The Host
Julie Rovner
KFF Health News
Julie Rovner is chief Washington correspondent and host of KFF Health News’ weekly well being coverage information podcast, “What the Health?” A famous knowledgeable on well being coverage points, Julie is the writer of the critically praised reference e-book “Health Care Politics and Policy A to Z,” now in its third version.
The Republican National Convention highlighted plenty of coverage points this week, however well being care was not amongst them. That was not a lot of a shock, as it isn’t a prime precedence for former President Donald Trump or most GOP voters. The nomination of Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio provides an outspoken abortion opponent to the Republican ticket, although he brings no specific background or experience in well being care.
Meanwhile, abortion opponents are busy making an attempt to dam state poll questions from reaching voters in November. Legal battles over potential proposals proceed in a number of states, together with Florida, Arkansas, and Arizona.
This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of KFF Health News, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet, and Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins colleges of public well being and nursing and Politico Magazine.
Panelists
Alice Miranda Ollstein
Politico
Joanne Kenen
Johns Hopkins University and Politico
Sarah Karlin-Smith
Pink Sheet
Among the takeaways from this week’s episode:
Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio has solid few votes on well being coverage since becoming a member of Congress final 12 months. He has taken a doctrinaire strategy to abortion restrictions, although, together with expressing assist for prohibiting abortion-related interstate journey and invoking the Comstock Act to dam use of the mail for abortion medicines. He additionally speaks overtly about his mom’s struggles with habit, framing it as a well being quite than prison subject in a method that resonates with many Americans.
Although Republicans have largely deserted calls to repeal and exchange the Affordable Care Act, it will be straightforward for former President Donald Trump to undermine this system in a second time period; expanded subsidies for protection are as a consequence of expire subsequent 12 months, and there’s all the time the choice to chop spending on advertising this system, as Trump did throughout his first time period.
Trump’s latest feedback to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about childhood vaccinations echoed tropes linked to the anti-vaccination motion — notably the false declare that whereas one vaccine could also be protected, it’s maybe harmful to obtain a number of without delay. The federal vaccination schedule has been rigorously evaluated and located to be protected and efficient.
Covid is surging as soon as once more, with President Joe Biden amongst these testing optimistic this week. The virus is proving a year-round concern and has peaked recurrently in summertime; covid spreads greatest indoors, and these days tens of millions of Americans have taken refuge inside from extraordinarily excessive temperatures. Meanwhile, the virology neighborhood is worried that the nation isn’t testing sufficient animals or people to grasp the danger posed by hen flu.
Also this week, Rovner interviews KFF Health News’ Renuka Rayasam, who wrote the June installment of KFF Health News-NPR’s “Bill of the Month,” a few affected person who walked into what he thought was an pressing care heart and walked out with an emergency room invoice. If you’ve gotten an exorbitant or baffling medical invoice, you can send it to us here.
Plus, for “extra credit,” the panelists recommend well being coverage tales they learn this week that they assume you need to learn, too:
Julie Rovner: Time journal’s “‘We’re Living in a Nightmare:’ Inside the Health Crisis of a Texas Bitcoin Town,” by Andrew R Chow.
Joanne Kenen: The Washington Post’s “A Mom Struggles To Feed Her Kids After GOP States Reject Federal Funds,” by Annie Gowen.
Alice Miranda Ollstein: ProPublica’s “Texas Sends Millions to Crisis Pregnancy Centers. It’s Meant To Help Needy Families, but No One Knows if It Works,” by Cassandra Jaramillo, Jeremy Kohler, and Sophie Chou, ProPublica, and Jessica Kegu, CBS News.
Sarah Karlin-Smith: The New York Times’ “Promised Cures, Tainted Cells: How Cord Blood Banks Mislead Patients,” by Sarah Kliff and Azeen Ghorayshi.
Also talked about on this week’s podcast:
The Wall Street Journal’s “Mail-Order Drugs Were Supposed To Keep Costs Down. It’s Doing the Opposite,” by Jared S. Hopkins.
Credits
Francis Ying
Audio producer
Emmarie Huetteman
Editor
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