KFF Health News' 'What the Health?'
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KFF Health News' 'What the Health?'
Join Julie Rovner, chief Washington correspondent for KFF Health News, along with top health policy reporters from The New York Times, The Washington Post, Politico and other media outlets to discuss the latest news and explain what the health is going on here in Washington, D.C.
Episodis Recents
450 episodis
Abortion Pills, the Budget, and RFK Jr.
This week, the Trump administration won a court battle to delay a ruling on access to the abortion pill mifepristone, angering its own anti-abortion a...
GOP Mulls More Health Cuts
Despite public opposition to the cuts they made to federal health programs in 2025, Republicans reportedly are considering still more cuts to help pay...
A Headless CDC
The Trump administration faces the challenge of naming a new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who can both satisfy the Make...
RFK Jr.’s Vaccine Schedule Changes Blocked — For Now
A federal judge in Massachusetts this week sided with public health groups to block changes to the federally recommended schedule of childhood vaccine...
RFK Jr.'s Very Bad Week
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had another tough week. In addition to Kennedy having surgery on a torn rotator cuff, the no...
40 Years of Health Policy
This month is 40 years since host Julie Rovner, chief Washington correspondent for KFF Health News, began reporting on health policy in Washington. To...
What About the State of Health?
Health care got barely a mention in President Donald Trump’s record-long State of the Union address this week. Ahead of the midterms, the Trump admini...
Turnarounds and Shake-Ups
The twists and turns continue at the nation’s health agency, where this week’s announcements included notice that the Food and Drug Administration wil...
New Flu Vax? FDA Says No Thanks
It’s been a busy week at the Food and Drug Administration, with a political appointee overruling agency scientists to reject an application for a new...
HHS Gets Funding, But How Will Trump Spend It?
Congress has passed — and President Donald Trump has signed — the annual spending bill for the Department of Health and Human Services. But it’s uncle...
The Hazards of ICE for Public Health
The Trump administration’s immigration crackdown is not just roiling politics but also directly affecting the provision of health care, medical groups...
Health Spending Is Moving in Congress
Lawmakers appear on the brink of passing a spending bill for the Department of Health and Human Services and a bipartisan health policy bill delayed f...
Culture Wars Take Center Stage
With lawmakers still mired over renewing enhanced tax credits for Affordable Care Act plans, much of Washington has turned its attention to culture wa...
New Year, Same Health Fight
Congress returned from its holiday break facing a familiar question: whether to extend the expanded subsidies for Affordable Care Act health plans tha...
Rerun: Happy 60th, Medicare and Medicaid!
This past year marked the 60th anniversary of Medicare and Medicaid, the twin government programs that have shaped the health care system into what it...
Time’s Up for Expanded ACA Tax Credits
A last-minute push from Democrats and four moderate Republicans will force a House vote on renewing enhanced premium tax credits for Affordable Care A...
Crunch Time for ACA Tax Credits
December 15 is the deadline to sign up for Affordable Care Act plans that begin January 1. Congress remains at odds over letting expanded tax credits...
The GOP Still Can’t Agree on a Health Plan
Senate Democrats were promised a vote by mid-December on extending the enhanced subsidies for the Affordable Care Act, but Republicans still can’t dec...
Trump Almost Unveils a Health Plan
Just weeks before some tax credits for Affordable Care Act premiums expire, the Trump administration floated a plan to extend the enhanced aid — but i...
The GOP Circles the Wagons on ACA
Led by President Donald Trump, Republicans in Congress are solidifying their opposition to extending pandemic-era subsidies for Affordable Care Act pl...
The Government Is Open
The record-long federal shutdown is over after a small group of Democrats agreed to a deal with most Republicans that funds the government through Jan...
The State of the Affordable Care Act
November 1 marked the start of open enrollment for 2026 health plans bought from Affordable Care Act marketplaces in most states. But this sign-up sea...
Happy Open Enrollment Eve!
A standoff in Congress is keeping much of the federal government shut down as open enrollment begins in most states for Affordable Care Act plans. Dem...
Nutrition Programs Face Their Own Shutdown
Two major nutrition programs — supporting low-income families, as well as young children and pregnant or breastfeeding women — are likely to exhaust t...
KFF Health News’ ‘What the Health?’: Nutrition Programs Face Their Own Shutdown
Two major nutrition programs — supporting low-income families, as well as young children and pregnant or breastfeeding women — are likely to exhaust t...
Schrödinger’s Government Shutdown
Democrats and Republicans remain stalled over funding the federal government as Republicans launch a new attack on the Affordable Care Act. Meanwhile,...
Schrödinger’s Government Shutdown
Democrats and Republicans remain stalled over funding the federal government as Republicans launch a new attack on the Affordable Care Act. Meanwhile,...
Starting To Feel the Shutdown’s Bite
The government shutdown continues with no obvious end in sight, and while it theoretically should not affect entitlement programs like Medicare and Me...
Democrats Make This Shutdown About the ACA
As long predicted, much of the federal government shut down Oct. 1 after Congress failed to pass required spending bills, with Democrats demanding Rep...
Public Health Further Politicized Under the Threat of More Firings
In a rambling news conference that shocked public health experts, President Donald Trump this week — without scientific evidence — blamed the over-the...
Ousted CDC Officials Clap Back at RFK Jr.
The recently fired head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told senators that health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ordered her to fir...
Countdown to Government Shutdown
With less than three weeks to go before the deadline to pass legislation to keep the federal government running, lawmakers are still far apart on a st...
On Capitol Hill, RFK Defends Firings at CDC
A combative Robert F. Kennedy Jr, the U.S. secretary of health and human services, appeared before a Senate committee Thursday, defending his firing o...
Happy 60th, Medicare and Medicaid!
This summer marks the 60th anniversary of Medicare and Medicaid, the twin government programs that have shaped the health care system into what it is...
Trump Further Politicizes Science
President Donald Trump’s latest executive order about science and medicine seeks to take funding decisions out of the hands of career scientists and g...
Kennedy Cancels Vaccine Funding
The Health and Human Services secretary is winding down nearly $500 million in mRNA research funding, citing false claims that the technology is ineff...
Next on Kennedy’s List? Preventive Care and Vaccine Harm
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of Health and Human Services, is eyeing an overhaul of two more key entities as part of his ongoing effort to res...
Here Come the ACA Premium Hikes
Medicaid may have monopolized Washington’s attention lately, but big changes are coming to the Affordable Care Act as well.
Meanwhile, Americans...
The Senate Saves PEPFAR Funding — For Now
The Senate narrowly approved the Trump administration’s request to claw back about $9 billion for humanitarian foreign aid projects and the Corporatio...
Digesting Trump’s Big Budget Law
President Donald Trump’s big budget bill became his big budget law on July 4, codifying about $1 trillion in cuts to the Medicaid program. But the law...