The Senate this week launched hearings on both the fate of the individual insurance market and the future of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which is set to expire at the end of September. Still in the mix on Capitol Hill is one possible last-ditch effort to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act.
But with Congress quickly wrapping up much of its “must-do” legislation, it’s not clear how or when these issues will be tackled, says a panel of experienced health care journalists in this week’s episode of “What the Health?” Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Joanne Kenen of Politico, Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times and Mary Agnes Carey of Kaiser Health News discuss the return of Congress and bipartisan efforts to shore up the individual health insurance market for 2018.
Plus, for “extra credit,” the panelists recommend their favorite health stories of the week they think you should read, too.
Julie Rovner: NPR’s “Pets Deserve Evidence-Based Medicine, too, says the SkeptVet” by Ingfei Chen.
Joanne Kenen: Slate’s “You Shouldn’t Fast Before Surgery,” by Marina Kamenev.
Margot Sanger-Katz: Stat’s “IBM pitched its Watson supercomputer as a revolution in cancer care. It’s nowhere close,” by Casey Ross and Ike Swetlitz.
Mary Agnes Carey: KHN’s “Vital Health Officials You’ve Never Heard Of: Insurance Commissioners In The Hot Seat,” by Julie Appleby.
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This story was produced by Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation.