Podcast: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’ Open Enrollment And A Midterm Preview

Nov. 1 marks the start of Open Enrollment for people buying their own coverage for 2019 in most states. Despite the turmoil surrounding the Affordable Care Act, most consumers will have more choices and mostly flat — and in some cases lower — premiums.

What will happen to the health law going forward, however, will depend largely on what happens in the midterm elections Tuesday. Important health decisions will result not just from which party controls the U.S. House and Senate, but who wins governorships and comes to control state legislatures as well.

This week’s panelists for KHN’s “What the Health?” are Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Anna Edney of Bloomberg News, Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times and Joanne Kenen of Politico.

Among the takeaways from this week’s podcast:

Rovner also interviews Barbara Feder Ostrov, who wrote the latest “Bill of the Month” feature for Kaiser Health News and NPR. It’s about a California college professor whose skin rash led to a $48,000 bill for allergy skin testing. You can read the story here.

If you have a medical bill you would like NPR and KHN to investigate, you can submit it here.

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

Julie Rovner: The Washington Post and Kaiser Health News’ “For The Disabled, A Doctor’s Visit Can Be Literally An Obstacle Course — And The Laws Can’t Help,” by Rachel Bluth.

Anna Edney: Bloomberg Businessweek’s “Your DNA Is Out There. Do You Want Law Enforcement Using It?” by Drake Bennett and Kristen V Brown.

Margot Sanger-Katz: The Federalist’s “How An Obscure Regulatory Change Could Transform American Health Insurance,” by Christopher Jacobs.

Joanne Kenen: The Atlantic’s “The Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger Language Of Dieting,” by Amanda Mull.

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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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