KFF Health News’ ‘What the Health?’: The Cutting Continues

Table of Contents

The Host

Julie Rovner
KFF Health News

Julie Rovner is chief Washington correspondent and host of KFF Health News’ weekly health policy news podcast, “What the Health?” A noted expert on health policy issues, Julie is the author of the critically praised reference book “Health Care Politics and Policy A to Z,” now in its third edition.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is already acting on his anti-vaccine views, ordering an end of research into why people become vaccine-hesitant and requesting new research on the long-debunked theory that vaccines can cause autism in children. Coincidentally, the Trump administration at the last minute pulled the nomination of former GOP congressman and vaccine skeptic Dave Weldon to head the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, perhaps signaling that Republicans in the Senate are growing uncomfortable with the issue.

Meanwhile, Congress continues to contemplate how to cut as much as $880 billion in spending — possibly from Medicaid — at a time when more beneficiaries of the government health program for those with low incomes and disabilities have become Republican voters.

This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of KFF Health News, Anna Edney of Bloomberg News, Shefali Luthra of The 19th, and Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico.

Panelists

Anna Edney
Bloomberg

@annaedney

Read Anna’s stories.

Shefali Luthra
The 19th

@shefalil

Read Shefali’s stories.

Alice Miranda Ollstein
Politico

@AliceOllstein

Read Alice’s stories.

Among the takeaways from this week’s episode:

The Trump administration’s last-minute decision to pull the nomination of Dave Weldon to head the CDC — shortly before his confirmation hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee was set to begin Thursday morning — has fueled speculation that Weldon’s anti-vaccine views meant he didn’t have enough Senate support to win confirmation. Weldon, a physician and former Florida congressman, has advanced debunked theories about vaccines and autism.
Senate Democrats threatened to vote against a continuing resolution, or CR, to fund the government through Sept. 30. The measure passed narrowly in the House, with just one Democrat, Jared Golden of Maine, voting for it. Senate Democrats oppose the stopgap spending bill on many fronts, including its proposed cuts to medical research and its lack of a “fix” to prevent payment cuts to doctors who accept Medicare patients. The Democrats propose a 30-day government funding bill to allow negotiations on a bipartisan measure. The House adjourned after passing the CR on Tuesday and is not scheduled to return to Washington until March 24.
The Medicaid program may be garnering more support as Republicans continue to debate how to cut federal spending to finance a major tax cut package. The impact of Medicaid funding cuts on rural hospitals and on the Medicaid expansion population that gained coverage as part of the Affordable Care Act are two areas of discussion as House Republicans deliberate.
Continued staffing reductions at federal agencies are stoking concerns about lower levels of service to constituents and worsening mental health in the federal workforce. If federal workers are dismissed for poor performance — a charge many federal employees have called false because they received positive job performance reviews — then they don’t receive severance and cannot collect unemployment. With 8 in 10 federal workers employed outside the Washington, D.C., area, the sweeping impacts of reductions in the federal workforce are being felt far beyond the Beltway.
The Trump administration’s decision to cancel $250 million in National Institutes of Health grants to Columbia University is the latest in an ongoing campaign to cut federal research funding. The uncertainty in federal funding has caused several schools to freeze hiring and rescind some graduate student admissions, raising concerns that the Trump administration’s policies are disrupting scientific research. Recent moves from HHS to allow new rules and regulations without public comment and new restrictions from the National Cancer Institute on what topics require review before publication (vaccines, fluoride, and autism are now on the list) are raising concerns that politics is playing a larger role in federal health policy.

Also this week, Rovner interviews Jeff Grant, who recently retired from CMS after 41 years in government service.

Plus, for “extra credit,” the panelists suggest health policy stories they read this week they think you should read, too:

Julie Rovner: NBC News’ “‘You Lose All Hope’: Federal Workers Gripped by Mental Health Distress Amid Trump Cuts,” by Natasha Korecki.

Shefali Luthra: The New York Times’ “15 Lessons Scientists Learned About Us When the World Stood Still,” by Claire Cain Miller and Irineo Cabreros.

Alice Miranda Ollstein: The Atlantic’s “His Daughter Was America’s First Measles Death in a Decade,” by Tom Bartlett.

Anna Edney: Bloomberg News’ “India Trade Group Blasts Study Linking Drugs to Safety Risks,” by Satviki Sanjay.

Also mentioned in this week’s podcast:

ProPublica’s “National Cancer Institute Employees Can’t Publish Information on These Topics Without Special Approval,” by Annie Waldman and Lisa Song.
WIRED’s “Social Security Workers Aren’t Allowed To Read This Story,” by David Gilbert.
Stat’s “Former NIH Director Francis Collins, Once Beloved in Washington, Now Worries for His Safety There,” by Anil Oza and Katherine MacPhail.

Credits

Francis Ying
Audio producer

Mary Agnes Carey
Editor

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KFF 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 KFF.