Shows / What the Health? From KFF Health News
What the Health? From KFF Health News
Join Julie Rovner, chief Washington correspondent for KFF Health News, along with top health policy reporters from The New York Times, The Washington Post, Politico and other media outlets to discuss the latest news and explain what the health is going on here in Washington, D.C.
Episodes
- What the Health? From KFF Health News
A New Era for the ACA
Open enrollment for 2027 Affordable Care Act plans kicks off in most states Nov. 1, and consumers can expect higher premiums and more bureaucracy to get…
- What the Health? From KFF Health News
Medicaid Is Now a Campaign Issue
Republicans tried to backload federal cuts to Medicaid in their 2025 budget bill so they would take effect after the 2026 elections, but that’s not stopping…
- What the Health? From KFF Health News
Early Voting Begins
As early voting begins in some states, the Trump administration is working to keep its crackdown on healthcare fraud, waste, and abuse in the headlines. Also…
- What the Health? From KFF Health News
Midterm Madness
A new poll from KFF suggests that rising health costs are still a top concern for voters this November and that Democrats have a substantial edge over…
- What the Health? From KFF Health News
The MAHA Metamorphosis
The “Make America Healthy Again” movement held a big shindig in Washington, D.C., this week. But rather than moms arguing to get pesticides and processing…
- What the Health? From KFF Health News
Healthcare a Vague but Potent Issue for Election 2026
Healthcare in general, and health costs in particular, are a top issue for voters in 2026. But it remains unclear exactly how voters want lawmakers to fix the…
- What the Health? From KFF Health News
The Health Risks of AI
Reports from a top artificial intelligence company that it found and stopped attempted uses of its product to manufacture a potential bioweapon caught the…
- What the Health? From KFF Health News
Anger Over Health Costs Clouds Midterms
Amid a campaign already focusing on affordability, anxious voters are unlikely to be assuaged by headlines about healthcare costs rising even more next year…
- What the Health? From KFF Health News
Summer’s Health Policy Themes
As summer comes to a close, some of the season’s major health policy stories continue to simmer, including declining insurance coverage, increasing measles…
- What the Health? From KFF Health News
Headless FDA Gets a New Nominee
President Donald Trump is nominating Heidi Overton, a physician who is currently a White House policy adviser, to lead the FDA, which has been without a…
- What the Health? From KFF Health News
Trump’s Vaccine Agenda
President Donald Trump is trying to unilaterally change the number and schedule of childhood vaccines in the U.S., though it remains unclear how much of an…
- What the Health? From KFF Health News
The Return of ‘Medicare for All’
Michigan voters this week chose former Detroit public health director Abdul El-Sayed as the Democratic nominee for the state’s open Senate seat. El-Sayed has…
- What the Health? From KFF Health News
The Politics of Grant Cuts
The revelation in court documents that the Trump administration used politics alone to decide which grants to fund and which to cancel has provoked…
- What the Health? From KFF Health News
A Shrinking Safety Net
A new report finds that participation in the federal food stamp program is down far more than was predicted when the Republican-led Congress approved cuts in…
- What the Health? From KFF Health News
States Start Their Medicaid Cuts
Most of the federal cuts to the Medicaid program don’t take effect until 2027, but many states are already cutting their own budgets in anticipation of getting…
- What the Health? From KFF Health News
The Politics of Health at Midyear
About halfway through 2026 — and just a few months before the critical midterm elections — Democrats appear to be doubling down on healthcare as a campaign…
- What the Health? From KFF Health News
Supreme Court Makes Health Policy
The Supreme Court handed down its last decisions of its 2025-26 term this week, including in an immigration case that could result in the loss of hundreds of…
- What the Health? From KFF Health News
Trump Officials Still Delaying Funds
With the fiscal year mostly over, hundreds of millions of dollars in health-related grants approved by Congress still have not reached their designated…
- What the Health? From KFF Health News
Democrats Keep Healthcare at Fore
Senate Democrats hope to highlight rising healthcare prices by forcing a vote on the Trump administration’s changes to the Affordable Care Act before the…
- What the Health? From KFF Health News
The Drip, Drip, Drip of Declining Coverage
As predicted, the expiration of enhanced tax subsidies for Affordable Care Act health plans is causing many people to lose coverage for failing to make premium…
- What the Health? From KFF Health News
Medicaid Work Rules Surprise States
Adult Medicaid enrollees with serious health conditions may not be automatically exempt from new work rules, according to a new regulation from the Trump…
- What the Health? From KFF Health News
More Kids Without Coverage
When Republicans passed their big budget bill in 2025, they thought the effects of cuts to health programs wouldn’t show up until after the 2026 midterms. They…
- What the Health? From KFF Health News
Sen. Cassidy Unleashed
In just the first few days after losing his bid for reelection in Louisiana, Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy has…
- What the Health? From KFF Health News
In Search of a New FDA Commissioner
In one of the most widely expected departures in recent memory, Marty Makary stepped down as head of the FDA this week. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court is…
- What the Health? From KFF Health News
Abortion Pill Politics
A federal court’s decision to override the FDA and restrict availability of the abortion pill mifepristone has launched abortion back into the national…
- What the Health? From KFF Health News
The Peculiar Politics of Hospitals
Democrats and Republicans on one of the House committees that oversees the Medicare program had strong words about high hospital pricing at a hearing on…
- What the Health? From KFF Health News
RFK Jr. vs. Congress
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. completed his whirlwind tour of House and Senate committees this week, ostensibly to promote…
- What the Health? From KFF Health News
A New CDC Nominee, Again
President Donald Trump tapped a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director — a former deputy surgeon general and vaccine supporter. Meanwhile…
- What the Health? From KFF Health News
Abortion Pills, the Budget, and RFK Jr.
This week, the Trump administration won a court battle to delay a ruling on access to the abortion pill mifepristone, angering its own anti-abortion allies…
- What the Health? From KFF Health News
GOP Mulls More Health Cuts
Despite public opposition to the cuts they made to federal health programs in 2025, Republicans reportedly are considering still more cuts to help pay for the…
- What the Health? From KFF Health News
A Headless CDC
The Trump administration faces the challenge of naming a new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who can both satisfy the Make America…
- What the Health? From KFF Health News
RFK Jr.’s Vaccine Schedule Changes Blocked — For Now
A federal judge in Massachusetts this week sided with public health groups to block changes to the federally recommended schedule of childhood vaccines…
- What the Health? From KFF Health News
RFK Jr.'s Very Bad Week
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had another tough week. In addition to Kennedy having surgery on a torn rotator cuff, the nomination…
- What the Health? From KFF Health News
40 Years of Health Policy
This month is 40 years since host Julie Rovner, chief Washington correspondent for KFF Health News, began reporting on health policy in Washington. To mark the…
- What the Health? From KFF Health News
What About the State of Health?
Health care got barely a mention in President Donald Trump’s record-long State of the Union address this week. Ahead of the midterms, the Trump administration…
- What the Health? From KFF Health News
Turnarounds and Shake-Ups
The twists and turns continue at the nation’s health agency, where this week’s announcements included notice that the Food and Drug Administration will review…
- What the Health? From KFF Health News
New Flu Vax? FDA Says No Thanks
It’s been a busy week at the Food and Drug Administration, with a political appointee overruling agency scientists to reject an application for a new flu…
- What the Health? From KFF Health News
HHS Gets Funding, But How Will Trump Spend It?
Congress has passed — and President Donald Trump has signed — the annual spending bill for the Department of Health and Human Services. But it’s unclear…
- What the Health? From KFF Health News
The Hazards of ICE for Public Health
The Trump administration’s immigration crackdown is not just roiling politics but also directly affecting the provision of health care, medical groups say…
- What the Health? From KFF Health News
Health Spending Is Moving in Congress
Lawmakers appear on the brink of passing a spending bill for the Department of Health and Human Services and a bipartisan health policy bill delayed for over a…
- What the Health? From KFF Health News
Culture Wars Take Center Stage
With lawmakers still mired over renewing enhanced tax credits for Affordable Care Act plans, much of Washington has turned its attention to culture war issues…
- What the Health? From KFF Health News
New Year, Same Health Fight
Congress returned from its holiday break facing a familiar question: whether to extend the expanded subsidies for Affordable Care Act health plans that expired…
- What the Health? From KFF Health News
Rerun: Happy 60th, Medicare and Medicaid!
This past year marked the 60th anniversary of Medicare and Medicaid, the twin government programs that have shaped the health care system into what it is…
- What the Health? From KFF Health News
Time’s Up for Expanded ACA Tax Credits
A last-minute push from Democrats and four moderate Republicans will force a House vote on renewing enhanced premium tax credits for Affordable Care Act plans…
- What the Health? From KFF Health News
Crunch Time for ACA Tax Credits
December 15 is the deadline to sign up for Affordable Care Act plans that begin January 1. Congress remains at odds over letting expanded tax credits for the…
- What the Health? From KFF Health News
The GOP Still Can’t Agree on a Health Plan
Senate Democrats were promised a vote by mid-December on extending the enhanced subsidies for the Affordable Care Act, but Republicans still can’t decide…
- What the Health? From KFF Health News
Trump Almost Unveils a Health Plan
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…
- What the Health? From KFF Health News
The GOP Circles the Wagons on ACA
Led by President Donald Trump, Republicans in Congress are solidifying their opposition to extending pandemic-era subsidies for Affordable Care Act plans and…
- What the Health? From KFF Health News
The Government Is Open
The record-long federal shutdown is over after a small group of Democrats agreed to a deal with most Republicans that funds the government through January —…
- What the Health? From KFF Health News
The State of the Affordable Care Act
November 1 marked the start of open enrollment for 2026 health plans bought from Affordable Care Act marketplaces in most states. But this sign-up season is…
- What the Health? From KFF Health News
Happy Open Enrollment Eve!
A standoff in Congress is keeping much of the federal government shut down as open enrollment begins in most states for Affordable Care Act plans. Democrats…
- What the Health? From KFF Health News
Nutrition Programs Face Their Own Shutdown
Two major nutrition programs — supporting low-income families, as well as young children and pregnant or breastfeeding women — are likely to exhaust their…
- What the Health? From KFF Health News
Schrödinger’s Government Shutdown
Democrats and Republicans remain stalled over funding the federal government as Republicans launch a new attack on the Affordable Care Act. Meanwhile, the…
What the Health? From KFF Health NewsStarting To Feel the Shutdown’s Bite
The government shutdown continues with no obvious end in sight, and while it theoretically should not affect entitlement programs like Medicare and Medicaid…
What the Health? From KFF Health NewsDemocrats Make This Shutdown About the ACA
As long predicted, much of the federal government shut down Oct. 1 after Congress failed to pass required spending bills, with Democrats demanding Republicans…
What the Health? From KFF Health NewsPublic Health Further Politicized Under the Threat of More Firings
In a rambling news conference that shocked public health experts, President Donald Trump this week — without scientific evidence — blamed the over-the-counter…
What the Health? From KFF Health NewsOusted CDC Officials Clap Back at RFK Jr.
The recently fired head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told senators that health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ordered her to fire top…
What the Health? From KFF Health NewsCountdown to Government Shutdown
With less than three weeks to go before the deadline to pass legislation to keep the federal government running, lawmakers are still far apart on a strategy…
What the Health? From KFF Health NewsOn Capitol Hill, RFK Defends Firings at CDC
A combative Robert F. Kennedy Jr, the U.S. secretary of health and human services, appeared before a Senate committee Thursday, defending his firing of the…
What the Health? From KFF Health NewsHappy 60th, Medicare and Medicaid!
This summer marks the 60th anniversary of Medicare and Medicaid, the twin government programs that have shaped the health care system into what it is today. In…