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.
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Trump’s Vaccine Agenda
President Donald Trump is trying to unilaterally change the number and schedule of childhood vaccines in the U.S., though it remains unclear how much...
The Return of ‘Medicare for All’
Michigan voters this week chose former Detroit public health director Abdul El-Sayed as the Democratic nominee for the state’s open Senate seat. El-Sa...
The Politics of Grant Cuts
The revelation in court documents that the Trump administration used politics alone to decide which grants to fund and which to cancel has provoked su...
A Shrinking Safety Net
A new report finds that participation in the federal food stamp program is down far more than was predicted when the Republican-led Congress approved...
States Start Their Medicaid Cuts
Most of the federal cuts to the Medicaid program don’t take effect until 2027, but many states are already cutting their own budgets in anticipation o...
The Politics of Health at Midyear
About halfway through 2026 — and just a few months before the critical midterm elections — Democrats appear to be doubling down on healthcare as a cam...
Supreme Court Makes Health Policy
The Supreme Court handed down its last decisions of its 2025-26 term this week, including in an immigration case that could result in the loss of hund...
Trump Officials Still Delaying Funds
With the fiscal year mostly over, hundreds of millions of dollars in health-related grants approved by Congress still have not reached their designate...
Democrats Keep Healthcare at Fore
Senate Democrats hope to highlight rising healthcare prices by forcing a vote on the Trump administration’s changes to the Affordable Care Act before...
The Drip, Drip, Drip of Declining Coverage
As predicted, the expiration of enhanced tax subsidies for Affordable Care Act health plans is causing many people to lose coverage for failing to mak...
Medicaid Work Rules Surprise States
Adult Medicaid enrollees with serious health conditions may not be automatically exempt from new work rules, according to a new regulation from the Tr...
More Kids Without Coverage
When Republicans passed their big budget bill in 2025, they thought the effects of cuts to health programs wouldn’t show up until after the 2026 midte...
Sen. Cassidy Unleashed
In just the first few days after losing his bid for reelection in Louisiana, Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Bill Cass...
In Search of a New FDA Commissioner
In one of the most widely expected departures in recent memory, Marty Makary stepped down as head of the FDA this week.
Meanwhile, the Supreme...
Abortion Pill Politics
A federal court’s decision to override the FDA and restrict availability of the abortion pill mifepristone has launched abortion back into the nationa...
The Peculiar Politics of Hospitals
Democrats and Republicans on one of the House committees that oversees the Medicare program had strong words about high hospital pricing at a hearing...
RFK Jr. vs. Congress
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. completed his whirlwind tour of House and Senate committees this week, ostensibly to promote...
A New CDC Nominee, Again
President Donald Trump tapped a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director — a former deputy surgeon general and vaccine supporter. Meanw...
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...