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KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: The Biden Health Agenda


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President Joe Biden wasted no time getting down to work. Among the raft of executive orders he signed on Inauguration Day were several aimed at curtailing the covid crisis, including one requiring mask-wearing by federal employees and anyone on federal property for the next 100 days.

Meanwhile, with the inauguration of Vice President Kamala Harris and the swearing-in of two new Democratic senators from Georgia, Democrats took over the majority in the Senate, albeit with a 50-50 tie. That leaves Democrats in charge of both the legislative and executive branches for the first time since 2010, but with such narrow majorities it could be difficult to advance many of Biden’s top health agenda items, starting with an expansion of the Affordable Care Act.

This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of KHN, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Tami Luhby of CNN and Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet.

Among the takeaways from this week’s podcast:

Plus, for extra credit, the panelists recommend their favorite health policy stories of the week they think you should read too:

Julie Rovner: The Atlantic’s “Pramila Jayapal Is ‘Next-Level’ Angry,” by Elaine Godfrey

Alice Miranda Ollstein: The New York Times’ “Emerging Coronavirus Variants May Pose Challenges to Vaccines,” by Apoorva Mandavilli

Sarah Karlin-Smith: Vanity Fair’s “A Tsunami of Randoms”: How Trump’s COVID Chaos Drowned the FDA in Junk Science,” by Katherine Eban

Tami Luhby: KHN’s “Black Americans Are Getting Vaccinated at Lower Rates Than White Americans,” by Hannah Recht and Lauren Weber


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This story was produced by KHN (Kaiser Health News), a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

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