The Host
Julie Rovner
KFF Health News
@jrovner
@julierovner.bsky.social
Read Julie’s stories.
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.
Senate Democrats hope a little-used law from the 1990s will help draw attention to the healthcare cost issue by forcing a vote on the Trump administration’s recent changes to the Affordable Care Act.
Meanwhile, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is demanding information from a medical journal that retracted a study that backed Kennedy’s claims of vaccine harm.
This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of KFF Health News, Anna Edney of Bloomberg News, Sheryl Gay Stolberg of The New York Times, and Lauren Weber of The Washington Post.
Panelists
Anna Edney
Bloomberg News
@annaedney
@annaedney.bsky.social
Read Anna’s stories.
Sheryl Gay Stolberg
The New York Times
@SherylNYT
Read Sheryl’s stories.
Lauren Weber
The Washington Post
@LaurenWeberHP
@laurenweberhp.bsky.social
Read Lauren’s stories.
Among the takeaways from this week’s episode:
As the midterm elections approach, congressional Democrats are pushing back on newly finalized guidelines from the Trump administration for ACA plans. The guidelines allow the sale of plans with fewer benefits and bigger deductibles next year, further eroding protections designed to keep healthcare affordable. With many voters concerned about the cost of care, Democrats’ push could prove a potent campaign message come November.
State officials in Texas and Alabama are continuing to crack down on abortion access. And new reporting reveals a trend of women going to great lengths to seek abortion care only to learn that their home pregnancy test results were false positives and they’re not pregnant.
Two medical journals recently retracted separate studies that linked vaccines to harmful health problems, with Kennedy pushing back. And legal action over Kennedy’s reconstituted vaccine panel and its decisions is leaving the nation without traditional outside expert input into seasonal vaccines as the flu season approaches — though the American Academy of Pediatrics has pointed out that Kennedy could resolve the legal issues by simply appointing experts to the panel with vac