The host

Julie Rovner KFF Health News @jrovner

Julie Rovner is chief Washington correspondent and host of KFF Health News’ weekly well being coverage information podcast, “What the Health?” A famous knowledgeable on well being coverage points, Julie is the writer of the critically praised reference e book “Health Care Politics and Policy A to Z,” now in its third version.

Congress narrowly averted a federal authorities shutdown for the second time in as many months, as House Democrats offered the wanted votes for brand spanking new House Republican Speaker Mike Johnson to keep away from his first legislative disaster of his temporary tenure. But funding the federal authorities will not get any simpler when the most recent short-term patches expire in early 2024. It appears House Republicans haven’t but accepted that they can not accomplish the steep spending cuts they need so long as the Senate and the White House are managed by Democrats.

Meanwhile, a pair of investigations unveiled this week underscored the problem of acquiring wanted long-term look after seniors. One, from KFF Health News and The New York Times, chronicles the monetary toll on households for individuals who need assistance for actions of each day dwelling. The different, from Stat, particulars how some insurance coverage firms are utilizing synthetic intelligence algorithms to disclaim wanted rehabilitation look after Medicare sufferers.

This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of KFF Health News, Rachel Cohrs of Stat, Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico Magazine, and Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico.

Panelists

Among the takeaways from this week’s episode:

• Congress handed a two-part persevering with decision this week that may stop the federal authorities from shutting down when the present CR expires Nov. 18 at 12:01 a.m. The new measure extends some present spending ranges, together with funding for the FDA, by way of Jan. 19. The remainder of federal businesses, together with a lot of the Department of Health and Human Services, are prolonged to Feb. 2.
• House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has stated he needs to make use of the following two months to complete work on particular person appropriations payments, none of which have handed each the House and Senate thus far. The downside: They would deeply reduce many widespread federal applications. They are also filled with modifications to abortion restrictions and transgender insurance policies, highlighting the cut up between the GOP caucus’ far-right wing and its extra reasonable members.
• In the wake of abortion rights successes in passing abortion rights poll initiatives, new efforts are taking form in Ohio and Michigan amongst state lawmakers who’re arguing that when Dobbs turned this determination again to states, it meant to the state legislatures — to not the courts or voters. Most consultants agree the method is unlikely to prevail. Still, it highlights persevering with efforts to vary the principles surrounding this polarized challenge.
• Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) — who was the one remaining Republican presidential candidate pushing for a nationwide, 15-week abortion ban — suspended his marketing campaign final week. He, together with former Vice President Mike Pence, who bowed out of the race on the finish of October, had been the sphere’s strongest anti-abortion candidates. This appears to recommend that the 15-week ban will not be drawing voter assist, even amongst Republicans. Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump, the GOP’s front-runner by miles, continues to be prepared to play either side of the abortion debate.
• Amid rising concern about using synthetic intelligence in well being care, a California class-action lawsuit fees that UnitedHealth Group is utilizing algorithms to disclaim rehabilitation care to enrollees in its Medicare Advantage program. The swimsuit comes within the wake of an investigation by Stat into insurer necessities that case managers hew to the AI estimates of how lengthy the corporate would pay for rehabilitation care, whatever the affected person’s precise medical state of affairs.
• More than 10 million folks have misplaced Medicaid protection since states started reviewing eligibility earlier within the 12 months. Advocates for Medicaid sufferers fear that the Biden administration has not performed sufficient to make sure that people who find themselves nonetheless eligible for this system — notably youngsters — will not be mistakenly terminated.

Plus, for “extra credit,” the panelists recommend well being coverage tales they learn this week that they assume you need to learn, too:

Julie Rovner: KFF Health News’ “How Lawmakers in Texas and Florida Undermine Covid Vaccination Efforts,” by Amy Maxmen.

Alice Miranda Ollstein: The New York Times’ “They Wanted to Get Sober. They Got a Nightmare Instead,” by Jack Healy.

Rachel Cohrs: Stat’s “UnitedHealth Pushed Employees to Follow an Algorithm to Cut Off Medicare Patients’ Rehab Care,” by Casey Ross and Bob Herman.

Joanne Kenen: ProfessionalPublica’s “Mississippi Jailed More Than 800 People Awaiting Psychiatric Treatment in a Year. Just One Jail Meets State Standards,” by Isabelle Taft, Mississippi Today.

Also talked about on this week’s episode:

KFF Health News’ “Facing Financial Ruin as Costs Soar for Elder Care,” by Reed Abelson, The New York Times, and Jordan Rau.

JAMA Internal Medicine’s “Excess Death Rates for Republican and Democratic Registered Voters in Florida and Ohio During the COVID-19 Pandemic,” by Jacob Wallace, et al.

Credits

• Zach Dyer Audio producer
• Stephanie Stapleton Editor