KFF Health News 10d ago

Senate Democrats hope a little-used law from the 1990s will help draw attention to the healthcare cost issue by forcing a vote on the Trump administration’s recent changes to the Affordable Care Act. Meanwhile, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is demanding information from a medical journal that retracted a study that backed Kennedy’s claims of vaccine harm. This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of KFF Health News, Anna Edney of Bloomberg News, Sheryl Gay Stolberg of The New York Times, and Lauren Weber of The Washington Post. 01:12 – ACA Rule Fight Democrats challenge Trump’s Affordable Care Act payment rule and debate coverage losses before the midterms. 09:32 – Abortion Pills Telehealth State abortion bans, telehealth abortion pills, and false-positive pregnancy tests (Clearblue) creating unintended consequences. 21:49 – RFK Jr Vaccine Panel Retractions of vaccine-autism studies, RFK Jr.’s pressure on journals, and the frozen CDC vaccine advisory committee. 29:58 – Trump Tobacco Stocks Trump’s tobacco investments, FDA fast-tracking nicotine products, and policy shifts favoring big tobacco. 33:14 – Employer Health Tax Rovner interviews Michael Cannon of the Cato Institute and Liz Fowler of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health on the employer health insurance tax exclusion, why it distorts coverage, and ideas to reform it. 44:39 - Extra Credit