Podcast: KHN’s ‘What the Health?’ States race to reverse ‘roe’

Reviewed by Alina Shrourou, B.Sc. (Editor)May 16 2019

Alabama is the latest in a growing list of states passing bans on abortion in an attempt to get the Supreme Court to weaken or overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that legalized abortion nationwide. Unlike most of the other state laws that have passed this year, however, the Alabama law would completely ban abortion except when the woman's life was in danger from the pregnancy.

On Capitol Hill, separate bipartisan groups in the House and Senate unveiled draft proposals to address "surprise" medical bills that patients get when they inadvertently receive care outside their insurance network. The bills take different approaches, however, so it's not clear where a compromise might lie.

And in Washington state, the legislature has approved a new "public option" health insurance plan — to be run by private insurers — that will become available for consumers who purchase their own insurance.

This week's panelists are Julie Rovner from Kaiser Health News, Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times, Anna Edney of Bloomberg News and Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico.

Among the takeaways from this week's podcast:

• The high court's justices can pick and choose which cases they take, and many observers think that they are more inclined to deal with abortion on an incremental basis rather than through a radical change like Alabama's law. A law from Indiana that bans abortions for particular reasons, including gender selection and disability, has been before the court for months.
• It's not yet clear if the current spate of state bills will have an impact on the presidential election in 2020, but they could play a role in Senate races in Alabama, Georgia and Maine, among other states.
• As the effort on surprise medical bills works its way forward, keep an eye on Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), who chairs the committee that handles these measures. He has suggested that he will have another bill to offer on the subject.
• House Democrats have packed some popular bills to fight rising drug prices with measures to bolster the Affordable Care Act, and Republicans are crying foul. Once again, Sen. Alexander may be a critical player, because he is trying to pull together a measure that deals with drug pricing, surprise medical bills, the cost of health care and the Obamacare marketplaces.
• Washington has become the first state to embrace a public option insurance plan for its ACA marketplace. But the plan will be run by insurance companies and it's unclear how that would lead to lower premium prices for consumers.

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

Julie Rovner: The Atlantic's "Why the Government Pays Billions to People Who Claim Injury by Vaccines," by James Hamblin

Margot Sanger-Katz: Journal of the American Medical Association's "Association of a Beverage Tax on Sugar-Sweetened and Artificially Sweetened Beverages With Changes in Beverage Prices and Sales at Chain Retailers in a Large Urban Setting," by Christina A. Roberto, Hannah G. Lawman, Michael T. LeVasseur and others

Alice Miranda Ollstein: The New York Times' "Why Politics Should Be Kept Out of Miscarriages," by Aaron E. Carroll

Anna Edney: Kaiser Health News' "No Mercy: Dealing With Hospital Closure, Pioneer Kansas Town Asks: What Comes Next?" by Sarah Jane Tribble

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