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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 professional 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.
A closing deal minimize between President Joe Biden and House Republicans extends the U.S. debt ceiling deadline to 2025 and reins in some spending. The invoice signed into regulation by the president will protect many packages at their present funding ranges, and Democrats had been capable of stop any adjustments to the Medicare and Medicaid packages.
Still, hundreds of thousands of Americans are prone to lose their Medicaid protection this 12 months as states are as soon as once more allowed to redetermine who’s eligible and who isn’t; Medicaid rolls had been frozen for 3 years because of the pandemic. Data from states which have begun to disenroll folks means that the overwhelming majority of these dropping insurance coverage usually are not those that are not eligible, however as a substitute individuals who failed to finish required paperwork — in the event that they obtained it within the first place.
This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of KFF Health News, Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico, Lauren Weber of The Washington Post, and Jessie Hellmann of CQ Roll Call.
Panelists
Jessie Hellmann
CQ Roll Call
Joanne Kenen
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico
Lauren Weber
The Washington Post
Among the takeaways from this week’s episode:
- Lawmakers and White House officers spared well being packages from substantial spending cuts in a last-minute settlement to boost the nation’s debt ceiling. And Biden named Mandy Cohen, a former North Carolina well being director who labored within the Obama administration, to be the subsequent director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Though she lacks tutorial credentials in infectious ailments, Cohen enters the job with a status as somebody who can hear and be listened to by each Democrats and Republicans.
- The elimination of many Americans from the Medicaid program, post-public well being emergency, goes as anticipated: With a whole lot of 1000’s already stripped from the rolls, most have been deemed ineligible not as a result of they don’t meet the factors, however as a result of they did not file the correct paperwork in time. Nearly 95 million folks had been on Medicaid earlier than the unwinding started.
- Eastern and now southern elements of the United States are experiencing hazardous air high quality situations as wildfire smoke drifts from Canada, elevating the urgency surrounding conversations concerning the well being results of local weather change.
- The drugmaker Merck & Co. sued the federal authorities this week, difficult its capability to press drugmakers into negotiations over what Medicare pays for among the most costly medicine. Experts predict Merck’s coercion argument might fall flat as a result of drugmakers voluntarily select to take part in Medicare, although it’s unlikely this would be the final lawsuit over the difficulty.
- In abortion information, some docs are pushing again towards the Indiana medical board’s choice to reprimand and superb an OB-GYN who spoke out about offering an abortion to a 10-year-old rape sufferer from Ohio. The docs argue the choice might set a foul precedent and suppress docs’ efforts to speak with the general public about well being points.
Also this week, Rovner interviews KFF Health News senior correspondent Sarah Jane Tribble, who reported the newest KFF Health News-NPR “Bill of the Month” characteristic, a few affected person with Swiss medical insurance who skilled the sticker shock of the U.S. well being care system after an emergency appendectomy. If you have got an outrageous or exorbitant medical invoice you wish to share with us, you are able to do that right here.
Plus, for “extra credit,” the panelists counsel well being coverage tales they learn this week that they assume you need to learn, too:
Julie Rovner: The New York Times’ “This Nonprofit Health System Cuts Off Patients With Medical Debt,” by Sarah Kliff and Jessica Silver-Greenberg.
Jessie Hellmann: MLive’s “During the Darkest Days of COVID, Some Michigan Hospitals Made 100s of Millions,” by Matthew Miller and Danielle Salisbury.
Joanne Kenen: Politico Magazine’s “Can Hospitals Turn Into Climate Change Fighting Machines?” by Joanne Kenen.
Lauren Weber: The Washington Post’s “Smoke Brings a Warning: There’s No Escaping Climate’s Threat to Health,” by Dan Diamond, Joshua Partlow, Brady Dennis, and Emmanuel Felton.
Also talked about on this week’s episode:
KFF Health News’ “As Medicaid Purge Begins, ‘Staggering Numbers’ of Americans Lose Coverage,” by Hannah Recht.
Credits
Francis Ying
Audio producer
Emmarie Huetteman
Editor
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