The Host
Just days after Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who can be a health care provider, was ousted in a main election, he has already begun to separate himself from the agenda of President Donald Trump, who endorsed one in every of his opponents. Cassidy has half a yr left in workplace and will, in that point, reshape well being coverage in an administration from which he’s now successfully freed.
Meanwhile, a doubtlessly critical Ebola outbreak in central Africa has specialists fearful that the U.S.’ dismantling of a lot of the nation’s public well being infrastructure leaves it extra susceptible than in earlier outbreaks.
This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of KFF Health News, Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico Magazine, Sheryl Gay Stolberg of The New York Times, and Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico.
Among the takeaways from this week’s episode:
Cassidy, the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, continues to be answerable for nominations for some main vacancies on the Department of Health and Human Services, together with commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and surgeon normal. Now that he’s now not tied to pleasing Trump or HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Cassidy can have extra independence with regards to who might get confirmed to fill a few of these key well being posts.
Kyle Diamantas, the performing head of the FDA, is making an attempt to fix fences with anti-abortion activists involved as a result of he represented Planned Parenthood in his non-public legislation apply. Meanwhile, the promised security examine trying on the abortion tablet mifepristone has apparently not but begun — not as a result of the FDA was delaying it however as a result of officers have been unable to get entry to a wanted database.
Kennedy, having reshaped the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, is now taking intention at one other key group of well being advisers, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, which helps decide which preventive providers are priceless sufficient to benefit insurance coverage protection.
A brand new evaluation from KFF exhibits that many extra enrollees in Affordable Care Act plans now have a lot greater deductibles to pay earlier than protection kicks in, doubtlessly resulting in circumstances by which, even with insurance coverage, sufferers can be unable to afford care. At the identical time, the Trump administration is proposing new guidelines for 2027 that may encourage well being plans with nonetheless greater deductibles.
Also this week, Rovner interviews well being coverage professor Miranda Yaver, the writer of the brand new guide Coverage Denied: How Health Insurers Drive Inequality in the United States.
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Plus, for “extra credit” the panelists recommend well being coverage tales they learn this week they suppose you need to learn, too:
Julie Rovner: The Wall Street Journal’s “How Zyn Became All the Rage Inside Trump World — Including With RFK Jr.,” by Liz Essley Whyte, Josh Dawsey and C. Ryan Barber.
Alice Miranda Ollstein: Stat’s “1 in 8 Women Drink During Pregnancy. Experts Dread the Consequences,” by Isabella Cueto.
Joanne Kenen: The Associated Press’ “A Crisis of Conscience Spurred This Christian IVF Doctor’s Career Pivot,” by Tiffany Stanley.
Sheryl Gay Stolberg: KFF Health News’ “Religious Anti-Abortion Center Finds Opportunity in Town Without OB-GYNs,” by Jazmin Orozco Rodriguez.
Also talked about on this week’s podcast:
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