Julie Rovner, Author at ��ýҕ�l Health News

Listen: What the Vaccine Schedule Whiplash Means for Your Kids

Julie Rovner — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 09:00:00 +0000

LISTEN: After a federal judge blocked the Trump administration’s efforts to pare down childhood vaccine recommendations, plenty of questions remain — like how annual vaccines for the flu will get approved. ��ýҕ�l Health News chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner spoke with WAMU about how the decision is rippling through the public health system.

Big swings in federal vaccine policy are creating confusion for some parents and clinicians. A federal judge recently struck down Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s new, for all kids. But with the Trump administration likely to appeal, the situation is in flux. Meanwhile, cases of such as measles, mumps, and whooping cough continue to accumulate nationwide and in the Washington, D.C., area.

Julie Rovner, ��ýҕ�l Health News chief Washington correspondent and host of the podcast What The Health?, appeared on WAMU’s “Health Hub” on April 1 to break down what’s changed, what hasn’t, and what’s still unclear.

��ýҕ�l Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about .

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Watch: Affordability Plagues Health Care in Its Shift From Nonprofit to Profit Machine

Julie Rovner — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 09:00:00 +0000

On What the Health? From ��ýҕ�l Health News, distributed by WAMU, chief Washington correspondent and host Julie Rovner sat down with Drew Altman, president and CEO of KFF, to talk about the likelihood of a national health care debate to rein in costs.

As the midterm elections approach, the cost of health care is the public’s , Altman said. Although past reforms have significantly increased the number of people with health insurance, they have not successfully addressed affordability, he said.

Altman said the U.S. health system poses two major problems: Americans’ concerns about how to pay for their own medical care, and the significant share of national spending it consumes.

Rovner and Altman also discuss the downstream effects of change, including the impact of the Trump administration’s cost-cutting on states, employers, and individuals, and lessons learned from past attempts at government reform.

This is the first in a new interview series, “How Would You Fix It?” In the months to come, Rovner will interview experts and decision-makers from a variety of backgrounds and perspectives, asking each how they would repair the health care system.

An abbreviated version of this interview aired March 19 on Episode 438 of What the Health? From ��ýҕ�l Health News: “RFK Jr.’s Vaccine Schedule Changes Blocked — For Now.”

Altman’s “Beyond the Data” columns — including the column discussed in this interview, “” — can be read .

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Why Medication Abortion Is the Top Target for Anti-Abortion Groups in 2026

Julie Rovner — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 10:00:00 +0000

This week would have marked the 53rd anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide — that is, until 2022, when the court overturned it. Since then, abortion has been banned in 13 states and severely limited in 10 others.

Yet anti-abortion activists remain frustrated, in some cases even more so than before Roe was overturned.

Why? Because despite the new legal restrictions, abortions have not stopped taking place, not even in states with complete bans. In fact, the number of abortions has not dropped at all, .

“Indeed, abortions have tragically increased in Louisiana and other pro-life states,” Liz Murrill, Louisiana’s attorney general, said at a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing this month.

That’s due in large part to the easier availability of medication abortion, which uses a combination of the drugs mifepristone and misoprostol, and particularly to the pills’ availability via mail after a telehealth visit with a licensed health professional.

Allowing telehealth access was a major change originally made on a temporary basis during the covid pandemic, when visits to a doctor’s office were largely unavailable. Before that, unlike most medications, mifepristone could be dispensed only directly, and only by a medical professional individually certified by the Food and Drug Administration.

The Biden administration later permanently eliminated the requirement for an in-person visit — a change the second Trump administration has not undone.

While the percentage of abortions using medication had been growing every year since 2000, when the FDA first approved mifepristone for pregnancy termination, the Biden administration’s decision to drop the in-person dispensing requirement supercharged its use. More than 60% of all abortions were done using medication rather than a procedure in 2023, the most recent year for which . More than a quarter of all abortions that year were managed via telehealth.

Separately, President Donald Trump’s FDA in October approved a second generic version of mifepristone, angering abortion opponents. FDA officials said at the time that they had no choice — that as long as the original drug remains approved, federal law requires them to OK copies that are “bioequivalent” to the approved drug.

It’s clear that reining in, if not canceling, the approval of pregnancy-terminating medication is a top priority for abortion opponents. This month, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America called abortion drugs “,” referencing their growing use in ending pregnancies as well as claims of safety concerns — such as the risk a woman could be given the drugs unknowingly or suffer serious complications. Decades of research and experience show medication abortion is safe and complications are rare.

Another group, Students for Life, has been trying to make the case that the biological waste from the use of mifepristone is , though environmental scientists refute that claim.

Yet the groups are most frustrated not with supporters of abortion rights but with the Trump administration. The object of most of their ire is the FDA, which they say is dragging its feet on a promised review of the abortion pill and the Biden administration’s loosened requirements around its availability.

President Joe Biden’s covid-era policy allowing abortion drugs to be sent via mail ”should’ve been rescinded on day one of the administration,” SBA Pro-Life America’s president, Marjorie Dannenfelser, said in a recent statement. Instead, almost a year later, she continued, “pro-life states are being completely undermined in their ability to enforce the laws that they passed.”

Lawmakers who oppose abortion access are also pressing the administration. “At an absolute minimum, the previous in-person safeguards must be restored immediately,” Senate HELP Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy said during the hearing with Murrill and other witnesses who want to see abortion pill availability curtailed.

Sen. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) said at the hearing that he hoped “the rumors are false” that “the agency is intentionally slow-walking its study on mifepristone’s health risks.”

The White House and spokespeople at the Department of Health and Human Services have denied the review is being purposely delayed.

“The FDA’s scientific review process is thorough and takes the time necessary to ensure decisions are grounded in gold-standard science,” HHS spokesperson Emily Hilliard said in an emailed response to ��ýҕ�l Health News. “Dr. Makary is upholding that standard as part of the Department’s commitment to rigorous, evidence-based review.” That’s a reference to Marty Makary, the FDA commissioner.

Revoking abortion pill access may not be as easy as advocates hoped when Trump moved back into the White House. While the president delivered on many of the goals of his anti-abortion backers during his first term, especially the confirmation of Supreme Court justices who made overturning Roe possible, he has been far less doctrinaire in his second go-round.

Earlier this month, Trump unnerved some of his supporters by advising House Republicans that lawmakers “have to be a little flexible” on the Hyde Amendment to appeal to voters, referring to a decades-old appropriations rule that bans most federal abortion funding and that some Republicans have been pushing to enforce more broadly.

And while the anniversary of Trump’s inauguration has many analysts noting how much of the has been realized, the most headline-grabbing portions on reproductive health have yet to be enacted. The Trump administration has not, for example, revoked the approval of mifepristone for pregnancy termination, nor has it invoked the 1873 Comstock Act, which could effectively ban abortion nationwide by stopping not just the mailing of abortion pills but also anything else used in providing abortions.

Still, abortion opponents have decades of practice at remaining hopeful — and playing a long game.

HealthBent, a regular feature of ��ýҕ�l Health News, offers insight into and analysis of policies and politics from ��ýҕ�l Health News chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner, who has covered health care for more than 30 years.

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Watch: What Do Republicans Really Want on Health Care?

Julie Rovner — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 10:00:00 +0000

On What the Health? From ��ýҕ�l Health News, distributed by WAMU, chief Washington correspondent and host Julie Rovner sat down with Avik Roy, a GOP health policy adviser, to talk about how health care has evolved as a Republican issue.

Roy, a co-founder and the chair of the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, said health care affordability has become a more salient issue for the GOP under President Donald Trump, with more people from working-class backgrounds voting Republican.

Before Trump, he said, the party’s support was more concentrated among those covered by employer-sponsored insurance or Medicare, the public program for those who are 65 or older or have disabilities — voters less likely to be concerned about affording medical care.

An abbreviated version of this interview aired on What the Health? Episode 423: “The GOP Circles the Wagons on ACA.”

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Listen: Amid Shutdown Stalemate, Families Brace for SNAP Cuts and Paycheck Limbo

Julie Rovner — Fri, 24 Oct 2025 09:00:00 +0000

Listen: Health care has been at the heart of the federal government’s shutdown. ��ýҕ�l Health News chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner appeared on WAMU’s Oct. 22 “Health Hub” to explain the health care compromises some lawmakers want before they will agree to reopen the government.

Affordable Care Act tax credits are at the heart of government shutdowns in U.S. history. The impact is starting to be felt by families and federal employees. programs could at the end of the month. And federal health agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have faced layoffs.

��ýҕ�l Health News chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner appeared on ” to discuss the possible compromises that could reopen the government.

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Listen: Why ‘TrumpRx’ Might Not Save You Money

Julie Rovner — Thu, 09 Oct 2025 09:00:00 +0000

��ýҕ�l Health News chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner appeared Oct. 6 on the podcast “” to discuss TrumpRx, President Donald Trump’s proposal for a direct-to-consumer website aimed at lowering prescription drug costs.

While few details were made public when the program was announced on Sept. 30, Rovner explains that consumers who are enrolled in health plans through their employers or government programs may save more money on drugs using their insurance or drugmakers’ patient discount programs.

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Shutdown Halts Some Health Services as Political Risks Test Parties’ Resolve

Stephanie Armour — Wed, 01 Oct 2025 09:00:00 +0000

Threats of a federal government shutdown have gone from being an October surprise to a recurring theme. This time around, though, the stakes are higher.

Federal funding ran out at midnight on Oct. 1, after Congress failed to pass even a stopgap budget while negotiations continued.

Now the question is how long the deadlock will last, with Democrats pitted against Republicans and a presidential administration that has broken with and regularly used to achieve its ends. Because Republicans hold only a slim majority in the Senate, any deal will need to attract at least a few Democratic votes.

Ramifications from a shutdown on public health systems and health programs will be felt far beyond Washington, D.C., halting almost all of the federal government’s nonessential functions, including many operations related to public health.

Even on Sept. 30, as the clock ticked toward midnight, President Donald Trump about of federal workers if Democrats didn’t acquiesce to GOP demands. Some people worry that such workforce reductions would further enable the administration to undermine federal government operations and reduce the budget impasse to what’s been described as three-dimensional chess or a game of chicken.

Such threats to fire, rather than temporarily suspend, federal workers are “unprecedented,” said G. William Hoagland of the Bipartisan Policy Center. The lack of negotiations between Capitol Hill Republicans and Democrats in advance of the shutdown is also unprecedented in his experience, said Hoagland, a longtime GOP Senate Budget Committee aide.

The stalemate centers largely on health coverage, with Democrats and Republicans clashing over the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid cuts. For Americans with ACA marketplace plans, government subsidies cap the percentage of household income they must pay toward premiums. Lawmakers expanded the subsidies in 2021 and extended that additional help through the end of 2025, and the of those expanded subsidies would increase costs and reduce eligibility for assistance for millions of enrollees.

Democrats want a further extension of the subsidies, but many GOP lawmakers are resistant to extending them as is and say that debate must wait until after a budget deal to keep the federal government afloat. Antagonism has grown, with the parties in a pitched battle to convince voters the other party is to blame for the government’s closure.

Said Senate Minority Leader on the Senate floor Sept. 30: “Republicans have chosen the losing side of the health care debate, because they’re trying to take away people’s health care; they’re going to let people’s premiums rise.”

But Senate Majority Leader accused Democrats of attempting to “take government funding hostage.”

The longer a shutdown lasts, the more impacts could be felt. For example, some community health centers would be at risk of closure as their federal funding dries up.

by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to reduce damage from future natural disasters will stop, for example. Rescue services at national parks that stay open will be limited. And at the National Institutes of Health, many awaiting access to experimental treatments may not be admitted to its clinical center.

Entitlement programs such as Medicaid and Medicare will continue, as will operations at the . But disease surveillance, support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to local and state health departments, and funding for health programs will all be hampered, based on federal health agencies’ .

The Department of Health and Human Services is expected to furlough about 40% of its workforce, which has already been downsized by about 20,000 positions under the Trump administration. Across the federal government, roughly 750,000 employees will be furloughed, according to an by the Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan agency that calculates the cost of legislation. While furloughed employees won’t be working, eventually they will get back pay, totaling about $400 million daily, the CBO estimated.

At HHS, research is on the links between drug prices and the Inflation Reduction Act, the major law enacted under former President Joe Biden to boost the economy. Despite reports that Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary said the FDA would basically be untouched, the agency won’t accept and food safety efforts will be reduced. Federal oversight of a program that and evacuate individuals in environmental crises is expected to stop.

Fewer federal staff will be available to Medicaid and Medicare enrollees. CDC responses to inquiries about public health matters . And the work of a federal vaccine injury program is also .

Congressional Democrats insist the ACA subsidies must be renewed now because enrollment for the Obama-era health program opens on Nov. 1. Without the extended subsidies, health insurers are warning of double-digit premium hikes for millions of enrollees.

House Democratic Leader has argued that a “Republican-caused health care crisis” is hanging over Americans as a result of Trump’s new tax-and-spending bill, which adds restrictions to Medicaid that are expected to kick millions off the program. Republicans have also advanced and funding cuts at the nation’s health department and caused widespread confusion over access to some vaccines.

“We’re not going to simply go along to get along with a Republican bill that continues to gut the health care of everyday Americans,” Jeffries told reporters Sept. 29. “These people have been trying to repeal and displace people off the Affordable Care Act since 2010.”

Republicans, meanwhile, have blasted Democrats for holding up funding over the subsidies and say any deal will require concessions.

“If there were some extension of the existing policy, I think it would have to come with some reforms,” Thune, the Senate Republican leader, said Sept. 26.

Such a deal may involve changes to a policy that caps what consumers have to pay for ACA marketplace plans at, no matter how much they earn. It could also alter their ability to obtain plans with no premiums, an option that became more widely available because of the beefed-up subsidies.

Adding restrictions to the ACA subsidies is likely to decrease enrollment in the program, which saw declines during the first Trump administration and did not reach 20 million for the first time until last year, a milestone reached in large part due to the subsidies.

Several Republicans have expressed interest in extending the subsidies, including a group of GOP representatives who proposed legislation to do so last month.

Democrats may be betting that the timing of the shutdown will put pressure on their Republican colleagues to come to the negotiation table on the ACA subsidies.

Within days of the government’s closure, ACA enrollees are expected to get notices from their health insurers advising them of . Insurers have said the expiring subsidies have forced those large premium hikes because the healthiest and youngest people are more likely to opt out of coverage when prices go up.

The White House, meanwhile, ramped up its pressure campaign on Democrats. White House press secretary insisted Sept. 29 that Trump wants to keep the government open.

“Our most vulnerable in our society and our country will be impacted by a government shutdown,” she said.

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To Cut Medicaid, the GOP’s Following a Path Often Used To Expand Health Care

Julie Rovner — Wed, 02 Jul 2025 09:00:00 +0000

President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful” budget reconciliation bill would make some of the most sweeping changes in health policy in years, largely affecting Medicaid and Affordable Care Act plans — with reverberations felt throughout the health care system.

With only a few exceptions, the budget reconciliation process — which allows the political party in control to pass a bill with only 51 votes in the Senate, rather than the usual 60 — is how nearly every major piece of health legislation has passed Congress since the 1980s.

But using reconciliation to constrict rather than expand health coverage, as the GOP is attempting now? That is unusual.

One of the best-known programs born via reconciliation is the “COBRA” health insurance continuation, which allows people who leave jobs with employer-provided insurance to keep it for a time, as long as they pay the full premium.

That is one of dozens of health provisions tucked into COBRA, or the . Also included was the , which requires hospitals that take Medicare to treat or transfer patients with medical emergencies, regardless of their insurance status — a law that’s become a focus of abortion opponents as they seek to limit access to the procedure.

A key reason so much health policy has passed this way has to do with how Congress manages the federal budget. Federal government spending falls into two categories: mandatory, or spending required by existing law, and discretionary, which traditionally is allocated and renewed each year as part of the appropriations process.

Lawmakers use the reconciliation process to make changes to mandatory spending programs — Medicare and Medicaid are among the largest — as well as tax policy. (For complicated political reasons, reconciliation bills cannot touch Social Security, the last prong in the entitlement program trifecta.)

Reconciliation comes into play only if it is needed to reconcile taxes or mandatory spending to comply with the terms Congress sets for itself each year, through the annual budget resolution. This year the GOP’s focus is finding the cash to renew Trump’s expiring tax cuts, which largely benefit wealthier Americans, and boost military and border security spending.

In years when Congress orders a reconciliation bill, health policy almost always plays a major part. Usually, reconciliation instructions call for reductions in payments to health providers under Medicare — which costs the most of the federal health programs.

For much of the 1980s and 1990s, Democrats in Congress quietly used reconciliation to expand eligibility for the Medicaid program, often by cutting more than the budget called for from Medicare. For every $5 cut from Medicare, about $1 would be redirected to provide Medicaid to more low-income people.

But budget reconciliation has also become a convenient way to make policy changes to the nation’s major health programs, as it is usually considered a “must-pass” bill likely to be signed by the president and not subject to filibuster in the Senate.

As a result, all manner of now-familiar health programs were created by budget reconciliation bills, many of which provided health coverage to more Americans.

The 1989 reconciliation bill created a who treat Medicare patients, as well as a new federal agency to study the cost, quality, and effectiveness of health care, today known as the .

Children’s health has been a popular add-on over the years, including the gradual expansion of Medicaid coverage to more children based on family income. The 1993 reconciliation bill created the program, which ensures the availability and affordability of vaccines nationwide for uninsured and underinsured kids. The 1997 reconciliation bill created the , which today provides insurance to more than 7 million children.

In fact, the list of major health bills of the past 50 years not passed using budget reconciliation is short. For instance, the 2003 Medicare Modernization Act, which added a prescription drug benefit to the program for the first time, attracted just enough bipartisan support to pass on its own.

The biggest health care law of recent decades — the Affordable Care Act — didn’t start out as a reconciliation bill, but it ended up using the process to clear its final hurdles.

After initial passage of the bill in December 2009, a special election cost Democrats their 60th seat in the Senate — and with it, the supermajority they needed to pass the bill without Republican votes. In the end, the two chambers used a separate reconciliation measure, the , to negotiate a compromise that included the ACA.

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Q&A: What Does the Budget Bill Mean for Your Health?

Julie Rovner — Fri, 20 Jun 2025 09:00:00 +0000

LISTEN: Congress is considering roughly $800 billion in Medicaid cuts. You could feel the effects even if you’re not on the government program for people with low incomes and disabilities. ��ýҕ�l Health News chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner explained how on WAMU’s “Health Hub,” June 18.

Health programs including , and are facing cuts in the budget reconciliation bill making its way through Congress. If passed as written, the “One Big Beautiful Bill” could health care access for millions of Americans. And even those who don’t rely on these programs could see .

��ýҕ�l Health News chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner appeared on WAMU’s “Health Hub” on June 18 to answer listeners’ questions and break down how the bill could reshape U.S. health care.

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Watch: The Dr. Oz Show Comes to Congress

Julie Rovner — Mon, 17 Mar 2025 09:00:00 +0000

The Senate Finance Committee got its chance March 14 to question Mehmet Oz, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the vast Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the largest agency within the Department of Health and Human Services. Oz, with his long history in television, was as polished as one would expect, brushing off even some more controversial parts of his past with apparent ease. In this special bonus episode of the “What the Health?” podcast, ��ýҕ�l Health News’ Rachana Pradhan and Stephanie Armour join host Julie Rovner to recap the Oz hearing. They also provide an update on the progress of nominees to lead the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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