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California’s next governor will face tough decisions on a highly controversial piece of healthcare policy: what to do about health coverage for the more than 1.4 million low-income residents without legal status. Democrat Xavier Becerra and Republican Steve Hilton present starkly different choices as public opinion wavers.
ýҕl Health News journalists made the rounds on national and local media recently to discuss topical stories. Here’s a collection of their appearances.
The Trump administration’s cuts to Medicaid and SNAP may complicate Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo’s reelection chances.
Senate Democrats hope to highlight health costs by forcing a vote on the Trump administration’s changes to the Affordable Care Act before the midterm elections. Meanwhile, Alabama is the latest state to try to cut off access to medication abortion via telehealth. Anna Edney of Bloomberg News, Sheryl Gay Stolberg of The New York Times, and Lauren Weber of The Washington Post join ýҕl Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more. Also, Rovner interviews Michael Cannon of the Cato Institute and Liz Fowler of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health to discuss the employer health insurance tax exclusion.
Get our weekly newsletter, The Week in Brief, featuring a roundup of our original coverage, Fridays at 2 p.m. ET.
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 midterms. They were wrong. Meanwhile, the party is trumpeting its efforts to lower drug prices. Maya Goldman of Axios, Shefali Luthra of The 19th, and Lauren Weber of The Washington Post join ýҕl Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more. Also this week, Rovner discusses Ebola with ýҕl Health News’ Céline Gounder.
In the days after losing his reelection bid in Louisiana, Senate HELP Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy is already signaling that his loyalty to President Trump has waned. But how much Cassidy will try to accomplish toward his health agenda in his last months in office remains to be seen. Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico Magazine, Sheryl Gay Stolberg of The New York Times, and Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico join ýҕl Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss this story and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews health policy professor Miranda Yaver, the author of a new book about health insurance denials.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is trying to address the interests of his MAHA supporters, who view him as their hope for the future, while being a good soldier in the eyes of the Trump White House, which has been stepping back from some of the movement’s core priorities.
Single-payer healthcare is a central talking point in the chaotic race for California governor. In a crowded field, top-polling Democrats are declaring their support for a government-run health system but providing few details about how they’d accomplish it in the nation’s most populous state.
A KFF poll offers insights into people’s insurance coverage decisions and how those choices could play into their vote in November’s midterm elections.
On “What the Health? From ýҕl 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.
A top GOP pollster has said anti-vaccine policies could create risks for the Trump administration in the midterm elections. But backing away from those policies — and other initiatives that have been high on the Make America Healthy Again to-do list — threatens to upset a key voting bloc.
Get our weekly newsletter, The Week in Brief, featuring a roundup of our original coverage, Fridays at 2 p.m. ET.
A proposed abortion ban in South Carolina would have allowed the criminal prosecution of women who obtain the procedure. It’s unlikely to become law, but this bill and other proposals across the country show how some conservative lawmakers are embracing increasingly punitive abortion restrictions.
As voters feel financial pressure from runaway health care costs and crave innovations that would provide relief, the standoff in Congress has been firmly rooted in the status quo — keeping an existing provision of the Affordable Care Act alive.
Medicaid may have monopolized Washington’s attention lately, but big changes are coming to the Affordable Care Act as well. Meanwhile, Americans are learning more about what’s in Trump’s big budget law, and polls suggest many don’t like what they see. Julie Appleby of ýҕl Health News, Jessie Hellmann of CQ Roll Call, and Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico join ýҕl Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews historian Jonathan Oberlander to mark Medicare’s 60th anniversary.
President Donald Trump ordered a halt to gender-affirming medical care for transgender prisoners in federal custody, and to housing trans women in female prisons. The new policies raise alarms for a formerly incarcerated trans woman. She said the order denies lifesaving medical care and creates a road map for rape.
By withdrawing from the World Health Organization and overhauling aid, Trump’s new executive orders endanger Americans and the globe, researchers warn. The move also cedes U.S. power to other nations.
In his first days in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order on gender that affects transgender health care. The order aims to directly limit care for trans people incarcerated in federal prisons, but the broader implications on health aren't clear-cut.
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