A new KFF survey shows many Americans who had Affordable Care Act marketplace health insurance last year are struggling with high health costs. The findings come three months after the expiration of enhanced tax credits that had offset most enrollees' monthly premiums. Thursday's poll of more than 1,000 of last year's ACA enrollees finds that more than half of those who re-enrolled are looking for ways to cut their spending. This includes cutting back on food and other household basics to afford health costs. One enrollee, 48-year-old Priscilla Brown in Florida, says she sometimes doesn't take her medicine for her Type 2 diabetes so that it will last longer. The poll also finds that 1 in 10 of last year's ACA enrollees dropped health insurance entirely.

The Food and Drug Administration is proposing a system for approving customized drugs and medical treatments for patients with rare or hard-to-treat diseases. The pathway laid out Monday is aimed to approving one-of-a-kind therapies, including those using emerging gene-editing technology. It's a shift long sought by patients, advocates and researchers focused on rare diseases, which often do not fit within the pharmaceutical industry's business model. For many rare diseases, drug companies have had little financial incentive to develop new treatments. The FDA proposal, if finalized, would codify a path for drugmakers and researchers to study and commercialize treatments without conducting large, expensive clinical trials.

The Trump administration is set to launch TrumpRx, a website to help patients buy prescription drugs directly from manufacturers at discounted rates. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced Thursday's expected unveiling in a social media post. The website is not a purchasing platform but directs users to drugmakers' own sites. President Trump first mentioned TrumpRx in September, highlighting deals with pharmaceutical companies to lower drug prices. The website's release faced delays, but it now showcases efforts to reduce costs through agreements with major companies like Pfizer and AstraZeneca. However, the actual savings for consumers remain unclear.

The Trump administration says pharmaceutical companies have agreed to slash the Medicare prices for 15 prescription drugs after months of negotiations and that it's expected to produce billions in savings for older adults. But the net prices unveiled Tuesday aren't what Medicare recipients will pay at their pharmacy counters because those final amounts will depend on each individual's plan and how much they spend annually on prescriptions. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. touted the deals as part of efforts to address affordability concerns. The negotiation program is mandated by law and began under the Biden administration.

Drugmaker Pfizer has agreed to lower drug costs under a deal struck with President Donald Trump's administration. Trump made the announcement Tuesday with Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla at the White House. Under the agreement, New York-based Pfizer will charge most-favored-nation pricing to Medicaid and guarantee the same pricing on newly launched drugs. That involves matching the lowest price offered in other developed nations. The agreement by Pfizfer builds on an executive order Trump signed in May setting a deadline for drugmakers to electively lower prices or face new limits on what the government will pay.

Prices are falling for the popular obesity treatments Wegovy and Zepbound, but steady access to the drugs remains challenging. Reduced monthly costs for uninsured patients still amount to around $500. That can put the drugs out of reach for many. Coverage also continues to shift or restrict how patients get prescriptions. Doctors say the patchy coverage and costs force them to get creative in treating patients. But there's hope that prices for the injectable drugs may fall more in the future, especially once pill versions enter the market.