🏥 Axios PM: Sticker shock

💊 Plus: GLP-1 pills | Tuesday, December 30, 2025

View in browser   PRESENTED BY AARP   Axios PM By Mike Allen · Dec 30, 2025 Today's newsletter, edited by Alex Fitzpatrick, is 623 words, a 2½-min. read. Thanks to Sheryl Miller for copy editing. 🕯️ Tatiana Schlossberg — environmental journalist and granddaughter of John F. Kennedy — died at 35 today. She revealed her acute myeloid leukemia diagnosis last month in a moving and widely shared first-person piece in The New Yorker. "She will always be in our hearts," the family said in a statement. Read her essay, "A Battle with My Blood."     1 big thing: Health care sticker shock coming   Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios More than 20 million Americans who buy health insurance on Affordable Care Act marketplaces are set to see their premiums more than double next year, Axios Future of Health Care author Caitlin Owens writes. Why it matters: Enhanced ACA subsidies — which lower health insurance costs on marketplaces — will expire tomorrow. 🧮 By the numbers: ACA insurers themselves are raising premiums by an estimated 26%, in part due to rising hospital costs, higher demand for pricey drugs and the threat of tariffs. But add in the loss of those federal subsidies, and the increase is 114% — or more than double what enrollees currently pay, according to KFF. 22 million out of 24 million marketplace enrollees now receive subsidies. Zoom out: Democrats are planning to hammer Republicans for high costs in all forms of health insurance ahead of next year's midterm elections. Go deeper.     2. 🥙 Food biz faces new GLP-1 challenge   Illustration: Allie Carl/Axios Food brands may need to overhaul more of their products as GLP-1 pills become available next month, analysts tell Reuters. 💊 GLP-1 pills will be cheaper and easier than injections, likely driving even more Americans to try them for weight loss. 🍔 The medication is fueling demand for more protein and smaller portions — while also driving down food sales. 📉 Households using GLP-1s cut spending at grocery stores by 5.3% and at fast-food restaurants by about 8% on average, one study found. 🌾 Packaged food company Conagra has started labeling some of its Healthy Choice frozen meals with high protein and fiber as "GLP-1 friendly." It plans to introduce new offerings with the same labeling in May, and it will work with grocers to market them. Nestle has introduced new "Vital Pursuit" frozen meals that cater specifically to GLP-1 users. 🍗 Fast-casual Mexican chain Chipotle recently added a High Protein Menu that includes a single cup of chicken or steak. Go deeper.     A MESSAGE FROM AARP Medicare should keep negotiating Rx prices for seniors     New report: By negotiating Rx prices, for the first time ever, Medicare will save seniors —and taxpayers — billions in 2026. But beware: Big drug companies want to delay negotiation, keeping prices sky high. Tell Congress: Side with seniors — not big drug companies. Oppose the EPIC Act.     3. ⚡️ Catch me up   A displaced Palestinian girl at the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip yesterday. Photo: Eyad Baba/AFP via Getty Images 🇮🇱 Israel is suspending more than two dozen humanitarian organizations, including Doctors Without Borders, for failing to meet its new rules for international organizations working in the Gaza Strip. Go deeper. 🏥 The Trump administration can share basic Medicaid information about undocumented immigrants with ICE, a federal judge ruled. Go deeper. 💰 Meta's acquisition of Manus AI could be worth around $2.5 billion, Axios' Dan Primack learned from a source. The startup claims its general AI agent can complete various real-world tasks, going beyond chatbot or workflow functions. Go deeper. 🇫🇷 George Clooney, his wife Amal, and their twins Ella and Alexander have been awarded French citizenship. "I was worried about raising our kids in L.A., in the culture of Hollywood," Clooney recently told Esquire. "I don't want them to be walking around worried about paparazzi. I don't want them being compared to somebody else's famous kids." Go deeper.     4. 🦞 1 for the road: $400K lobster heist   Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios Lobster thieves allegedly made off with a $400,000 truckload of the prized shellfish earlier this month. 🚔 The heist took place Dec. 12 at a Taunton, Mass., warehouse, USA Today reports. It involved a shipment meant for Costco stores in Illinois and Minnesota. 📰 Dylan Rexing, CEO of freight broker Rexing Companies, told the paper: "In this instance, we hired someone we thought was legitimate, but the legitimate carrier company was being impersonated by someone else in a very sophisticated way." 💰 Rexing estimates the thieves could wind up pocketing $200,000 after reselling the pilfered delicacy. Go deeper.     A MESSAGE FROM AARP Medicare Rx negotiations will save seniors billions     Starting January 1, the first 10 Medicare-negotiated prescription drugs to treat diabetes, heart failure and cancer will be available. A new AARP report confirms these lower prices will cut seniors' out-of-pocket Rx spending by as much as 50%. Read the report.   📬 Thanks for reading! Please invite your friends to join PM. 👆 Like this comms style and format? It's called Smart Brevity®. Bring it to your org — via hands-on training or internal comms software — to harness its power and impact.   Axios thanks our partners for supporting our newsletters. Sponsorship has no influence on editorial content. Advertise with us. Axios, PO Box 101060, Arlington VA 22201   You received this email because you signed up for newsletters from Axios. To stop receiving this newsletter, unsubscribe or manage your email preferences.   Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up now to get Axios in your inbox.   Follow Axios on social media: