Schrödinger government shutdown – KFF Health News

Host

Democrats and Republicans face potential political consequences in their ongoing standoff over funding the federal government. Republicans are likely to face voter backlash if they refuse to agree to Democrats’ demands to renew additional tax breaks for Affordable Care Act marketplace plans, given that the majority of those facing premium hikes live in GOP-dominated states. For their part, Democrats worry that Republicans will violate the terms of any potential spending deal.

At the same time, the Trump administration is using the shutdown to try to lay off thousands of federal employees, including those in key public health roles at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of KFF Health News, Anna Edney of Bloomberg News, Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico Magazine, and Lauren Weber of the Washington Post.

Among the points covered in this week’s episode:

• With the federal government still shut down, there has been little progress toward reaching an agreement on government spending — or on the expiring ACA marketplace subsidies that Democrats are struggling to renew. For example, potential subsidy compromises could implement minimum bonuses instead of $0, to limit enrollment fraud, as Republicans want.
• A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration’s latest federal layoffs amid questions about the legality of the layoffs. The administration in particular dealt a heavy blow this round to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an agency that has been battered by staff cuts, policy shifts, and even violence.
• New reports show that the Trump administration has explored the feasibility of tracking abortion pill residue in wastewater, in pursuit of an anti-abortion claim that the drugs may contaminate water supplies. However, abortion advocates may have an ulterior motive: developing the ability to track birth control pill use to further crack down on abortions.
• President Donald Trump revealed a deal with a second drug maker, AstraZeneca, that allows the company to avoid tariffs in exchange for building a new US facility. But as with the first deal, it’s not clear how much money the agreement will save patients.

Also this week, Rovner interviews health insurance analyst Louise Norris Medicareresources.org About the Medicare open enrollment period, which began on October 15.

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

Julie Rovner: “Politics”RFK Jr. got Advice for pregnant women. There is limited data to support it“, written by Alice Miranda Olstyn.

Anna Edney: New York Times””The medicine that robbed her of more than her appetite“, written by Maya Salavitz.

Joan from: “Mother Jones”From Medicine to Sufism: The Extremism of Florida’s Top Doctor“, written by Keira Butler and Julian McShane.

Lauren Weber: KFF Health News “”Senators press Deloitte and other contractors over errors in Medicaid eligibility systems“By Rachana Pradhan and Samantha Lees.

Also mentioned in this week’s podcast:

To listen to all our podcasts, Click here.

And subscribe to KFF Health News channel “What is health?” on Spotify, Apple Podcast, Pocket castOr wherever you listen to podcasts.