The Host
It’s been a tricky week for Well being and Human Companies Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Along with Kennedy having surgical procedure to restore a torn rotator cuff, personnel points proceed to plague the division: The nominee to change into surgeon basic, an ally of Kennedy’s, could lack the votes for Senate affirmation. The controversial head of the Meals and Drug Administration’s vaccine heart will probably be resigning subsequent month. And a brand new survey finds People have much less belief in HHS leaders now than they did through the pandemic.
In the meantime, the Trump administration continues its crackdown over claims of rampant well being care fraud. Along with focusing on the Medicaid applications in states led by Democratic governors, the Facilities for Medicare & Medicaid Companies can also be taking goal at beforehand sacrosanct Medicare Benefit plans.
This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of KFF Well being Information, Anna Edney of Bloomberg Information, Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg Faculty of Public Well being and Politico Journal, and Shefali Luthra of The nineteenth.
Among the many takeaways from this week’s episode:
- People really feel extra assured in profession scientists at federal well being companies than within the companies’ leaders, based on a brand new survey from the Annenberg Public Coverage Heart on the College of Pennsylvania. But the survey additionally sheds extra gentle on the erosion of belief in public well being officers and scientific analysis.
- The FDA’s vaccine chief, Vinay Prasad, is leaving — once more. Prasad was a critic of the company earlier than he joined it, and his tenure has been formed by the identical perspective, affecting profession officers’ morale and the company’s interactions with exterior corporations.
- The Trump administration has prolonged its fraud crackdown marketing campaign into Medicare Benefit plans. The privately run different to conventional Medicare protection has been a GOP darling from the get-go. But President Donald Trump is nudging the social gathering away from its pro-business stance on personal insurance coverage, arguing the federal government ought to give cash to sufferers reasonably than insurers — a justification for insurance policies undermining the Reasonably priced Care Act.
- And Wyoming turned the newest state to enact a six-week abortion ban, a transfer that’s being challenged in court docket. The event factors to the truth that whereas federal policymaking on abortion has largely stalled, the difficulty continues to be very a lot in play within the states as abortion opponents maintain pushing again on entry to the process.
Additionally this week, Rovner interviews Andy Schneider of Georgetown College in regards to the Trump administration’s crackdown on what it alleges is rampant Medicaid fraud in Democratic-led states.
Plus, for “additional credit score” the panelists recommend well being coverage tales they learn this week that they suppose you need to learn, too:
Julie Rovner: The Marshall Mission’s “The Harrowing Journey House for Households Leaving Immigration Detention,” by Shannon Heffernan, Jesse Bogan, and Anna Flagg.
Anna Edney: The Wall Road Journal’s “The Increase in Autism Remedy Is Medicaid’s Quickest-Rising Jackpot,” by Christopher Weaver, Tom McGinty, and Anna Wilde Mathews.
Shefali Luthra: The New York Instances’ “States Transfer To Restrict Entry to H.I.V. Remedy,” by Apoorva Mandavilli.
Joanne Kenen: The Idaho Capital Solar’s “988 Ended His Name. Now an Idaho Teen Is Pushing for a Repair to State’s Parental Consent Regulation,” by Laura Guido.
Additionally talked about on this week’s podcast:
Clarification: This web page was up to date at 5:10 p.m. ET on March 12, 2026, to make clear that Vinay Prasad, the FDA’s vaccine chief, will probably be leaving his job in April. In an electronic mail after publication, William Maloney, an HHS spokesperson, mentioned Prasad is “leaving of his personal accord.”
Click on right here to search out all our podcasts.
And subscribe to “What the Well being? From KFF Well being Information” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app, YouTube, Pocket Casts, or wherever you take heed to podcasts.