Podcast

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Georgia Turns the Senate Blue


Can’t see the audio player? Click here to listen on SoundCloud.


Surprise Democratic victories in Georgia’s two runoff elections this week will give Democrats control of the Senate, which means they will be in charge of both houses of Congress and the White House for the first time since 2010. Although the narrow majorities in the House and Senate will likely not allow Democrats to pass major expansions to health programs, it will make it easier to do things such as pass fixes for the Affordable Care Act.

Meanwhile, the speedy development and approval of vaccines to protect against covid-19 is being squandered by the lack of a national strategy to get those vaccines into people’s arms. Straightening out and speeding up vaccinations will be a major priority for the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden.

This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Anna Edney of Bloomberg News, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico and Mary Ellen McIntire of CQ Roll Call.

Among the takeaways from this week’s podcast:

Also, for extra credit, the panelists recommend their favorite health policy stories of the week they think you should read too:

Julie Rovner: The New York Times’ “One Hospital System Sued 2,500 Patients After Pandemic Hit,” by Brian M. Rosenthal

Alice Miranda Ollstein: Politico’s “Congress Using COVID Test That FDA Warns May Be Faulty,” by David Lim and Sarah Ferris

Mary Ellen McIntire: Bloomberg News’ “The World’s Most Loathed Industry Gave Us a Vaccine in Record Time,” by Drew Armstrong

Anna Edney: STAT News’ “How It Started: A Q&A With Helen Branswell, One Year After Covid-19 Became a Full-Time Job,” by Jason Ukman


To hear all our podcasts, click here.

And subscribe to What the Health? on iTunesStitcherGoogle PlaySpotify, or Pocket Casts.

Exit mobile version