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.
Just days after his firing of the brand-new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a defiant Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the U.S. secretary of well being and human companies, defended that motion and others earlier than a typically skeptical Senate Finance Committee. Criticism of Kennedy’s more and more anti-vaccine actions got here not simply from Democrats on the panel however from some Republicans who’re additionally medical medical doctors.
Meanwhile, members of Congress have only some weeks left to finish work on spending payments or danger a authorities shutdown, and time can also be working out to move off the big will increase in premiums for Affordable Care Act well being plans more likely to happen with extra Biden-era authorities subsidies set to run out.
This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of KFF Health News, Jessie Hellmann of CQ Roll Call, Sarah Karlin-Smith of Pink Sheet, and Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico.
Panelists
Jessie Hellmann
CQ Roll Call
Sarah Karlin-Smith
Pink Sheet
@sarahkarlin-smith.bsky.social
Alice Miranda Ollstein
Politico
Among the takeaways from this week’s episode:
The FDA authorized this 12 months’s covid booster for individuals older than 65 and for youthful individuals with critical diseases. Previously, it had been really helpful extra broadly. All eyes will now flip to the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which is scheduled to fulfill Sept. 18. Usually this panel would endorse these suggestions and maybe provide extra steering on the booster’s use for particular populations. But it isn’t clear whether or not it is going to accomplish that — or whether or not it would even impose extra limitations.
Kennedy’s firing of CDC Director Susan Monarez and the following resignation of a number of senior scientists is elevating questions concerning the company’s future. Many staffers who have been already on the fence about staying now are more and more more likely to go away. Many of those profession scientists affiliate Kennedy’s historical past of harsh criticisms of public well being employees with the latest CDC capturing in Atlanta. But because the capturing, Kennedy appears to have doubled down on his place.
At the listening to earlier than the Senate Finance Committee, even these Republicans who have been essential of Kennedy have been cautious to not criticize President Donald Trump. There’s some hypothesis that this duality is supposed to drive a wedge between Kennedy and the White House, and to speak that the HHS secretary may very well be politically damaging.
With vaccine coverage in flux, purple and blue states alike appear to be doing their very own factor. Some, like California, Oregon, and Washington — which shaped what they’re calling the West Coast Health Alliance — look like taking steps to guard entry to vaccines. Red states might transfer within the different path. For occasion, this week, Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo introduced an effort to undo all statewide vaccine mandates, together with those who require sure vaccines for youngsters to attend college. If extra states observe swimsuit, it might result in a geographic patchwork by which vaccine availability and necessities range extensively.
This month is lawmakers’ final likelihood to reup the federal ACA tax subsidies. If Congress doesn’t act to increase them, an estimated 24 million individuals — a lot of whom dwell in GOP-controlled states like Georgia and Florida — will see important will increase of their medical insurance premium prices. There’s some discuss that Congress might go for a short-term or restricted extension that will postpone the pocketbook impression till after the midterm elections. But insurers are already factoring within the uncertainty as they set charges for the upcoming plan 12 months.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services introduced a Medicare pilot program starting subsequent 12 months that may use synthetic intelligence to grant prior authorization selections for sure procedures. There is irony right here. United Healthcare and different personal plans have already gotten into plenty of bother for doing this, with AI programs typically denying wanted care.
Also this week, Rovner interviews KFF Health News’s Tony Leys, who discusses his “Bill of the Month” report a couple of lady’s unlucky interplay with a bat — and her much more unlucky interplay with the invoice for her rabies prevention remedy.
Plus, for “extra credit” the panelists recommend well being coverage tales they learn this week that they suppose you must learn, too:
Julie Rovner: ProPublica’s “Gutted: How Deeply Trump Has Cut Federal Health Agencies,” by Brandon Roberts, Annie Waldman, and Pratheek Rebala.
Jessie Hellmann: KFF Health News’ “When Hospitals and Insurers Fight, Patients Get Caught in the Middle,” by Bram Sable-Smith.
Sarah Karlin-Smith: NPR’s “Leniency on Lice in Schools Meets Reality,” by Blake Farmer.
Alice Miranda Ollstein: Vox’s “Exclusive: RFK Jr. and the White House Buried a Major Study on Alcohol and Cancer. Here’s What It Shows,” by Dylan Scott.
Also talked about on this week’s podcast:
The Washington Post’s “Florida Moves To End All School Vaccine Mandates, First in Nation To Do So,” by David Ovalle and Lori Rozsa.
The nineteenth’s “Texas Passes Bill Banning Abortion Pills From Being Mailed to the State,” by Shefali Luthra.
The New York Times’ “Medicare Will Require Prior Approval for Certain Procedures,” by Reed Abelson and Teddy Rosenbluth.
Credits
Francis Ying
Audio producer
Stephanie Stapleton
Editor
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