What the Health? From KFF Health News

Anna Edney of Bloomberg News covers pharmaceuticals and federal health policy; Paige Winfield Cunningham reports on health care and Washington politics; Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico covers Congress and reproductive health. They tackle voters’ worries about medical costs, Medicaid cuts, vaccine controversies, mifepristone, and FDA politics. Plus, an emergency-room bill arrives after a patient leaves untreated.

Aaron Carroll, AcademyHealth’s physician CEO, joins reporters Rachana Pradhan, Shefali Luthra, and Rachel Roubein for a sharp look at MAHA’s industry-friendly turn, stalled food reforms, and Democrats courting its voters. They examine withheld federal funds, CDC cuts, Medicaid abortion restrictions, mifepristone shield laws, and key state ballot fights. Carroll also discusses the dismantling of AHRQ and its impact on health care research.

Sarah Jane Tribble, a KFF Health News reporter, Tami Luhby, a CNN health and economic policy journalist, and Joanne Kenen, a Johns Hopkins and Politico-affiliated writer, examine healthcare’s role in the 2026 elections. They discuss affordability, rural voters, ACA enrollment and alleged fraud, insurance stability, politicized NIH funding, vaccine messaging, drug prices, and a contentious surrogacy case.

Sabrina Corlette, a Georgetown health insurance policy expert, joins reporters Anna Edney, Tami Luhby, and Alice Miranda Ollstein. They explore AI’s potential to enable bioweapons, deny claims, amplify bias, and reach patients before safety standards are set. The discussion also covers proposed ACA payments, surprise-billing costs, abortion policy battles, vaccine skepticism, and practical reforms to make insurance simpler and more affordable.

Lauren Sausser, a KFF Health News reporter on medical bills, joins Sandhya Raman, Bloomberg Law health policy correspondent, Amanda Seitz, KFF Health News policy reporter, and Joanne Kenen, a public health journalist. They explore surging health costs, medical debt, hospital politics, HHS upheaval, and mifepristone litigation. The panel also examines abortion bans, measles confusion, and why a breast MRI brought a hefty bill.

As summer comes to a close, some of the season’s major health policy stories continue to simmer, including declining insurance coverage, increasing measles cases, and cuts to federal health programs. Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times, Shefali Luthra of The 19th, and Rachel Roubein of The Washington Post join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews Dean Rosen about his work for former Sen. Nancy Landon Kassebaum, a Kansas Republican and the first woman to lead a major Senate committee, who died last week at 94. Visit our website for a transcript of this episode.Plus, for “extra credit” the panelists suggest health policy stories they read this week that they think you should read, too: Julie Rovner: The Washington Post’s “Why We Should Stop Eating Lettuce, Cyclospora or Not,” by Tamar Haspel.  Margot Sanger-Katz: Stat’s “Comments on OMB Research Rule Mysteriously Removed From Federal Website,” by Anil Oza.  Rachel Roubein: The New York Times’ “Americans Encounter Risks at Psychedelic Clinics Abroad,” by Noah Daly and Andrew Jacobs.  Shefali Luthra: The Washington Post and KFF Health News’ “Why Some Couples Are Combining a European Vacation With Their IVF Treatments,” by LJ Dawson. 

Shefali Luthra, reporter on reproductive and health policy; Mark Cuban, entrepreneur reshaping drug pricing; Alice Miranda Ollstein, Politico health policy reporter; Joanne Kenen, health policy journalist and fellow. They debate the new FDA nominee’s controversial background and confirmation hurdles. They dig into NIH grant politics, CDC staffing gaps, rising vaccination opt-outs, drug pricing trends, and Cuban’s transparency-driven fixes for healthcare.

Anna Edney, Bloomberg News health reporter covering federal policy. Maya Goldman, Axios health politics reporter on Washington implementation. Sandhya Raman, Bloomberg Law reporter on health regulation and legal fights. Paula Andalo, KFF Health News reporter telling consumer health stories. They discuss a presidential push to change childhood vaccine schedules, impacts on pediatric care and state laws, plus related federal policy shifts and investigations.

Andy Kim, U.S. Senator from New Jersey who introduced the MediKids bill to guarantee coverage for children up to 26, discusses universal child coverage. Conversation covers the renewed push for Medicare for All, political tradeoffs within Democrats, rising uninsured hospitalizations, and how automatic enrollment and Medicaid foundations could work. Multiple short takes on policy momentum and practical hurdles.

Shefali Luthra, reporter on reproductive health and policy; Rachel Cohrs Zhang, health policy and federal agencies reporter; Liz Essley Whyte, national health policy journalist. They unpack politically driven grant cancellations, the politics around Fauci and COVID hearings, controversies over mifepristone and vaccine probes, and federal missteps on outbreaks and agency decisions.