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When Republicans handed their massive price range invoice in 2025, they scheduled lots of the Medicaid reductions to take impact in 2027, after the 2026 midterm elections. But in anticipation of getting much less cash from Washington come January, many states are already slicing their Medicaid applications, making the problem extra related for voters in November.
This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of KFF Health News, Anna Edney of Bloomberg News, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, and Sandhya Raman of Bloomberg Law.
Among the takeaways from this week’s episode:
Congress has no clear path to passing its annual spending payments, with the problem of Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood once more threatening to gum up the works. Meanwhile, senators this week screened President Donald Trump’s latest well being nominees: Erica Schwartz to guide the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Sean Kaufman to guide the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response. But Schwartz undermined some senators’ confidence by claiming ignorance about numerous Trump administration funding cuts, and Kaufman confronted fiery questions over a deleted social media put up concerning the hepatitis B vaccine.
The affirmation listening to for Todd Blanche as lawyer normal additionally trod into well being territory, with Blanche saying he would evaluation probably utilizing the Nineteenth-century Comstock Act to dam distribution of medicine abortion medicine by mail. Such a transfer might block not solely mifepristone but in addition misoprostol, which is the second abortion medicine within the two-drug routine — and can be used for non-abortion functions. Trump promised on the marketing campaign path to not invoke the Comstock Act.
In politics, Maine Democrats are cautiously eying the abortion stances of a substitute Senate candidate, hoping to pin the rollback of abortion rights on Sen. Susan Collins, the Republican incumbent. And Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) is looking for an investigation into whether or not Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. violated a federal legislation geared toward stopping electioneering by officers when he made latest calls to influence some candidates to drop out of congressional races.
And the gastrointestinal an infection cyclosporiasis is sickening extra Americans and drawing consideration to the Trump administration’s actions undermining meals security surveillance applications. The cyclospora parasite was as soon as topic to necessary reporting however has since been made voluntary, difficult efforts to trace the supply and comprise the outbreak.
Also this week, Rovner interviews Elizabeth Mitchell of the Purchaser Business Group on Health as a part of the “How Would You Fix It?” sequence.
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Plus, for “extra credit” the panelists this week recommend well being coverage tales they learn (or wrote) that they suppose it is best to learn, too:
Julie Rovner: Mississippi Today’s “Mississippi Is Getting Hotter. Experts Say It’s Hurting Moms and Babies,” by Sophia Paffenroth and Joanne Kenen.
Anna Edney: Bloomberg News’ “Almost $1 Billion Later, the US Still Can’t Make a Medical Glove,” by Anna Edney.
Alice Miranda Ollstein: Politico’s “Fraud Investigations Are Crumbling This State’s Medicaid System,” by Amanda Chu and Robert King.
Sandhya Raman: Bloomberg Law’s “Unverified GLP-1-Related Claims Flood Food, Supplement Markets,” by Nyah Phengsitthy and Skye Witley.
Also talked about on this week’s podcast:
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