The Host
Julie Rovner KFF Well being Information
@lierrovner.bsky.social
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 professional on well being coverage points, Julie is the creator of the critically praised reference e-book “Well being Care Politics and Coverage A to Z,” now in its third version.
The Supreme Court docket this week dominated in favor of Tennessee’s regulation banning most gender-affirming look after minors — a regulation much like these in two dozen different states.
In the meantime, the Senate continues to be hoping to finish work on its model of President Donald Trump’s enormous funds reconciliation invoice earlier than the July Fourth break. However deeper cuts to the Medicaid program than these included within the Home-passed invoice might show tough to swallow for reasonable senators.
This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of KFF Well being Information, Victoria Knight of Axios, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, and Sandhya Raman of CQ Roll Name.
Panelists
Victoria Knight
Axios
Learn Victoria’s tales.
Alice Miranda Ollstein Political
@alicemiranda.bsky.social
Learn Alice’s tales.
Sandhya Raman
CQ Roll Name
@SandhyaWrites.bsky.social
Learn Sandhya’s tales.
Among the many takeaways from this week’s episode:
- The Supreme Court docket’s ruling on gender-affirming look after transgender minors was comparatively restricted in its scope. The bulk didn’t deal with the broader query about whether or not transgender people are protected beneath federal anti-discrimination legal guidelines and, as with the court docket’s resolution overturning the constitutional proper to an abortion, left states the facility to find out what care trans youths could obtain.
- The Senate GOP unveiled its model of the funds reconciliation invoice this week. Defying expectations that senators would soften the invoice’s affect on well being care, the proposal would make deeper cuts to Medicaid, largely on the expense of hospitals and different suppliers. Republican senators say these cuts would enable them extra flexibility to resume and prolong a lot of Trump’s tax cuts.
- The Medicare trustees are out this week with a brand new forecast for this system that covers primarily these over age 65, predicting insolvency by 2033 — even before anticipated. There was bipartisan assist for together with a crackdown on a supplier apply often called upcoding within the reconciliation invoice, a transfer that might have saved a bundle in authorities spending. However no substantive cuts to Medicare spending finally made it into the laws.
- With the third anniversary of the Supreme Court docket resolution overturning Roe v. Wade approaching, the motion to finish abortion has largely coalesced round one purpose: stopping folks from accessing the abortion capsule mifepristone.
Plus, for “further credit score,” the panelists counsel well being coverage tales they learn this week that they assume you need to learn, too:
Julie Rovner: The New York Instances’ “The Bureaucrat and the Billionaire: Inside DOGE’s Chaotic Takeover of Social Safety,” by Alexandra Berzon, Nicholas Nehamas, and Tara Siegel Bernard.
Victoria Knight: The New York Instances’ “They Requested an A.I. Chatbot Questions. The Solutions Despatched Them Spiraling,” by Kashmir Hill.
Alice Miranda Ollstein: Wired’s “What Tear Gasoline and Rubber Bullets Do to the Human Physique,” by Emily Mullin.
Sandhya raman: North Carolina Well being Information and The Charlotte Ledger’s “Ambulance Corporations Acquire Tens of millions by Seizing Wages, State Tax Refunds,” by Michelle Crouch.
Additionally talked about on this week’s podcast:
Credit
Francis Ying Audio Product Emmarie Hasdeman Editor
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