KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: Waiting For The Trump Health Plan


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President Donald Trump has been promising to reveal a new health plan since early this year. That hasn’t happened yet. Now, there is a debate about whether having a plan for Democrats to criticize would help or hurt the president’s campaign.

Meanwhile, among the Democrats vying to take on Trump next November, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is proposing a plan to forgive billions of dollars of medical debt owed by patients.

Other drama playing out this fall: What will happen to the federal family planning program now that Planned Parenthood has dropped out over Trump administration rules it says violate medical ethics, and what will a multimillion-dollar verdict against opioid manufacturer Johnson & Johnson mean for the funding of programs to help those with addiction?

This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Stephanie Armour of The Wall Street Journal, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico and Kimberly Leonard of the Washington Examiner.

Among the takeaways from this week’s podcast:

Also this week, Rovner interviews KHN’s Rachel Bluth, who wrote the latest KHN-NPR “Bill of the Month” feature about a patient who did everything right to prepare financially for an elective surgical procedure — and still got billed more than he expected. 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: Kaiser Health News’ “Beset By Lawsuits And Criticism In U.S., Opioid Makers Eye New Market In India,” and “In India’s Slums, ‘Painkillers Are Part Of The Daily Routine,” by Sarah Varney

Alice Miranda Ollstein: The New York Times Magazine’s “Why Doesn’t the United States Have Universal Health Care? The Answer Has Everything to Do With Race,” by Jeneen Interlandi

Kimberly Leonard: Vox.com’s “She Spent More Than $110,000 on Drug Rehab. Her Son Still Died,” by German Lopez

Stephanie Armour: The Atlantic’s “L.A.’s Health-Care Reform Is a Lesson for Democrats,” by Ronald Brownstein

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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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