Most followers of health policy have been consumed lately by the potential repeal or alteration of the Affordable Care Act, as well as the ongoing open enrollment for individual insurance for 2018.

But that’s far from the only health news out there. In this episode of “What the Health?” Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Joanne Kenen of Politico, Alice Ollstein of Talking Points Memo, and Sarah Jane Tribble of Kaiser Health News discuss some of the important but under-covered stories you might have missed this fall, including prescription drug price fights and women’s reproductive health.

Among the takeaways from this week’s podcast:

• Lobbyists are coming out of the woodwork – spending more than $42 million over the last quarter — on a battle over whether Medicare should reduce what it pays for drugs at hospitals that primarily serve low-income patients.
• Massachusetts has passed its own guarantee of no-cost contraceptives for women, after the Trump administration rolled back the federal health law provision.
• The health law’s individual mandate is front and center in the tax debate, but it’s not clear how the Senate will come down on it. Some GOP moderates are suggesting that they might support the repeal if another bill to help stabilize the individual insurance market is approved. Yet at the same time, the White House is signaling that it might be fine dropping the mandate.
• Of course, if Congress opts not to tackle the mandate, the White House could take some actions later to neutralize the provision. That could add another log on the fire as critics seek help through the courts to stop administration actions.

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’ “Ambulance trips can leave you with surprising – and very expensive – bills,” by Melissa Bailey.

Joanne Kenen: The New York Times’ “Skin Cancers Rise, Along With Questionable Treatments,” by  Katie Hafner and Griffin Palmer.

Alice Ollstein: The Washington Post’s “What the parasites in a defector’s stomach tell us about North Korea,” by Cleve R. Wootson Jr.

Sarah Jane Tribble: The Washington Post’s “How we got the story about monkeypox,” by Lena H. Sun.

This story was produced by Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation.

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