The Host
Julie Rovner
KFF Well being Information
@jrovner
Learn Julie’s tales.
Julie Rovner is chief Washington correspondent and host of KFF Well being Information’ weekly well being coverage information podcast, “What the Well being?” A famous skilled on well being coverage points, Julie is the writer of the critically praised reference e book “Well being Care Politics and Coverage A to Z,” now in its third version.
As Vice President Kamala Harris seems poised to develop into the Democratic Get together’s presidential nominee, well being coverage basically and reproductive well being points specifically are prone to have the next profile. Harris has lengthy been the Biden administration’s level individual on abortion rights and reproductive well being and was energetic on different well being points whereas serving as California’s lawyer common.
In the meantime, Congress is again for a short session between presidential conventions, however efforts within the GOP-led Home to go the annual spending payments, due by Oct. 1, have run into the same old roadblocks over abortion-related points.
This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of KFF Well being Information, Stephanie Armour of KFF Well being Information, Rachel Cohrs Zhang of Stat, and Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico.
Panelists
Stephanie Armour
KFF Well being Information
@StephArmour1
Learn Stephanie’s tales.
Rachel Cohrs Zhang
Stat Information
@rachelcohrs
Learn Rachel’s tales.
Alice Miranda Ollstein
Politico
@AliceOllstein
Learn Alice’s tales.
Among the many takeaways from this week’s episode:
President Joe Biden’s resolution to drop out of the presidential race has turned consideration to his doubtless successor on the Democratic ticket, Vice President Kamala Harris. At this late hour within the marketing campaign, she is predicted to undertake Biden’s well being insurance policies, although many anticipate she’ll take a firmer stance on restoring Roe v. Wade. And whereas abortion rights supporters are captivated with Harris’ candidacy, opponents are keen to border her views as excessive.
As he transitions from incumbent candidate to outgoing president, Biden is working to border his legacy, together with on well being coverage. The president has expressed satisfaction that his signature home achievement, the Inflation Discount Act, took on the pharmaceutical trade, together with by forcing the makers of the most costly medicine into negotiations with Medicare. But, as with the Reasonably priced Care Act’s delayed implementation and outcomes, most Individuals have but to see the IRA’s potential impact on drug costs.
Lawmakers proceed to be hung up on federal authorities spending, leaving appropriations work undone as they put together to go away for summer season recess. Fights over abortion are, as soon as once more, gumming up the works.
In abortion information, Iowa’s six-week restrict is scheduled to take impact subsequent week, inflicting rippling issues of abortion entry all through the area. In Louisiana, which added the 2 medicine utilized in remedy abortions to its checklist of managed substances, medical doctors are having issue utilizing the drugs for different indications. And medical doctors who oppose abortion are pushing higher-risk procedures, like cesarean sections, in lieu of being pregnant termination when the mom’s life is in peril — as states with strict bans, like Texas and Louisiana, are reporting an increase in the usage of surgical procedures, together with hysterectomies, to finish pregnancies.
The Authorities Accountability Workplace reviews that many states incorrectly eliminated lots of of 1000’s of eligible individuals from the Medicaid rolls throughout the “unwinding” of the covid-19 public well being emergency’s protection protections. The Biden administration has been reluctant to name out these states publicly in an try to hold the method as apolitical as doable.
Additionally this week, Rovner interviews Anthony Wright, the brand new government director of the buyer well being advocacy group Households USA. Wright spent the previous twenty years in California, working with, amongst others, now-Vice President Kamala Harris on varied well being points.
Plus, for “additional credit score,” the panelists recommend well being coverage tales they learn this week that they suppose it’s best to learn, too:
Julie Rovner: NPR’s “A Research Finds That Canines Can Scent Your Stress — And Make Choices Accordingly,” by Rachel Treisman.
Alice Miranda Ollstein: Stat’s “A Expensive Gilead HIV Drug Might Be Made for Dramatically Much less Than the Firm Prices,” by Ed Silverman, and Politico’s “Federal HIV Program Set To Wind Down,” by Alice Miranda Ollstein and David Lim.
Stephanie Armour: Vox’s “Free Medical Faculty Gained’t Resolve the Physician Scarcity,” by Dylan Scott.
Rachel Cohrs Zhang: Stat’s “How UnitedHealth Harnesses Its Doctor Empire To Squeeze Earnings out of Sufferers,” by Bob Herman, Tara Bannow, Casey Ross, and Lizzy Lawrence.
Additionally talked about on this week’s podcast:
Credit
Francis Ying
Audio producer
Emmarie Huetteman
Editor
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