The host

Julie Rovner KFF Health News @jrovner

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 creator of the critically praised reference book “Health Care Politics and Policy A to Z,” now in its third edition.

The Biden administration continued a bipartisan, decades-long effort to be certain that health insurance treats mental illnesses similar to other ailments, with a latest set of regulations geared toward ensuring that services are literally available without years-long waits or excessive out-of-pocket costs.

Meanwhile, two more committees in Congress approved bills this week geared toward reining in the facility of pharmacy profit managers, who’re accused of keeping prescription drug prices high to extend their bottom lines.

This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of KFF Health News, Anna Edney of Bloomberg, Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico, and Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet.

Panelists

Among the many takeaways from this week’s episode:

• The Biden administration’s latest rules to implement federal mental health parity requirements include no threat of sanctions when health plans don’t comply; noncompliance with even essentially the most minimal federal rules has been an issue dating to the Nineties. Improving access to mental health care is just not a latest policy priority, nor a partisan one, yet it stays difficult to realize.
• With the anniversary of the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, more persons are becoming aware of learn how to access help and get it. Challenges remain, nonetheless, akin to the hotline service’s inability to attach callers with local care. But this system seizes on the facility of an initial connection for somebody in a moment of crisis and offers a lifeline for a nation experiencing high rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide.
• In news concerning the so-called Medicaid unwinding, 12 states have paused disenrollment efforts amid concerns they usually are not following renewal requirements. A significant consideration is that the majority people who find themselves disenrolled would qualify to acquire inexpensive and even free coverage through the Reasonably priced Care Act. But reenrollment may be difficult, particularly for those with language barriers or housing insecurity, for example.
• With a flurry of committee activity, Congress is revving as much as pass laws by 12 months’s end targeting the role of pharmacy profit managers — and, based on the advertisements blanketing Washington, PBMs are nervous. It appears laws would increase transparency and inform policymakers as they contemplate further, more substantive changes. That may very well be a tricky sell to a public crying out for relief from high health care costs.
• Also on Capitol Hill, far-right lawmakers are pushing to insert abortion restrictions into annual government spending bills, threatening one more government shutdown on Oct. 1. The problem is causing heartburn for less conservative Republicans who are not looking for more abortion votes ahead of their reelection campaigns.
• And the damage to a Pfizer storage facility by a tornado is amplifying concerns about drug shortages. After troubling problems with a factory in India caused shortages of critical cancer drugs, decision-makers in Washington have been maintaining a tally of the growing issues, and a response could also be brewing.

Also this week, Rovner interviews KFF Health News’ Céline Gounder concerning the latest season of her “Epidemic” podcast. This season chronicles the successful public health effort to eradicate smallpox.

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

Julie Rovner: The Nation’s “The Anti-Abortion Movement Gets a Dose of Post-Roe Reality,” by Amy Littlefield.

Joanne Kenen: Food & Environment Reporting Network’s “Can Biden’s Climate-Smart Agriculture Program Live As much as the Hype?” by Gabriel Popkin.

Anna Edney: Bloomberg’s “Mineral Sunscreens Have Potential Hidden Dangers, Too,” by Anna Edney.

Sarah Karlin-Smith: CNN’s “They Took Blockbuster Drugs for Weight Loss and Diabetes. Now Their Stomachs Are Paralyzed,” by Brenda Goodman.

Also mentioned on this week’s episode:

Credits

Francis Ying Audio producer Emmarie Huetteman Editor