Podcast

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Planning for Round Two


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Congress is out of session, but that hasn’t stopped Democrats from planning their next round of health legislation. Together with President Joe Biden, they are looking at a broad array of possibilities, from allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices to adding more benefits to the program to creating a government-funded “public option” insurance plan that consumers could choose.

Meanwhile, despite financial incentives for states to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, the Wyoming legislature this week killed a nascent effort to expand the government health program, and Republicans in Missouri are trying to block implementation of an expansion approved by voters in 2020.

This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of KHN, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Rachel Cohrs of Stat and Kimberly Leonard of Business Insider.

Among the takeaways from this week’s podcast:

Also this week, Rovner interviews KHN’s Lauren Weber, who reported the latest KHN-NPR “Bill of the Month” feature — about a woman whose regular treatment for arthritis suddenly got a lot more expensive. If you have an outrageous medical bill you’d like to share with us, you can do that here.

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 “The Vaccine Line Is an Illusion,” by Olga Khazan

Alice Miranda Ollstein: The New Yorker’s “How Do Plague Stories End?” by Jill Lepore

Kimberly Leonard: Business Insider’s “People Flocked to Florida and Texas for a Lower Cost of Living During the Pandemic. They Were Shocked When Their Healthcare Got Way More Expensive,” by Kimberly Leonard

Rachel Cohrs: Stat’s “The Particular Torment of Dying, Now, From Covid-19,” by Andrew Joseph


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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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