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 skilled on well being coverage points, Julie is the creator of the critically praised reference e-book “Health Care Politics and Policy A to Z,” now in its third version.
It’s not precisely information that our nation’s well being care system is simply a “system” in essentially the most beneficiant sense of the phrase and that nobody entity is actually accountable for it. Notwithstanding, there are some particular tasks that belong to the federal authorities, others that belong to the states, and nonetheless others which might be shared between them. And generally individuals and packages fall via the cracks.
Speaking earlier than a stay viewers on June 23 at Aspen Ideas: Health in Colorado, three former governors — certainly one of whom additionally served as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services — mentioned what it could take to make the nation’s well being care system run extra easily.
The session, moderated by KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner, featured Democrat Kathleen Sebelius, a former governor of Kansas and HHS secretary underneath President Barack Obama; Republican Chris Sununu, former governor of New Hampshire; and Democrat Roy Cooper, former governor of North Carolina.
Panelists
Kathleen Sebelius
Former HHS secretary, former Kansas governor (D)
Chris Sununu
Former governor of New Hampshire (R)
Roy Cooper
Former governor of North Carolina (D)
Among the takeaways from the dialogue:
States — and the governors who lead them — are main “customers” of the federal well being system. For occasion, states run analysis universities with assistance from federal grants from the National Institutes of Health. States additionally run Medicaid, the joint state-federal program for these with low incomes and disabilities, via which many of the nation’s take care of points comparable to psychological well being and substance use issues is funded. In truth, most federal cash despatched to states is for Medicaid.
Cuts to Medicaid outlined within the House and Senate variations of President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act would go away an enormous gap in state budgets — one which the states, already dealing with funds constraints, can be unable to fill with out making troublesome decisions. Notably, the invoice doesn’t make substantive cuts Medicare, a program that has a major quantity of extra spending and is anticipated to be bancrupt inside a decade.
Controlling well being care prices is a significant concern for the way forward for the nation’s fragmented well being care system, as is sustaining the well being care workforce. More individuals with out insurance coverage protection means increased general prices. Pandemic burnout, immigration raids, and even the price of faculty are placing stress on a dwindling workforce. The federal authorities might do extra to encourage medical professionals to enter major care and rural well being care.
Video of this episode is accessible here on YouTube.
Credits
Francis Ying
Audio producer
Emmarie Huetteman
Editor
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