Podcast

KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: We Spend HOW MUCH On Health Care?


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


Health spending in the U.S. grew to $3.6 trillion in 2018, according to a new report from the federal government. The rate of growth — 4.6% — was up slightly from 2017’s 4.2%, despite the fact that nearly a million more Americans lacked insurance.

Meanwhile, Congress has less than two weeks to finish a year’s worth of work, including the spending bills required to keep the government running and promised legislation to address “surprise” medical bills and prescription drug prices.

This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Kimberly Leonard of the Washington Examiner, Joanne Kenen of Politico and Mary Agnes Carey of Kaiser Health News.

Among the takeaways from this week’s podcast:

Also this week, Rovner interviews KHN’s Markian Hawryluk, who wrote the latest KHN-NPR “Bill of the Month” installment about the high cost of removing a doll shoe from a toddler’s nose. If you have an outrageous medical bill you would like to share with 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: The New York Times’ “How a Divided Left Is Losing the Battle on Abortion,” by Elizabeth Dias and Lisa Lerer

Joanne Kenen: The BBC’s “How a wrong injection helped cause Samoa’s measles epidemic

Kimberly Leonard: The Los Angeles Times’ “Their kids died on the psych ward. They were far from alone, a Times investigation found,” by Soumya Karlamangla

Mary Agnes Carey: The Washington Post’s “How a fight over health care entangled Elizabeth Warren — and reshaped the Democratic presidential race,” by Annie Linskey, Jeff Stein and Dan Balz


To hear all our podcasts, click here.

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

Exit mobile version