The Dismantling of HHS – KFF Health News

The Host

Julie Rovner
KFF Well being Information

@jrovner

Learn Julie’s tales.

Julie Rovner is chief Washington correspondent and host of KFF Well being Information’ weekly well being coverage information podcast, “What the Well being?” A famous knowledgeable on well being coverage points, Julie is the writer of the critically praised reference e book “Well being Care Politics and Coverage A to Z,” now in its third version.

Every week into the reorganization of the Division of Well being and Human Providers introduced by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the scope of the workers cuts and program cutbacks is beginning to develop into clear. Among the many greatest targets for reductions have been the nation’s premier public well being businesses: the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention, the Nationwide Institutes of Well being, and the FDA.

In the meantime, Kennedy didn’t present up as invited to testify earlier than the Senate Well being, Schooling, Labor and Pensions Committee, generally known as HELP, however he did go to households in Texas whose unvaccinated youngsters died of measles within the present outbreak and known as for an finish to water fluoridation throughout a cease in Utah.

This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of KFF Well being Information, Victoria Knight of Axios, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, and Sandhya Raman of CQ Roll Name.

Panelists

Victoria Knight
Axios

@victoriaregisk

Learn Victoria’s tales.

Alice Miranda Ollstein
Politico

@AliceOllstein

Learn Alice’s tales.

Sandhya Raman
CQ Roll Name

@SandhyaWrites

Learn Sandhya’s tales.

Among the many takeaways from this week’s episode:

• Amid a dearth of public details about federal well being cutbacks, HHS staff at the moment on administrative depart report they got no alternative handy off their obligations, suggesting essential work will merely be discontinued. Important workers members have been reduce from the FDA places of work funded by person charges, as an illustration — affecting the drugmakers that pay the charges in trade for well timed analysis of their merchandise, in addition to the sufferers hoping for entry to these medication. Even when the cuts have been reversed, the harm may linger, particularly in areas the place there will likely be gaps in information corresponding to illness surveillance.
• In the meantime, the momentary public communications freeze applied within the Trump administration’s early days apparently has not ended. State officers, determined for info from federal well being officers about ongoing applications, are receiving no response as they search steerage from places of work through which most or all staffers have been laid off.
• President Donald Trump issued an government order this week that instructs federal division heads to summarily repeal any regulation they deem “illegal.” The order threatens to successfully short-circuit the federal regulatory course of, which includes public notices and alternatives to remark. Companies depend on that course of to make choices, and Trump’s order may create additional instability for well being care and different industries.
• And Kennedy traveled West this week, utilizing his public appearances to name for eradicating fluoride from the water provide and to debate the measles outbreak. He issued his strongest endorsement of the measles vaccine but, however he additionally praised docs who’ve used different and unapproved treatments to deal with measles sufferers. Senators had known as him to testify earlier than Congress this week in regards to the ongoing upheaval at HHS, however the listening to was canceled.
• Legislators in a rising variety of states are introducing abortion bans that may punish girls looking for abortions in addition to abortion suppliers, suggesting a protracted sport for abortion opponents that goes properly past overturning a nationwide proper to the process.

Additionally this week, Rovner interviews Georgetown Regulation College professor Stephen Vladeck in regards to the limits of presidential energy.

Plus, for “additional credit score” the panelists recommend well being coverage tales they learn (or wrote) this week that they suppose you need to learn, too: 

Julie Rovner: The New York Instances’ “Why the Proper Nonetheless Embraces Ivermectin,” by Richard Fausset.  

Victoria Knight: Wired’s “Dr. Oz Pushed for AI Well being Care in First Medicare Company City Corridor,” by Leah Feiger and Steven Levy.  

Alice Miranda Ollstein: The Guardian’s “‘We Are Failing’: Medical doctors and College students within the US Look to Mexico for Fundamental Abortion Coaching,” by Carter Sherman.  

Sandhya Raman: CQ Roll Name’s “In Sweden, a Deal with Smokeless Tobacco,” by Sandhya Raman. 

Additionally talked about on this week’s podcast:

Credit

Francis Ying
Audio producer

Emmarie Huetteman
Editor

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