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 America Healthy Again movement and get confirmed by the Senate. Meanwh…
What the Health? From KFF Health News
Ever feel like the latest health policy headlines are written in a language you don't quite speak? What the Health? From KFF Health News translates the whirlwind of Washington into something you can actually use. Hosted by Julie Rovner, the chief Washington correspondent for KFF Health News, this isn't a dry lecture. It's a weekly conversation where Rovner is joined by the journalists from The New York Times, The Washington Post, Politico, and elsewhere who are actually writing the stories. Together, they pull back the curtain on how decisions on Capitol Hill and in federal agencies get made, who they impact, and what they mean for your care and your wallet. You'll hear the inside perspective on everything from drug pricing battles and insurance market shifts to the future of Medicare and the politics of public health. This podcast cuts through the jargon and the spin, offering clarity and context on the forces shaping American healthcare. For anyone trying to understand not just what happened, but why it matters, this is an essential guide to the system. Tune in for smart, accessible analysis that makes sense of the news you need.
Episodes
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 vaccines, dealing at least a temporary setback to Health and Human Services S…
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 nomination of his ally to become surgeon general is teetering in the Sen…
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 mark the anniversary, Rovner is joined by two longtime sources to dis…
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 administration has presented few concrete plans to address what Americans sa…
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 will review Moderna’s new flu vaccine after all and that a handful of top…
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 flu vaccine, a decision that’s reverberating through the drug industry…
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 unclear whether the administration will spend the money as Congress directe…
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 say. Meanwhile, in Washington, federal spending bills on their way to…
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 for over a year. But the outlook is considerably bleaker for the health…
