The Host
Julie Rovner
KFF Health News
Julie Rovner is chief Washington correspondent and host of KFF Health News’ weekly health policy news podcast, “What the Health?” A noted expert on health policy issues, Julie is the author of the critically praised reference book “Health Care Politics and Policy A to Z,” now in its third edition.
The Department of Health and Human Services is funded for the rest of the fiscal year. But lawmakers remain concerned about whether the Trump administration will spend the money as directed.
Meanwhile, negotiations over extending expanded subsidies for Affordable Care Act plans have broken down in the Senate, mostly over a perennial issue — abortion. The subsidies’ expiration at the end of 2025 has left millions of Americans unable to afford their health insurance premiums.
This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of KFF Health News, Anna Edney of Bloomberg News, Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico Magazine, and Sandhya Raman of CQ Roll Call.
Panelists
Anna Edney
Bloomberg News
Joanne Kenen
Johns Hopkins University and Politico
Sandhya Raman
CQ Roll Call
Among the takeaways from this week’s episode:
- President Donald Trump signed government spending legislation that provides for HHS, as well as a separate measure that addresses pharmacy benefit managers and some Medicare programs. Meanwhile, Trump has yet to put out his own budget — traditionally a president’s wish list of priorities. On the health side, that is likely to include familiar “Make America Healthy Again” ideas, such as funding for a new agency, proposed last year, that would be known as the Administration for a Healthy America.
- In Congress, negotiations over renewing more-generous ACA premium tax credits have collapsed. While lawmakers are likely to continue hearing from constituents about the high cost of health care, now Senate negotiators are signaling that the chances of renewing the expired tax credits are low.
- A new study in JAMA finds that cancer patients covered by high-deductible health plans had lower rates of survival. The research suggests that high out-of-pocket costs discourage preventive and necessary care — and it comes as little surprise in an environment where many Americans cannot afford unexpected bills for a few hundred dollars, let alone four- or five-figure deductibles.
- And a new interview reveals a very different mandate for Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s remade vaccine advisory panel: to scrutinize the risks of immunizations, rather than balance their risks and benefits. The interview with the panel’s chair, published by Politico, quoted him saying Americans should view them “more as a safety committee,” adding, “Efficacy will be secondary.” The notion that the panel will no longer balance a vaccine’s potentially health- and lifesaving effects against its possible side effects flies against decades of government best practices.
Also this week, Rovner interviews KFF Health News’ Renuka Rayasam about a new reporting project, “Priced Out,” which explores the increasing unaffordability of insurance and health care. If you have a story you’d like to share with us, you can do that here.
Plus, for “extra credit” the panelists suggest health policy stories they read this week that they think you should read, too:
Julie Rovner: Politico’s “DeSantis’ Canadian Drug Import Plan in Florida Goes From Campaign Trail to Tough Realities,” by Arek Sarkissian.
Sandhya Raman: The Washington Post’s “Free HIV Drugs Save Lives. Why One State Is Restricting Access for Thousands,” by David Ovalle.
Anna Edney: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Associated Press’ “Forever Stained: Inside America’s Carpet Capital: An Empire and its Toxic Legacy,” by Dylan Jackson, Jason Dearan, and Justin Price.
Joanne Kenen: Inside Climate News’ “‘Toxic Colonialism’ on the Bay of Bengal,” by Johnny Sturgeon.
Also mentioned in this week’s episode:
- Politico’s “‘Efficacy Will Be Secondary’: RFK Jr.’s Vaccine Advisers Have a New Mission,” by Sophie Gardner.
- KFF Health News and WBUR’s “NIH Grant Disruptions Slow Down Breast Cancer Research,” by Martha Bebinger.
- Stat’s “FDA Commissioner Marty Makary Tries To Soothe Staff Concerns Over Voucher Program” by Lizzy Lawrence.
- Stat’s “Tenuous Biomedical Funding Has Put First-Year Ph.D. Students in a Bind,” by Jonathan Wosen.
- JAMA Network Open’s “High-Deductible Health Plans and Mortality Among Cancer Survivors,” by Justin M. Barnes, Arjun Gupta, Meera Ragavan, Patricia Mae Santos, September Wallingford, and Fumiko Chino.
Credits
Francis Ying
Audio producer
Emmarie Huetteman
Editor
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