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KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Kansas Makes a Statement


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Voters in Kansas told the rest of the country this week that they don’t want their state to ban abortion. In a nearly 60%-40% split, voters turned back an effort by anti-abortion activists to amend the state constitution to remove its right to abortion, which would have allowed the legislature to ban the procedure.

Meanwhile, in Washington, Congress is in its pre-recess push to pass legislation. A bill to provide health benefits to veterans injured by breathing in toxic substances from military burn pits finally made it to President Joe Biden’s desk. But talks continue on the Democrats’ health care-climate-tax bill that would, among other things, allow Medicare to negotiate some prescription drug prices and extend expanded subsidies for insurance under the Affordable Care Act.

This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of KHN, Tami Luhby of CNN, Sandhya Raman of CQ Roll Call, and Rachel Cohrs of Stat.

Among the takeaways from this week’s episode:

Also this week, Rovner interviews KHN’s Bram Sable-Smith, who reported and wrote the latest KHN-NPR “Bill of the Month” installment about a single-car accident that resulted in three wildly different ambulance bills. If you have an enormous or outrageous medical bill you’d like to send 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: KHN’s “They Lost Medicaid When Paperwork Was Sent to an Empty Field, Signaling the Mess to Come,” by Brett Kelman

Rachel Cohrs: The Washington Post’s “Thousands of Lives Depend on a Transplant Network in Need of ‘Vast Restructuring,’” by Joseph Menn and Lenny Bernstein

Tami Luhby: KHN’s “Hospices Have Become Big Business for Private Equity Firms, Raising Concerns About End-of-Life Care,” by Markian Hawryluk

Sandhya Raman: KHN’s “Nursing Homes Are Suing the Friends and Family of Residents to Collect Debts,” by Noam N. Levey


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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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