\tJulie Rovner
\n\tKFF Health News<\/p>\n
\t\t\t \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 As he had wanted, President Donald Trump signed his big budget bill into a big budget law in a White House ceremony on July 4, cementing, among other things, billions of dollars in cuts to health programs such as Medicaid. The new law will also reshape rules for the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, and other health programs.\u00a0<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the threat of layoffs continues to hang over the heads of employees at the Department of Health and Human Services, and funding for health-related contracts and grants remains stalled.\u00a0<\/p>\n This week\u2019s panelists are Julie Rovner of KFF Health News, Rachel Cohrs Zhang of Bloomberg News, Rachel Roubein of The Washington Post, and Tami Luhby of CNN.<\/p>\n \tRachel Cohrs Zhang \t\t\t \tRachel Roubein \t\t\t \t\t\t \tTami Luhby \t\t\t \t\t\t Among the takeaways from this week\u2019s episode:<\/p>\n As details of Trump\u2019s tax and domestic policy law come into focus, it\u2019s clear that many immigrants in the country legally stand to lose government benefits, especially health coverage. While the GOP described the legislation as targeting \u201cillegal immigrants,\u201d the law as written bars many individuals living here with the government\u2019s permission \u2014 including refugees and victims of domestic abuse and trafficking \u2014 from signing up for Medicaid, receiving Affordable Care Act marketplace subsidies, and more.<\/p>\n Other aspects of Trump\u2019s priority-laden law received extra attention following its hastened passage. In an unusually political move, the Social Security Administration touted to beneficiaries the law\u2019s cuts to taxes on Social Security benefits \u2014 which is neither what the law does nor what a federal agency traditionally does when Congress passes a law.<\/p>\n This week, the Supreme Court issued a decision from its shadow docket supporting the Trump administration\u2019s ability to lay off federal workers using only his executive authority. That opinion is the latest curve on this year\u2019s employment roller coaster for government employees, suggesting many people could soon lose their jobs.<\/p>\n In health agency news, public health groups are suing the Trump administration over the withdrawn recommendations on covid-19 vaccines \u2014 as insurers and others in the health industry sort out how to handle a federal shift in immunization recommendations. And HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. canceled a meeting of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. The abrupt cancellation suggests Kennedy could soon remake the panel, as he did last month with the panel on vaccines.<\/p>\n Also this week, Rovner interviews KFF Health News\u2019 Julie Appleby, who reported the latest KFF Health News\u2019 \u201cBill of the Month<\/a>\u201d feature, about some very expensive childhood immunizations. If you have a medical bill that\u2019s exorbitant, baffling, or confusing, send it to us here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n Plus, for \u201cextra credit\u201d the panelists suggest health policy stories they read this week that they think you should read, too:<\/p>\n Julie Rovner:<\/strong> The New England Journal of Medicine\u2019s \u201cThe Corporatization of U.S. Health Care \u2014 A New Perspective Series<\/a>,\u201d by Debra Malina, et al.<\/p>\n Rachel Roubein:<\/strong> The Associated Press\u2019 \u201cRFK Jr. Promoted a Food Company He Says Will Make Americans Healthy. Their Meals Are Ultraprocessed<\/a>,\u201d by Amanda Seitz and JoNel Aleccia.<\/p>\n Rachel Cohrs Zhang:<\/strong> The Wall Street Journal\u2019s \u201cProsecutors Question Doctors About UnitedHealth\u2019s Medicare Billing Practices<\/a>,\u201d by Christopher Weaver and Anna Wilde Mathews.<\/p>\n Tami Luhby:<\/strong> The Washington Post\u2019s \u201cA New D.C. Hospital Grapples With Too Many Patients and Too Few Nurses<\/a>,\u201d by Jenna Portnoy.<\/p>\n Also mentioned in this week\u2019s podcast:<\/p>\n The Washington Post\u2019s \u201cInside Operation Gold Rush, Largest Health Care Fraud Bust in U.S. History<\/a>,\u201d by Dan Diamond and Lauren Weber.<\/p>\n KFF Health News\u2019 \u201cWorld\u2019s Premier Cancer Institute Faces Crippling Cuts and Chaos<\/a>,\u201d by Rachana Pradhan and Arthur Allen.<\/p>\n Stat\u2019s \u201cInside the Staff Exodus and Tanking Morale That Threaten Makary\u2019s FDA<\/a>,\u201d by Lizzy Lawrence.<\/p>\n The New York Times Magazine\u2019s \u201cInside the Collapse of the F.D.A.<\/a>,\u201d by Jeneen Interlandi.<\/p>\n CNN\u2019s \u201cSocial Security Administration Praises Trump\u2019s Agenda Bill in Widely Sent Out Statement<\/a>,\u201d by Shania Shelton and Tami Luhby.<\/p>\n \tFrancis Ying \tEmmarie Huetteman 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 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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