Podcast: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’ California Here We Come

Health care is a big political issue, but no place more than in California. In San Francisco last week, voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure upholding a ban on flavored tobacco products — over the vehement objections of the tobacco industry.

And the state’s activist attorney general, Xavier Becerra, is leading a group of Democratic officials from more than a dozen states defending the Affordable Care Act in a case filed in Texas. That is important given that the Trump administration’s Justice Department decided not to defend the law in full from charges that changes made by Congress in last year’s tax law invalidates the health law.

This week’s panelists for KHN’s “What the Health?” are: Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Anna Maria Barry-Jester of FiveThirtyEight.com, Carrie Feibel of KQED San Francisco and Joanne Kenen of Politico.

Among the takeaways from this week’s podcast:

Plus, for “extra credit,” the panelists recommend their favorite health stories of the week they think you should read, too:

Julie Rovner: The New York Times, “Elizabeth Warren And A Scholarly Debate Over Bankruptcy That Won’t Go Away,” by Margot Sanger-Katz.

Anna Maria Barry-Jester: The Atlantic, “Being Black In America Can Be Hazardous To Your Health,” by Olga Khazan.

Carrie Feibel: KQED, “In The Land Of Legal Weed, Drug Education Moves From ‘Don’t’ To ‘Delay,’” by Carrie Feibel.

Joanne Kenen: The Miami Herald, “She Dreamed Of Getting Plastic Surgery In Miami. Three Days Later, She Was Dead,” by Sarah Blaskey, Sonia Osorio, and Daniel Chang.

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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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