\tJulie Rovner
\n\tKFF Health News<\/p>\n
\t\t\t \t\t\t \t\t\tJulie Rovner is chief Washington correspondent and host of KFF Health News\u2019 weekly health policy news podcast, \u201cWhat the Health?\u201d A noted expert on health policy issues, Julie is the author of the critically praised reference book \u201cHealth Care Politics and Policy A to Z,\u201d now in its third edition.\t\t<\/p>\n Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is already acting on his anti-vaccine views, ordering an end of research into why people become vaccine-hesitant and requesting new research on the long-debunked theory that vaccines can cause autism in children. Coincidentally, the Trump administration at the last minute pulled the nomination of former GOP congressman and vaccine skeptic Dave Weldon to head the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, perhaps signaling that Republicans in the Senate are growing uncomfortable with the issue.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Congress continues to contemplate how to cut as much as $880 billion in spending \u2014 possibly from Medicaid \u2014 at a time when more beneficiaries of the government health program for those with low incomes and disabilities have become Republican voters.<\/p>\n \u00a0This week\u2019s panelists are Julie Rovner of KFF Health News, Anna Edney of Bloomberg News, Shefali Luthra of The 19th, and Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico. <\/p>\n \tAnna Edney \t\t\t \t\t\t \tShefali Luthra \t\t\t \t\t\t \tAlice Miranda Ollstein \t\t\t \t\t\t Among the takeaways from this week\u2019s episode:<\/p>\n The Trump administration\u2019s last-minute decision to pull the nomination of Dave Weldon to head the CDC \u2014 shortly before his confirmation hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee was set to begin Thursday morning \u2014 has fueled speculation that Weldon\u2019s anti-vaccine views meant he didn\u2019t have enough Senate support to win confirmation. Weldon, a physician and former Florida congressman, has advanced debunked theories about vaccines and autism.<\/p>\n Senate Democrats threatened to vote against a continuing resolution, or CR, to fund the government through Sept. 30. The measure passed narrowly in the House, with just one Democrat, Jared Golden of Maine, voting for it. Senate Democrats oppose the stopgap spending bill on many fronts, including its proposed cuts to medical research and its lack of a \u201cfix\u201d to prevent payment cuts to doctors who accept Medicare patients. The Democrats propose a 30-day government funding bill to allow negotiations on a bipartisan measure. The House adjourned after passing the CR on Tuesday and is not scheduled to return to Washington until March 24.<\/p>\n The Medicaid program may be garnering more support as Republicans continue to debate how to cut federal spending to finance a major tax cut package. The impact of Medicaid funding cuts on rural hospitals and on the Medicaid expansion population that gained coverage as part of the Affordable Care Act are two areas of discussion as House Republicans deliberate.<\/p>\n Continued staffing reductions at federal agencies are stoking concerns about lower levels of service to constituents and worsening mental health in the federal workforce. If federal workers are dismissed for poor performance \u2014 a charge many federal employees have called false because they received positive job performance reviews \u2014 then they don\u2019t receive severance and cannot collect unemployment. With 8 in 10 federal workers employed outside the Washington, D.C., area, the sweeping impacts of reductions in the federal workforce are being felt far beyond the Beltway.<\/p>\n The Trump administration\u2019s decision to cancel $250 million in National Institutes of Health grants to Columbia University is the latest in an ongoing campaign to cut federal research funding. The uncertainty in federal funding has caused several schools to freeze hiring and rescind some graduate student admissions, raising concerns that the Trump administration\u2019s policies are disrupting scientific research. Recent moves from HHS to allow new rules and regulations without public comment and new restrictions from the National Cancer Institute on what topics require review before publication (vaccines, fluoride, and autism are now on the list) are raising concerns that politics is playing a larger role in federal health policy.<\/p>\n Also this week, Rovner interviews Jeff Grant, who recently retired from CMS after 41 years in government service.<\/p>\n\n Plus, for \u201cextra credit,\u201d the panelists suggest health policy stories they read this week they think you should read, too:<\/p>\n Julie Rovner:<\/strong> NBC News\u2019 \u201c\u2018You Lose All Hope\u2019: Federal Workers Gripped by Mental Health Distress Amid Trump Cuts<\/a>,\u201d by Natasha Korecki.<\/p>\n Shefali Luthra:<\/strong> The New York Times\u2019 \u201c15 Lessons Scientists Learned About Us When the World Stood Still<\/a>,\u201d by Claire Cain Miller and Irineo Cabreros.<\/p>\n Alice Miranda Ollstein:<\/strong> The Atlantic\u2019s \u201cHis Daughter Was America\u2019s First Measles Death in a Decade<\/a>,\u201d by Tom Bartlett.<\/p>\n Anna Edney:<\/strong> Bloomberg News\u2019 \u201cIndia Trade Group Blasts Study Linking Drugs to Safety Risks<\/a>,\u201d by Satviki Sanjay.<\/p>\n Also mentioned in this week\u2019s podcast:<\/p>\n ProPublica\u2019s \u201cNational Cancer Institute Employees Can\u2019t Publish Information on These Topics Without Special Approval<\/a>,\u201d by Annie Waldman and Lisa Song.<\/p>\n WIRED\u2019s \u201cSocial Security Workers Aren\u2019t Allowed To Read This Story<\/a>,\u201d by David Gilbert.<\/p>\n Stat\u2019s \u201cFormer NIH Director Francis Collins, Once Beloved in Washington, Now Worries for His Safety There<\/a>,\u201d by Anil Oza and Katherine MacPhail.<\/p>\n \tFrancis Ying \tMary Agnes Carey To hear all our podcasts,\u00a0click here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n And subscribe to KFF Health News\u2019 \u201cWhat the Health?\u201d on\u00a0Spotify<\/a>,\u00a0Apple Podcasts<\/a>,\u00a0Pocket Casts<\/a>, or wherever you listen to podcasts.<\/em><\/p>\n\n KFF Health News<\/a> is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF\u2014an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\tRead Alice’s stories.\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n\n\t\tCredits\t<\/h3>\n
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