr. Joel Gurin discuss how expanding non-government and state-based data sources could create more resilience for decision-making, highlighting tools like PopHIVE, which provides real-time, de-identified health data.

"Now more than ever, we must protect public health data, maintain its independence, and support the people and institutions who collect it. The health of our nation and the lives of millions of Americans depend on it."

– Dr. Alonzo Plough, Chief Science Officer and Vice President, Research-Evaluation-Learning, RWJF & Mr. Joel Gurin, President, Center for Open Data Enterprise

Data Watch

A JAMA Network Open study of more than 82,000 Texas infants found that early MMR vaccination rose during the 2025 measles outbreak. Early doses (ages 6–11 months) increased from a long-standing 0.7% baseline to 20% of first MMR shots in March–April, suggesting that some families and clinicians accelerated protection as cases surged.

Figure 2. Monthly Percentage of Children Who Received a Measles Vaccine by Age Group

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