KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: Prepping For A Possible Pandemic


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President Donald Trump has named Vice President Mike Pence to lead the nation’s effort to combat COVID-19, the contagious disease from a coronavirus that originated in China and is spreading worldwide. At the same time, Congress is preparing to appropriate billions of dollars for prevention and treatment should the outbreak in the U.S. become serious.

Meanwhile, the Democratic candidates for president — in a debate leading up to this weekend’s voting in South Carolina and the 14 state primaries on Super Tuesday next week ― are still fighting over “Medicare for All.”

This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Joanne Kenen of Politico, Kimberly Leonard of the Washington Examiner and Shefali Luthra of Kaiser Health News.

Among the takeaways from this week’s podcast:

Also this week, Rovner interviews NPR’s Sydney Lupkin, who reported the latest KHN-NPR “Bill of the Month” installment about how two versions of the same drug have dramatically different price tags. 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: Consumer Reports’ “GoodRx Saves Money on Meds ― It Also Shares Data With Google, Facebook, and Others,” by Thomas Germain

Joanne Kenen: Politico’s “Harmed Before Birth, America’s ‘Lost Children’ Overshadowed by Opioid Crisis,” by Brianna Ehley

Kimberly Leonard: The Miami Herald’s “A Miami Man Who Flew to China Worried He Might Have Coronavirus. He May Owe Thousands,” by Ben Conarck

Shefali Luthra: Last Week Tonight’s “Medicare for All” by John Oliver


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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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