Podcast: ‘What the Health?’ Tax bill or health bill?

Nov 17 2017

Republican efforts to alter the health law, left for dead in September, came roaring back to life this week as the Senate Finance Committee added a repeal of the "individual mandate" fines for not maintaining health insurance to their tax bill.

In this episode of "What the Health?" Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Sarah Kliff of Vox.com, Joanne Kenen of Politico and Alice Ollstein of Talking Points Memo discuss the other health implications of the tax bill, as well as the current state of the Affordable Care Act.

Among the takeaways from this week's podcast:

• The tax bill debate proves that Republicans' zeal to repeal the Affordable Care Act is never dead. The new congressional efforts to kill the penalties for the health law's individual mandate could seriously wound the ACA since the mandate helps drive healthy people to buy insurance.
• One of the most overlooked consequences of the tax debate is that it could trigger a substantial cut in federal spending on Medicare.
• A $25,000 MRI? That's what one family paid to go out of their plan's network to get the hospital they wanted for the procedure for their 3-year-old. Such choices are again drawing complaints about narrow networks of doctors and hospitals available in some health plans.
• Although they don't likely say it in front of cameras, many Democrats are relieved at President Donald Trump's choice to head the Department of Health and Human Services, former HHS official Alex Azar.
• Federal officials have given 10 states and four territories extra money to keep their Children's Health Insurance Programs running but it's not clear what couch they found the money hidden in.
• And in remembrance of Uwe Reinhardt, a reminder that he always stressed that a health care debate was about more than money - it was about real people.

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

Julie Rovner: Statnews.com’s "This Tennessee insurer doesn't play by Obamacare's rules - and the GOP sees it as the future," by Erin Mershon.

Also: Georgetown University Health Policy Institute’s "What's Going on in Tennessee? One Possible Reason for Its Affordable Care Act Challenges," by Kevin Lucia and Sabrina Corlette.

Sarah Kliff: Bloomberg Businessweek’s "How to Make a Fortune on Obamacare," by Bryan Gruley, Zachary Tracer, and Hannah Recht.

Joanne Kenen: Politico Magazine’s "How Bourbon and Big Data Are Cleaning Up Louisville," by Arthur Allen.

Alice Ollstein: Talking Points Memo’s "Trump's Abrupt Policy Shift Fuels Misleading Obamacare Renewal Info," by Alice Ollstein.

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