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People on Medicaid deemed “medically frail” won’t need to meet new federal requirements that enrollees work 80 hours a month or perform another approved activity. But state officials are grappling with how to interpret who qualifies under the vague federal definition, which could affect millions.
Just weeks before some tax credits for Affordable Care Act premiums expire, the Trump administration floated a plan to extend the enhanced aid — but it was met with immediate GOP pushback. Meanwhile, health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says he ordered the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to revise its website to suggest childhood vaccines might be linked to autism. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Sandhya Raman of CQ Roll Call, and Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet join ϳԹ News’ Julie Rovner to discuss those stories and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews Joanne Kenen and Joshua Sharfstein about their new book, “Information Sick: How Journalism’s Decline and Misinformation’s Rise Are Harming Our Health — And What We Can Do About It.”
A reshaped CDC website suggesting that vaccines cause autism has appalled the medical community.
Republicans are solidifying their opposition to extending pandemic-era subsidies for Affordable Care Act plans and seem to be coalescing around giving money directly to consumers to spend on health care. Meanwhile, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. continues to leave his mark on the agency, with the CDC altering its website to suggest childhood vaccines could play a role in causing autism. Paige Winfield Cunningham of The Washington Post, Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico Magazine, and Shefali Luthra of The 19th join ϳԹ News’ Julie Rovner to discuss those stories and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews Avik Roy.
New details from health officials suggest the whooping-cough surge may be part of a national pattern driven by slipping vaccine coverage and waning immunity, with infants bearing the brunt of the consequences.
Fueled by covid backlash, a libertarian author created the Brownstone Institute in 2021. In recent months, people with ties to the group have catapulted to the highest levels of U.S. government, exercising significant authority over access to vaccines and scientific research.
Through shrouded bureaucratic maneuvers, White House budget director Russell Vought and DOGE have quietly upended outbreak response, HIV treatment, and dementia care in communities across America.
Clinicians and researchers are starting to embrace an effort to develop what’s known as “shame competence” in physicians to combat burnout and prevent that uncomfortable emotion from being passed along to patients.
Federal health authorities have taken the "unprecedented" step of instructing states to investigate certain individuals on Medicaid to determine whether they are ineligible because of their immigration status, with five states reporting they’ve received more than 170,000 names collectively.
The federal government is making sweeping changes to SNAP, the program that helped feed about 42 million people in the U.S. last year. Here’s a breakdown of the changes to come and potential impacts.
A standoff in Congress is keeping much of the government shut down as open enrollment begins in most states for Affordable Care Act plans. Democrats are demanding Republicans agree to extend ACA tax credits, but there has been little negotiating — even as customers are learning what they’ll pay for coverage next year. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is telling states they can’t pass their own laws to keep medical debt off consumers’ credit reports. Paige Winfield Cunningham of The Washington Post, Maya Goldman of Axios, and Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico join ϳԹ News’ Julie Rovner to discuss those stories and more.
The HHS office that administers the Title X family planning program has been effectively shut down. And with cuts to federal funding for other family health programs, expected Medicaid cuts, and the potential lapse of ACA subsidies, health leaders fear they are seeing the biggest setback to U.S. reproductive care in half a century.
Under the budget law that Republicans call the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, food assistance for refugees will be sliced. The change is sowing fear, uncertainty, and a struggle for survival — a sign of what’s to come for millions of Americans.
The Trump administration says it’s developing a digital tool to help people prove they’re meeting new Medicaid work requirements. ϳԹ News talked to officials from the two states running pilot programs and found little evidence of new — or effective — technology.
Recommendations surrounding covid vaccinations and other such shots have been confusing. Ultimately, though, little has changed. Here’s what you need to know.
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Democrats and Republicans remain stalled over funding the federal government as Republicans launch a new attack on the Affordable Care Act. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is taking advantage of the shutdown to lay off workers from programs supported mostly by Democrats. Anna Edney of Bloomberg News, Lauren Weber of The Washington Post, and Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico Magazine join ϳԹ News’ Julie Rovner to discuss those stories and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews health insurance analyst Louise Norris about Medicare open enrollment.
The idea that airplane vapors are toxic to people or that there are ongoing efforts to intentionally change the climate made the social media rounds. Now, it has found advocates at the Department of Health and Human Services.
The health secretary’s statement doesn’t consider the impact that the Medicaid cuts advanced in the same law will have on health care in rural America.
The government shutdown continues with no end in sight, and while it theoretically should not affect entitlement programs, the lapse of some related authorizations — like for Medicare telehealth programs — is leaving some doctors and patients high and dry. Meanwhile, the FDA quietly approved a new generic abortion pill. Sarah Karlin-Smith of Pink Sheet, Tami Luhby of CNN, and Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico join ϳԹ News’ Julie Rovner to discuss those stories and more. Also, Rovner interviews Sarah Grusin of the National Health Law Program.
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