Podcast: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’ The GOP’s Health Reform Whiplash

President Donald Trump last week insisted that Republicans would move this year to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act. Or possibly not. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made it clear the GOP Senate did not plan to spend time on the effort as long as the House is controlled by Democrats. So, the president changed his tune. At least for the moment.

Meanwhile, states with legislatures and governors that oppose abortion are racing to pass abortion bans and get them to the Supreme Court, where, they hope, the new majority there will overturn or scale back the current right to abortion.

This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Rebecca Adams of CQ Roll Call, Anna Edney of Bloomberg News and Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico.

Also, Rovner interviews KHN’s Paula Andalo, who wrote the latest “Bill of the Month” feature about a very expensive knee brace.

If you have an exorbitant or inexplicable medical bill you’d like to submit for our series, you can do that here.

Among the takeaways from this week’s podcast:

Ask Us Anything!

Do you have a health policy question you’d like the panelists to answer? You can send it to whatthehealth@kff.org. Please include where you’re from and how to pronounce your name.

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

Julie Rovner: Vox.com’s “The Doctor’s Strike That Nearly Killed Canada’s Medicare-for-All Plan, Explained,” by Sarah Kliff

Rebecca Adams: CQ Roll Call’s “Legal Challenges Are Threatening Trump Administration Changes to the ACA,” by Sandhya Raman

Anna Edney: The Baltimore Sun’s “Baltimore Mayor Pugh to Take Leave of Absence in Midst of ‘Healthy Holly’ Book Controversy” by Ian Duncan and Yvonne Wenger

Alice Miranda Ollstein: The New York Times’ “Rituals of Honor in Hospital Hallways,” by Dr. Tim Lahey

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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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