KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Judge Takes Aim at the Affordable Care Act’s Preventive Care Benefits


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The same federal judge in Texas who tried — unsuccessfully — to strike down the entire Affordable Care Act in 2018 has ruled that portions of the health law’s preventive care benefit package are unconstitutional. But it will be a long time, with many more court actions, before it becomes clear whether the decision will change how the law works.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, after several weeks of deliberations, has decided to make abortions available to patients and some dependents in some circumstances. And in Michigan, a closely watched ballot measure on abortion scheduled for this fall may not get a vote after all because of a printing problem.

This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of KHN, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet, and Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico.

Among the takeaways from this week’s episode:

Also this week, Rovner interviews KHN’s Lauren Sausser, who reported and wrote the latest KHN-NPR “Bill of the Month” installment, about a patient in need of a biopsy who did all the right things in advance and still got stuck with a giant bill. If you have an enormous or outrageous medical bill you’d like to send us, you can do that here.

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

Julie Rovner: KHN’s “When Does Life Begin? As State Laws Define It, Science, Politics, and Religion Clash,” by Sarah Varney

Alice Miranda Ollstein: The New Yorker’s “When Private Equity Takes Over a Nursing Home,” by Yasmin Rafiei

Joanne Kenen: ProPublica’s “‘The Human Psyche Was Not Built for This,’” by Marilyn W. Thompson and Jenny Deam

Sarah Karlin-Smith: Stat’s “Study Raises Concerns About the Effectiveness of the Monkeypox Vaccine,” by Helen Branswell

Also mentioned in this week’s episode:


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