KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: All Coronavirus All The Time


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The medical and economic needs laid bare by the coronavirus pandemic are forcing some immediate changes to the U.S. health system. Congress, in its latest relief bill, provided $100 billion in funding for the hospital industry alone. Meanwhile, the federal government has quickly removed previous barriers to telehealth and other sometimes controversial practices.

But big fights are still brewing, including whether the federal government will reopen the Affordable Care Act marketplaces it runs and whether states can use emergency powers to ban abortions as “elective medical procedures.”

This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Joanne Kenen of Politico, Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times and Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico.

Among the takeaways from this week’s podcast:

Also, this week, Rovner interviews KHN’s Liz Szabo, who reported the latest KHN-NPR “Bill of the Month” installment about a patient who underwent a very expensive genetic test. If you have an outrageous medical bill you would 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 New York Times’ “A Ventilator Stockpile With One Hitch: Thousands Do Not Work,” by David E. Sanger, Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Nicholas Kulish

Joanne Kenen: The New Yorker’s “The Life and Death of Juan Sanabria, One of New York City’s First Cornavirus Victims,” by Jonathan Blitzer

Margot Sanger-Katz: Bloomberg News’ “Hospitals Tell Doctors They’ll Be Fired If They Speak Out About Lack of Gear,” by Olivia Carville, Emma Court and Kristen V. Brown

Alice Miranda Ollstein: The Washington Post’s “Trump Ban on Fetal Tissue Research Blocks Coronavirus Treatment Effort,” by Amy Goldstein


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This story was produced by Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation.

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