Chaos Continues in Federal Health System

The Host

Confusion continues to reign on the Division of Well being and Human Companies, the place insurance policies appear to be altering at a breakneck tempo even earlier than a brand new secretary or different senior officers are confirmed by the Senate. Some federal grantees report funds are nonetheless paused, exterior communications are nonetheless canceled, and lots of employees are being threatened with layoffs in the event that they don’t settle for a buyout supply that some observers name legally doubtful.

 In the meantime, that new HHS secretary might quickly arrive, given the Senate Finance Committee accepted Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination this week on a party-line vote — together with an “aye” vote from Sen. Invoice Cassidy (R-La.), a health care provider who had strongly condemned Kennedy’s anti-vaccine activism.

 This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of KFF Well being Information, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, and Lauren Weber of The Washington Put up.

Panelists

Among the many takeaways from this week’s episode:

• In Washington, the Trump administration’s federal funding freeze, buyout provides to scores of federal employees, and disabling of federal company web sites have left extra questions than solutions. A tangle of authorized points and lack of communication have solely served to sow confusion across the nation and globe for well being suppliers, researchers, and international support teams — to call a couple of.
• Because the Trump administration runs by way of lots of the disruptive coverage adjustments prescribed final 12 months within the Heritage Basis’s presidential transition playbook, Challenge 2025, some individuals are asking: The place are the Democrats? Lawmakers have taken up largely particular person efforts to query and protest the administration’s adjustments, however, to date, Democrats are nonetheless pulling collectively a unified method in Washington to counter the Trump administration’s break-it-to-change-it method.
• Confronted with threats to essential federal funding, some within the well being business are falling in keeping with President Donald Trump’s govt orders at the same time as they’re challenged within the courts. Notably, some hospitals have stopped offering therapy to transgender minors in Democratic-run states resembling New York.
• In the meantime, a health care provider in New York is dealing with a felony indictment over offering the abortion tablet to a Louisiana affected person. The physician is protected by a state defend regulation, and the indictment escalates the interstate combat over abortion entry. And a Trump order barring federal funding from getting used to pay for or “promote” abortions isn’t solely rolling again Biden-era efforts to guard abortion rights, but additionally going additional than any fashionable president to limit abortion — after Trump repeatedly mentioned on the marketing campaign path that abortion coverage could be left to the states.

Additionally this week, Rovner interviews KFF Well being Information’ Julie Appleby, who reported the most recent “Invoice of the Month” characteristic a couple of younger girl, a grandfathered well being plan, and a $14,000 IUD. If in case you have an outrageous or baffling medical invoice you’d prefer to share with us, you are able to do that right here.

Plus, for “additional credit score,” the panelists counsel well being coverage tales they learn this week that they suppose it’s best to learn, too: 

Julie Rovner: The New York Occasions’ “How R.F.Ok. Jr. and ‘Medical Freedom’ Rose to Energy,” on “The Every day” podcast.  

Lauren Weber: CNN’s “Human Mind Samples Include an Complete Spoon’s Price of Nanoplastics, Examine Says,” by Sandee LaMotte.  

Alice Miranda Ollstein: The Washington Put up’s “Did RFK Jr. or Michelle Obama Say It About Meals? Take Our Quiz,” by Lauren Weber. 

Additionally talked about on this week’s podcast:

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