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?” She is a renowned expert on health policy issues. Julie is the author of her critically acclaimed reference book, Health Politics and Policy A to Z, now in its third edition.
The Arizona Supreme Court ruled this week that it could shake up the national abortion debate and enforce a ban first passed in 1864, before the end of the Civil War and decades before Arizona became a state. was lowered. Voters will likely have a chance to decide whether to enshrine the right to abortion in the state constitution in November, as they do in some other states such as Florida.
The Arizona ruling came a day after former President Donald Trump declared that abortion should remain a state issue, which Trump later criticized as “overreach.”
This week's panelists are Julie Rovner of KFF Health News, Alice Miranda Olstein of Politico, Rachel Rubein of The Washington Post, and Rachel Coles Chan of the Bureau of Statistics.
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Here are our takeaways from this week's episode.
- Former President Donald Trump's comments this week reflect only a recent public shift in his views on abortion access. During an appearance on NBC's “Meet the Press” in 1999, he described himself as “very pro-choice,” but by the 2016 presidential campaign, he had lost the constitutional right to abortion. He had promised to nominate conservative Supreme Court justices who would be more likely to overturn rights. Trump later blamed the Republican Party's defeat in the 2022 election on that right being overturned.
- Arizona officials, doctors and patients this week are unraveling the impact of a state Supreme Court ruling that upheld a near-total abortion ban dating back to the Civil War. But any ban, even a short-lived one, can have lasting effects. Abortion clinics may not be able to withstand such restrictions, and physicians and residents may take these restrictions into account when deciding where to practice care.
- Also in abortion news, an Indiana appellate court panel unanimously sided with mostly Jewish plaintiffs who argued that the ban violated their religious freedom rights. The court ruled that states could not enforce abortion bans on non-Christian groups.
- A discouraging new study finds that paying off an individual's medical debt after it has reached collections doesn't provide much of a financial or mental health benefit. One factor may be that inability to pay medical debt is just a symptom of larger financial hardship.
Also this week, Rovner reported on and wrote a new feature on KFF Health News-NPR's “Bill of the Month” about an ambulance ride of a child with RSV that the insurance company determined did not have RSV. An interview with Molly Castle Wark. medically necessary. If you would like to send us an exorbitant or mysterious medical bill, you can do so here.
Plus, as an “additional credit,” our panelists will suggest health policy articles they read this week that they think you should read, too.
Julie Rovner: “Your Dog Is Probably Taking Prozac: Experts Say It Says More About America's Mental Health Crisis than Our Pets” in Stat, by Sarah Owermohle.
Rachel Coles Chan: “10 Physicians on FDA Panel Reviewing Abbott Heart Device Had Financial Relationships with Company” by David Hilzenrath and Holly K. Hacker in KFF Health News.
Alice Miranda Olstein: “How Texas Teens Lost the One Program That Allowed Birth Control Without Parental Consent,” by Eleanor Klibanoff, Texas Tribune.
Rachel Loubain: “As obesity rises, gluttons and nutritionists promote 'anti-diet' advice,” by Sasha Chavkin, Caitlin Gilbert, Anjali Tsui, and Anahad O'Connor, in The Washington Post.
Also mentioned in this week's podcast:
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- Frances Ying Audio Producer
- Emmarie Hüttemann Editor
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