The Host
Julie Rovner
KFF Well being Information
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 professional on well being coverage points, Julie is the creator of the critically praised reference ebook “Well being Care Politics and Coverage A to Z,” now in its third version.
In his ongoing effort to reshape well being coverage, Secretary of Well being and Human Providers Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reportedly plans to overtake two extra authorities entities: the U.S. Preventive Providers Job Power and the Nationwide Vaccine Harm Compensation Program. Ousting the present members of the duty drive would give Kennedy a measure of management in figuring out the sorts of preventive care which might be lined for gratis to sufferers in the US. And whereas it’s unclear what the secretary would do to the vaccine damage program, Kennedy has made no secret of his perception that vaccines can do extra hurt than good.
In the meantime, final week marked the thirty fifth anniversary of the Individuals with Disabilities Act, and President Donald Trump signed an government order that will allow native and state governments to forcibly hospitalize some people who find themselves homeless and scuffling with psychological well being issues.
This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of KFF Well being Information, Anna Edney of Bloomberg Information, Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg College of Public Well being and Politico Journal, and Shefali Luthra of The nineteenth.
Panelists
Anna Edney
Bloomberg Information
Joanne Kenen
Johns Hopkins College and Politico
Shefali Luthra
The nineteenth
Among the many takeaways from this week’s episode:
- Lower than two months after Kennedy eliminated all members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, he’s reportedly contemplating the same purge of members of the duty drive that recommends the preventive companies insurers should cowl — a listing whose companies, a few of them controversial amongst Trump officers, embrace medicine that stop HIV and sure most cancers screenings. He’s additionally contemplating adjustments to the federal program that compensates individuals who expertise antagonistic results from immunizations.
- This week Vinay Prasad, the Meals and Drug Administration’s prime vaccine official, resigned simply months into his tenure. Prasad had come below assault, notably by right-wing character Laura Loomer, and had been blasted for some company choices about new medicine for uncommon ailments — regardless of his work limiting the usage of covid pictures.
- Trump’s newly introduced commerce take care of the European Union features a 15% tariff on brand-name prescribed drugs, which would come with, for instance, the diabetes drug Ozempic, usually used for weight reduction. However it might be tough to decrease costs on brand-name medicine by way of tariffs; it’s unlikely that drugmakers, going through larger import prices, would relocate manufacturing to the US.
- Additionally, Trump’s large tax and spending legislation, hastened by way of Congress weeks in the past, renders some lawfully current immigrants ineligible for Reasonably priced Care Act subsidies. However a brand new KFF Well being Information column factors out that the change would really elevate premiums for everybody else, taking extra wholesome individuals out of the insurance coverage pool.
Additionally this week, Rovner interviews George Washington College well being coverage professor Sara Rosenbaum, one of many nation’s main Medicaid consultants, to mark Medicaid’s sixtieth anniversary this week.
Plus, for “additional credit score,” the panelists counsel well being coverage tales they learn this week that they suppose it is best to learn, too:
Julie Rovner: KFF Well being Information’ “Cosmetic Surgeries Led to Disfiguring Injuries, Patients Allege,” by Fred Schulte.
Anna Edney: The Washington Submit’s “Morton Mintz, Post Reporter With a Muckraker Spirit, Dies at 103,” by Stefanie Dazio.
Joanne Kenen: ScienceAlert’s “New Kind of Dental Floss Could Replace Vaccine Needles, Study Finds,” by David Nield.
Shefali Luthra: The New Yorker’s “Mexico’s Molar City Could Transform My Smile. Did I Want It To?” by Burkhard Bilger.
Additionally talked about on this week’s podcast:
Credit
Francis Ying
Audio producer
Emmarie Huetteman
Editor
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