Podcast

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Staffing Up at HHS


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More than a month into President Joe Biden’s term, nominees to fill some of the top posts at the Department of Health and Human Services are finally getting confirmation hearings in the Senate, starting with the nominee for secretary, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra. Barring something unexpected, it appears that Becerra, along with the surgeon general nominee, Vivek Murthy, and the nominee for assistant secretary for health, Rachel Levine, will all be confirmed, despite criticisms raised by some Republicans.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a case challenging the Trump administration’s rules for the federal family planning program that effectively evicted Planned Parenthood from participation. And the Biden administration asked the court to cancel oral arguments scheduled for late March about work requirements approved by the Trump administration for adult Medicaid recipients in some states.

This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of KHN, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times and Tami Luhby of CNN.

Among the takeaways from this week’s podcast:

Also this week, Rovner interviews HuffPost’s Jonathan Cohn, whose new book, “The Ten Year War: Obamacare and the Unfinished Crusade for Universal Coverage,” is out this week.

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

Julie Rovner: The Washington Post’s “The Joy of Vax: The People Giving the Shots Are Seeing Hope, and It’s Contagious,” by Maura Judkis

Margot Sanger-Katz: Covid19-projections.com’s “Path to Normality: 2021 Outlook of COVID-19 in the US,” by Youyang Gu

Tami Luhby: The Guardian and KHN’s “’It Doesn’t Feel Worth It’: Covid Is Pushing New York’s EMTs to the Brink,” by Martha Pskowski

Alice Miranda Ollstein: KHN’s “Covid Vaccine Websites Violate Disability Laws, Create Inequity for the Blind,” by Lauren Weber and Hannah Recht


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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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